On the Road to Woodstock -part fifteen

I got back, and John was lying inside the tent asleep with his head sticking out under the hot sun, and his face was red with sunburn. I knew that was going to be painful. I looked around and didn't see the girls.

"John," I said. I knelt down and shook his shoulder, and he woke up.

"What time is it?" he asked. He sounded sleepy.

I looked at my watch. "Almost 4:30."

"Where have you been?" he asked me.

"Man, you wouldn't believe this place I found," I told him. "There's this place in the woods over on the other side of the stage, and they sell all kinds of drugs there."

"Oh yeah?"

"Yeah," I said, "and I bought some acid."

"You did?"

"Yeah," I said, "two hits." I smiled real big. "Here, look." I pulled the folded one-dollar bills out of my pocket and got the tinfoil out and unfolded it. I showed him the two little purple pills. "It's called purple haze."

"Hey," he said, "that's great."

"Where’s Linda and Sherry?"

"They went to use the toilets," he said. "So what are you going to do with the acid?"

"I figured we could each take a hit," I said. "Unless you think the girls would want to do some?" I asked him. "We could split the tabs in half."

"Maybe." He was quiet for a second. "Yeah, it might be pretty cool if we all tripped together."

"Yeah, I was thinking that, too." We both looked at each other, and John gave me a sly grin.

"You want to get Sherry fucked up, don't you?" he asked me. "You want to fuck her."

"No... maybe... I don't know," I said, and I looked down. I was very shy when it came to talking about sexual stuff with girls.

"Yeah, you do." He put his hand on my shoulder. "You have the right idea about getting the girls tripping. It might get them horny."

I looked up at him. I was really looking forward to having sex with a girl. I had just never gotten up the nerve to go all the way, though I had been with girls that were willing. I just couldn't bring myself to make the moves. The farthest I had ever gotten was making out.

"You think so?" I asked him. I hadn't really thought about getting the girls horny; I just wanted to share the acid.

"Yeah, it can't hurt."

I didn't care if the girls got horny or not. I was worried about my own inability to take advantage of the situation, should it come up. I didn't know the first thing about having sex. I'd never even felt a girl up. I always chickened out. Even when I knew they wanted it.

"Here they come," John said. "Are you going to ask them if they want some of the acid?"

"No, you ask them," I said. "I don't want to ask them."

I saw that Linda and Sherry were about twenty feet from us.

"Here," I said, "take the acid. Tell them you got it." I folded the acid back up into the tinfoil and dollar bills.

"No, you hold on to it," he said. He started to say something else, but by then the girls were within earshot. I had been watching them out of the corner of my eye while I was kneeling down next to John, and I stood and turned to face them as they approached.

"Hey guys," I heard Linda say.

"Hey," John said.

I was too nervous about telling them about the acid to say anything, but I looked at Sherry, and she gave me a little smile.

John crawled out of the tent and stood up. "How was your girls trip to the bathroom?"

"Oh, just lovely," Linda said. We were all facing each other in front of the tent. She turned and looked at me. "I see you made it back." She smiled. "We were beginning to think you got lost or something."

"No," I said. I looked at John, and he looked at me.

"Johnny Lee brought us back something," John said to the girls.

"Oh really," Linda said. "What did you bring us, Johnny Lee?"

I felt put on the spot, and I looked at John imploringly.

"Do you two like to trip?" John looked at Linda and Sherry.

The two girls looked at each other and began to giggle. "We've been known to take acid from time to time," Linda said. "Why, do you have some?" Linda raised her eyebrows, and Sherry's eyes got big.

"Johnny Lee does," John said.

"Oh, do you now?" Linda asked me.

"Yeah," I said.

"Are you offering to turn us on?"

"I've got two tabs," I told her. "I figured we could do half a tab each."

"What do you think, Sherry?" Linda asked her.

"Yeah," she said, "sounds far out." Sherry looked at me with a look of awe, as if I had pulled a rabbit out of a hat.

I still had the poncho under my arm, and the folded dollar bills were in my hand. "Here, you want to see?" I held out the dollar bills in my hand. "They're folded up." I handed John the poncho. "Unfold this, okay?" I asked him. "I need to something to kneel on." The ground was still wet from the rain.

John unfolded the poncho and laid it down on the ground. I got down on my knees on the edge of the poncho, and John and the girls did the same so that we were all in a circle. I unfolded the dollar bills and then the tinfoil and held it so that everyone could get a good look at the little purple tablets.

"Wow," Sherry said.

"Cool," Linda said.

"How are we going to cut them in half?" John asked.

"I have a little pen knife," Linda said. "I've done it before."

"Really?" John asked.

"Sure," she said, "I'm a woman of many talents."

"It's true," Sherry said.

"When were you thinking about dropping the acid?" Linda asked me.

I wanted to do it right then, but I looked to John for guidance.

"You want to do it now, don't you?" John asked me. He knew me too well.

"We can if you want," I said to him.

"If we wait an hour or so, we can be getting off when it starts to get dark," he suggested.

"That sounds like a good idea," Linda agreed.

"Okay," I said. I was a little disappointed, but it made sense.

"So what do we do now?" John asked. He stood up. The girls stood up, too, and I wrapped the acid back up and stood up with everyone else. "I say we find some of that food they're supposed to be giving out," he said.

"Oh, I know where it is," Sherry said. She sounded excited at being helpful. "I was down at the Hog Farm yesterday."

"When were you down there?" Linda asked her.

"Don't you remember?" Sherry's voice sounded secretive. "You know, that guy?"

"Oh yeah, now I remember," Linda said and grinned at Sherry.
I wondered what secrets Sherry and Linda were keeping about the Hog Farm and "that guy," but I was too excited about tripping in a couple of hours to worry too much about it. I picked up the poncho and folded it and handed it to Linda who stuck it in the tent. Then we four as a group started out following Sherry's directions to the Hog Farm.