The Misbegotten
Marijuana Massacre - Summer 2018

By the next evening, we were wired so tight we werefighting over the stupidest shit. We arguedover the most ridiculous points, getting on each other’s nerves at everysingle, fucking turn.

After the second hour of this bullshit, I’d hadenough. I marched over to my dresser andyanked open the top drawer. I shoved inmy hand and pulled forth the rolled joints and weed Jacob had put there earlierthat month.

I didn’t wait for anyone. I didn’t talk to anyone. I strode over to the window. I climbed through it and made my way to thetop of the house – the roof over the Loft. I sat down, peering about the darkened city and gazed at the stars. I put a fat joint to my mouth and lit thebutane lighter.

My cousin had left it within the plastic bag with therest of my “goodies”.

The roofing shingles were still warm from the midday-sun,soothing to sit upon. They were a goodbalance between their warmth and the cool breeze blowing inland from the ocean.

I took one long puff, held it and watched them come uplike a procession. They trickled upwardwith careful steps - Katie, Sandy, Ramona, Leda, Tirza, Jolene and finallyFlavia.

Only Johan had stayed behind, because he, by someamazing ability only he possessed, had fallen asleep. How hedid so amongst the cacophony of bickering and bitching was beyond me. We’d left him spread-eagled upon my bed withthe TV on low, a note scrawled upon my desk. It said to meet us on the roof. We were having a much needed “time-out”.

When I finally released the smoke from my lungs, Katieput out her hand, a knowing sneer on her visage. “I thought this was breaking the rules aboutbeing ready in a moments’ notice and all that weak shit. I mean, isn’t it?” She took the joint and pulled hard on it. She was, after all, the biggest pothead amongus, excepting Jacob maybe.

“I don’t give a shit,” I replied. “After all the crap going on down there, allI could think of was to replace something that’ll make me relax.

“We’re all too keyed up. We need to chill. There’s no way we can possibly hope to focuswhen we’re acting like a bunch of assholes.”

“I’m with you there, cuz,” she said as she sat downbeside me, her leg rubbing against mine.

Leda reached around my cousin and took the next plugof the drug into her body. She stoodthere holding her breath. Her neck shecanted upward, holding the naughty sig’ between her fore- and middle-fingers. Her hand flared out so the smoldering end wasaway from her body. She was in profilerelative to me. She looked so much likea movie star – sexy, young, and beautiful silhouetted against a canopy ofstars.

I realized then, I’d been mooning over how hot Ledawas for some time now. I couldn’t evenremember the first time I’d admitted it to myself. I felt attracted to her. It could’ve been for quite some timeago. As I stared at her that night, Icouldn’t help but feel something deep for her. Just the sight of her stirred me.

“Cat got your tongue?” asked Sandy, coming to sit onthe other side of me just as close as Katie.

I sniggered. “Naw, Leda does,” I offered, free of guile. I could only manage honesty with Sandy. There are no secrets between us. We have always told one another exactly whatwas on our minds’.

Her gaze followed mine and, for a few heartbeats, shegot to see Leda exactly as I had. Rightbefore the petite teen moved to face us more direct. She handed the joint over to Ramona.

My girlfriend took it and sat down in front of me,though close enough, her butt was partially on my right foot.

“Yeah, she sure is a pretty one, isn’t she?” respondedSandy with a rhetorical question that needed no answer.

“Yes, she is,” I retorted still.

“Who is what?” asked my girlfriend with the strainedtones of someone holding their breath while trying to talk.

“Leda,” said Sandy, quick to speak. “We were saying Leda is pretty.”

Ramona nodded, emphatic as she exhaled. She passed the rolled cigarette Jolene.

The girl did not waste time took a nice hit.

My step-sister stared at her with wide-eyes the entiretime.

I guess there were a few things Flavia didn’t knowabout her best friend.

“Leda is gorgeous. What are you guys talking about?” Ramona’s eyes were already glassy and her grin was too wide.

FuckingRamona was one of the few people I knew who got buzzed off the first drag. There was no waiting with her. One moment, she was sober, the next she was fuckingstoned. It’s always bewildered me.

“Who’s gorgeous?” interrupted Leda.

“You are babydoll, you are,” was my girlfriend’suneven reply.

Leda stepped closer, a serious cast about her. “Hell ya, bitches, and don’t you forget iteither.”

We all chuckled, the mood lightened. The interplay was more like the norm,especially when compared to the childish way we had been acting down in the Loft.

It made me feel better and some of the tightness in myshoulders and neck evaporated.

Jolene had just passed the joint to Flavia, who lookeddown at it as if it were a rattlesnake or something. She held it between the tiniest tips of herfingers.

To my surprise, Tirza crept up to her and plucked itfrom her before she dropped it. Myex-girlfriend, without pause, brought it to her lips and sucked in, then heldit. “That’s how you do it, girl,” shesaid in a similar voice to the one Ramona has used. Tirza held her breath for a few more seconds.

I shook my head, thinking. Since whendid this god-fearing, bible-thumping, little imp of a girl become an expert atsmoking dope? Where in the fuck had Ibeen to have missed such a drastic change?

The answer came without recourse. UpRamona’s pussy, you dumb ass!

Tirza handed it back to Flavia, talking her throughthe process.

My step-sister began to followed suit.

The scene had fixated me when Sandy’s cell phone rang.

She squawked with shock. “Oh crap, it’s my mom.” Her voice seemed strangled as she scrambled toher feet. She moved away so she couldhear what her mother had to say.

I gazed after her, more than a little worried, but wasside-tracked.

My step-sister let out a series of harsh, hackingcoughs. Marijuana smoke belched from herlungs in mini explosions. Every thirdcough, she gaged and retched as though she was about to up-chuck right there onthe roof. But, to her credit, she heldit in with a chorus of long, deep breaths.

No one laughed or made fun of Flavia. We were too loose to be mean at that point.

“You broke your cherry, girl, congrats,” announcedRamona with a flourish and a few us did laugh then.

Katie saluted her. “Welcome to the club, Cuz!” she said.

Tirza just patted her on the back, tapping light.

Flavia peered through watery eyes like we were crazy.

I couldn’t blame her though, everyone coughed andspewed and choked the first time they tried smoking weed. It was like a fucking rite of passage or someshit like it. Well, it sure felt as ifit was, at least in my book.

Sandy came back then, her face a twist of confusion.

“What happened?” I asked the first to notice thechange in her mood.

Sandy grimaced, the lack of understanding making hersweet face look unattractive for the moment. “I don’t know.”

“What don’t you know?”

“My mom, she told me not to go home. She said tostay away at Leda’s or wherever the two of us were staying,” she tried for asecond time, sounding more or less coherent.

“Really?” I asked, unbelieving.

She bobbed her head up and down, absent-minded. “Yeah, she said some guy in a suit had comeover asking all sorts of questions about me and my friends – you guys too, Iassume.”

Those last five words drew my full attention in theblink of an eye. “Us, why would youthink us?” I asked, trying to make the same deduction she had.

“I’m not sure, Estefan. I guess you had to hear the way she saidit. It was like she was saying somethingto me, but wanted me to understand she was implying much more.” She shook her head in confusion. “She never talks that way. I think it was more than a warning, and yet,I’m not one hundred percent sure.” Shewas about to cry, the bewilderment was overwhelming.

“Don’t worry too much, Sandy. Don’t forget your mother doesn’t know howprepared we are should anything come our way. She’s thinking you and Leda, and maybe one or two others, are kickingback someplace acting foolish. Shedoesn’t know you’re here, with us, armed, ready and with a game plan.” I motioned for her to sit back down next tome. “I doubt she would’ve called, if sheknew what we’ve set up here. Why takethe risk, right?”

She nodded like a toddler trying to be brave of thedark or the boogeyman.

“At least she gives a crap,” chimed in Ramona, havingretrieved the half-smoked joint. Sheblew off some of the ash, quick hitting the soon-to-be roach.

“Why do you say it like that?” wondered Katie. She took the mini-doob and repeated what mygirlfriend had done.

Ramona blurted a chuckle. “Because my bitch-ass mom reported me as arunaway this evening, that’s why.”

“Wait, what? When?” I asked.

“A few hours ago, the fucking bitch.” Hooded now, Ramona's eyes kept sliding awayfrom whatever she was trying to look at. For some reason, they were unable to stay in one place.

She’s fuckinghigh!

“Hey, won’t that pose a problem for us? I mean won’t the police be out looking forher now?” wondered Leda. No sigh of abuzz on her. “Her mom has gotta know shespends a lot of time over here, right?”

I sighed and massaged my scalp. “Yeah, I guess that’s a possibility, but ifshe knew for sure, why report her as a runaway? Why not just come over and get her?”

“Because she’s a lazy, fat-assed cow who’d rather getfucked up the culo, then lift afinger for me,” rasped my girlfriend. She wiped at the dribble of spittle leaking from her mouth. “She’ll let the cops sort it out.” It was an afterthought, directed at no one.

“It still has to be ‘back-burner’ stuff for thecops. They're too busy with the NIAinvading their backyards every night, killing people indiscriminately. I doubt they’d waste their time looking forsome teenage girl who’s run away from home. They’ll just think she’s snuck out to have sex with her boyfriend orsome lame grown-up shit like that,” countered Tirza. The Mota was giving her the exact kind ofclarity we needed at the moment. Thenshe erupted with the giggles, gurgling, “Even though that’s not far from thetruth!”

There were a few muted laughs.

“Tirza’s right,” began Katie. “They won’t bother.” She wore a grin that was too big for herface.

“I’ll have my uncle’s look into it. Maybe they can squash the whole, stupidthing.” It was worth a shot.

Sandy jumped of a sudden, which startled me in turn.

I twisted toward her, unsure if I should shield myface against some unseen attack. I feltlike a dweeb when she pulled her cell phone from a fold in her pajama bottoms.

“Mom, what’s wrong now?!” she said into the tiny mic,so worried it was dripping to the rooftop.

All meaningless banter between us stopped.

“Yeah, yeah sure, mom… you now, I do. Yes, I do, I love you very much. I have -.” Sandy pulled the device from her ear, and then placed it back. Her face mangled with anxiety. “Mom are you there? Mom, can you hear me? Mom. Mom? Mom!” She stared at the face of the headset, disconnectingthe call with a thumb-swipe across it. “The line went dead,” she explained, peering from one of us to thenext. Her face drained of blood. “She told me she loved me and the line wentdead.” Then her eyes seemed to pop freeof their sockets. “You don’t thinkanything had hap-,” was all she got to say.

Overhead, a pair of helicopters screamed from behind,so low hurricane force winds flattened us to the top of the house. The roar was deafening. None of us could hear the others as wescreamed.

They streaked toward a lower section of theneighborhood, blacked out. They had nolights we could see. They were hugewinged, ebon vipers, swooping down to fifty feet above the street, about half amile away. Seconds later, they began todisgorge large, dark lumps at varying intervals.

My mind shrieked two words – Shock-troopers! Even as thesound diminished and the violent air currents vanished, my mind howled, mystomach heaved. I knew I was going towitness something horrible.

All at once, light was everywhere.

Both Urban Assault Black Hawks drenched the entirearea with 300 million candlepower. Wewent blind and we were several blocks away.

As a group, we stood in a broad arch. We stared down the declining stretch of theland. We could see above the fences,over the tops of the trees, seeing over a kaleidoscope of roofing. We could hear rumble of heavy engines, thesqueal of over-sized brakes and the squawk of large radios. Next came the pounding of booted feet,followed by the clicks and claps of guns locked and loaded.

Then there was nothing, except the constant whoosh ofthe massive rotors from above.

We edged closer toward the vista, a tight-packed unit.

I heard the wail sometime later, a high-pitched ululation,freakish, straight from hell itself. Itdidn’t sound human at all. I think Ibreathed maybe, or I shifted my weight upon my feet. I did something, though I cannot tell you withany specificity what it was. I don’tremember.

What I do remember was the gunfire, hundreds – no,thousands of rounds! The Black Hawkswere firing as well. The inhuman screechwent silent in seconds.

I leaned into Sandy, a little woozy. “Please tell me that is not your house,” Imurmured, through the haze of marijuana and the horror unfolding below.

“It’s not,” was all she said, her eyes engrossed inthe carnage before us.

I could smell burning wood, cordite and something elseI couldn’t identify back then. Now Iknow it for the smell of crisped human flesh. It’s a smell you never forget, a smell that sticks in your nostrils fordays, wakes you up at night from a nightmare. It can drive you insane because it is inescapable. It gets in your clothes. It sticks to your hair. It saturates your pores, so when you sweat,you smell it all over again, even after you’ve showered. You can taste it for weeks.

“You did park a block away like we planned, correct?”I queried, touching Sandy lightly on the back of her hand.

She nodded.

“Good. We haveto make sure we can get out of the house on a moments’ notice. We have to stick to what we planned,” Istressed, retching.

She nodded again.

I couldn’t tell you if the others were listening.

“Okay, I gotta go inside.” I was choking now. “I think I’m going to throw-up.”

I stumbled onto the roof of the second floor and mademy way to the window.

Everyone else was right behind me – zombiefied –walking corpses in a world of murder.