in on the jello. My sister was surprised and befuddled that with all of the rich and yummy desserts available I nearly always preferred jello. Jello feels like a good way to cleanse my pallet. I had ordered pasta and a small salad but they remained untouched.
After the table was cleared, the dirty dishes were left on a tray in the hall, keeping the uneaten pasta and salad just incase my sister was interested later. With everything neat again, I could focus on the horizon to see that the black was much closer but I still couldn’t figure out what it was precisely, or otherwise.
Fifteen minutes at the rail standing like a statue made me thirsty. Time to toast the day and the trip – I poured myself two fingers of scotch and added 3 cubes of ice. I held the glass high as I walked back to the rail to toast the ocean, my balcony, and the trip.
“Cheers, thanks a lot, eh.” The instant burn from the scotch was expected and after the first sip, I waited for the second burn, I wasn’t disappointed.
“That’s good stuff.” I heard myself say right out loud.
Next was my after dinner ‘bowl.’ I went through the little ritual of grinding the buds in my ‘Mendo Mulcher’ and packing a small pipe with the fluffy grindings. I sat quietly for a couple of minutes then looked around at other balconies to ascertain if I had unwanted company. All was quiet so I decided to spark it up.
Just at that moment a gust of wind hit me. It was hard and kind of wet and stingy. As my focus was entirely on lighting the pipe, I just cupped my hands and moved back into the alee of the balcony for protection. Then I took a huge hit off the pipe.
It was time for more music. I switched out the CD that was in the player with a Paul Gross compilation called “Two Houses.” It took me a very long time to acquire that CD. That was another Canadian. Paul doesn’t have the greatest voice in the world but I love the songs he’s written, full of humor and passion – a great combination.
I heard that same voice again. “Ah, maybe you could share?”
I froze and then I said “ok, sure” and walked to the side of my balcony and handed my pipe and lighter through the crack in the partition between the two balconies to the voice on the other side without even seeing who it was. – True evidence of my weirdness.
I heard the lighter ignite and a draw on the pipe and then a bit of coughing. Through the crack the pipe and lighter appeared; I took my turn and sent the pipe back through the crack. A repeat of before: lighter ignites; the pulled in breath; then coughing; then it was my turn again. The process continued until we had completely dusted the bowl.
“More?” I asked.
“I’m good. Thank you.” Came the same voice.
I went back to pay more attention to my scotch. While I was sipping and enjoying my high I cleaned up the location again – tucking things back into the little cooler.
I couldn’t believe that it had gotten dark already. Yeah, it was suddenly dark. I heard a loud click, like a dead bolt. I merely thought that my neighbor had left his balcony and turned the lock on his sliding glass door.
“What the…” my neighbor’s voice again. No he hadn’t left the balcony. So, what was that loud click?
You can imagine, I’m stoned and trying to figure out this great mystery, when suddenly I’m standing in the dark, the darkest of dark. The blackness was so complete it was as though the world had turned off all of the lights everywhere including the stars.
It’s odd that I didn’t panic. I closed my eyes because I could no longer use them to see.
Using my one hand and all my other senses as eyes, I felt my way to the sliding glass door and pulled on it to get in. It didn’t budge. It was locked. I pulled on it a few times feeling confused, no the door was definitely locked. Oh, that was the loud click that I’d heard.
About then panic was available to me but I was too stoned to think of freaking out. Confused, I just sank down into the chair closest to the door on my neighbor’s side. I still had my drink in my hand so I continued to enjoy the scotch and its burn in the darkness while I figured out what was happening. ‘Where the hell did I put that lighter’? My eyes worked best for my sense of sight and I needed a little bit of light to help my eyes see.
OK, now I’m stoned and in the dark and I’m asking myself questions I’m pretty sure I couldn’t answer. Another sip of the Glenfiddich, burn, and then burn again. ‘Where did I put that lighter’?
At first I didn’t realize that it was raining but the rain became more and more insistent, until it was pouring down on me like a torrent. The rain was cold and stinging. I was under the cover of the balcony above me but the rain came at me anyway like I was the target.
As a giant flash of lightning bolted across the sky I saw the narrow door that separated my balcony from my neighbor’s open slightly.
Right then, I was glad that my sister wasn’t there for she would be scared shitless!
A scary scenario went through my head that my sister would think of as fast as the lightning had flashed: ‘You just shared your bowl with a pot-smoking killer and now he’s taking advantage of the darkness to do his dirty deeds.’
“Hi, I’m Helen. Who are you?” The words came out sounding like they were someone else’s voice, a little too high pitched. I stood up and took a couple of steps away from pure survival instinct.
Another flash of lightning helped me see someone there, now on my side of the balcony. “Hello?” I tried again, still not hearing my true voice.
“What the..?” That same voice and I recognized that the stranger was trying to open the sliding door to my stateroom.
“It’s locked.” I volunteered. I got my true voice back and felt pretty good about it.
“I don’t know what all this means but I’m glad to offer you a drink of my scotch if you’d like.”
I reached the glass out into the darkness in the direction of the stranger’s voice but just at that moment a wind, a forceful wind took the glass out of my hand and sent me whirling and flying into the sliding glass door with a very loud thud.
Unfortunately for the “same voice” person, he was flung into the window as well. We hit with such force that both of us were sitting on the floor of the balcony at the base of the window. Actually I assumed we were both sitting, I couldn’t see a thing.
“Well, this is different.” I said, mostly to myself and I laughed. I couldn’t help it. I felt the crash into the window – the window didn’t break and I was hoping that I didn’t either. Plus, I was getting an instant replay in my head of something that I couldn’t see in the first place. You know the visual. It was funny.
Next to me, I could feel the arm of the stranger-voice-neighbor bearing down on me.
“Just a minute,” I said, as I could feel his weight pushing me down onto the deck.
“Come on, you’re heavy. Move over.”
I encouraged in a voice that was kind of whiney yet sisterly.
No response. Oh, my god!
“Are you ok? Hold on, hold on, and let
