Chapter 13

Their faces glowed in the amber fire light as they watched us approach. Quiet, intensely curious expressions that were so inviting at the same time. This was the right place for me, I knew almost immediately. No designer fashions, no perfect makeup, just the kind of people that I grew up with. They were a sight for sore eyes.

"Hi!" I beamed with a smile stretching across my face.

"Welcome." A voice said. The voice of John, the one they called "Junior".

Jenny introduced me. "Hi everyone, this is my friend Sarah."

Suddenly you could here mumbling and hushed whispers. "Isn't she the one... Is that *her*?... I think it is." I could feel the smile leaving my face when I realized that they too were probably going to hate me. Just like the rest of school did. As I turned away to leave I felt Jenny grab my hand.

"Hey, don't go. It's O.K." She addressed the group again. "Sarah, this is Janet... Bill..." Each hand raised as if attendance was being taken. "Junior... Doug... and Susan."

An opening was made for Jenny and I in the tight circle. Nobody wanted to be the first to talk. Perhaps they didn't know quite what to say.

Doug stared into the crackling fire, poking at it with a stick. "Some of us think you did the right thing yesterday."

The other heads nodded in agreement. Jenny was uncomfortable with the topic, it was obvious. I was too.

The silence was as thick as the smoke that filled the air around us. Bill spoke up. "Someone had to do it." More nodding. Another voice said that it was long overdue. I was really nervous for Jennifer, who seemed to be pretending to ignore the conversation. She must have been torn between her love for Tom, if you could call it, and her friends.

It was my turn to speak. "So... how *bout* those Niner's!" The whole group rolled back in laughter, attracting looks from a couple passing by. Overhead, a jet was slowly drowned out by the sound of the rolling ocean waves, calling attention to them. Then it was quiet again.

Junior looked around nervously, like he was hiding something. Whatever it was, it was passed over to Jenny before I could see it. She was bent over in his direction making what sounded like a hissing noise accompanied by a strange smell. Sort of like the wood smoke, only more pungent.

Jenny passed it over to me, holding her breath as she spoke. "Ear... ave... a hit."

"Huh, what?" I asked, not exactly sure whether it was what I thought it was. Which would be more embarrassing? I wondered. If I was wrong or if I didn't even know!

Meanwhile, Jenny kept motioning with her head for me to do something while the background filled with chuckles and giggles.

Janet asked where I was from.

"Nebraska?" Laughed Bill. "Why... doesn't the stuff grow *wild* out there?! Who is she trying to fool?"

Janet snapped back, reaching in front of me to take it from Jenny. "You're the fool! You can't smoke that stuff! Rope is about all it's good for."

Junior had to set the record straight about all the various uses of the hemp plant, a subject that seemed to bore just about everyone.

Janet sucked on it, exhaled, then presented it to me. "Hi, Sarah! This is *joint*. Joint, meet Sarah." That got a round of applause and more laughter leaving me wondering just how noticeable my *damn

**** red* face was!

Now that the formal introductions were made, it was time for me to figure out what the hell I was going to do when the joint came back to me again. Should I try it? Why not? Why? I could feel the pressure rising each time the joint was passed. I should try it... I should try it not... I should try...

All eyes were on me as the joint finished it's first orbit.

"Ummmm. I don't... use drugs?" Ooops, wrong thing to say! That comment didn't go over too well at all.

"Aaaaak!" Junior pretended he was vomiting. "*Drugs*? Oh, No! This is natural, one hundred percently as nature herself intended. Yes, and I should know, I grew it myself in my own... parent's garden!"

Everyone seemed to agree that Junior's was the best, the purest, and of course, most *organically* grown pot around. So why wouldn't I try it?

"All right! Give me that thing." I growled, ripping it away from Jenny.

"Ooooooh!" A voice called out. Then another and another. Then silence. Anticipation.

I pulled the joint in closer as the smoke from the tip danced back and forth, stinging my eye for a moment.

Another whisper. "Is she going to do it?"

"Yes, she is." I answered. I puffed on the joint twice before coughing it all out. After another try at it, I seemed to have the hang of it. At least *I* thought I did.

"She's *clintoning*!" Accused Bill.

Junior agreed. "Looks that way to me too." Everyone else nodded.

Jenny gave me the bad news again. "They think your clintoning."

Junior reiterated "Yep, she is. That was a clinton if I ever saw one."

What the hell was a "clinton"? I wondered. Did it have something to do with the president or something? Apparently it did.

It took a while before I learned how to inhale the smoke without choking and gagging like a newbie. But by then, strange things were beginning to happen around the circle. To everyone except me. For one thing, there was almost continuous laughter erupting from everywhere. And beside that, people were acting just as funny.

"I told you it could be done." Doug trying to reason with Bill.

Then Bill insisting that he couldn't *handle* it, whatever *it* was.

"The *concept* Bill, you have to grasp the *concept*." Doug was busy grasping something else: the joint. He sipped the tiny butt deeply, let some of the smoke go up his nose, then spoke again in a deeper voice. "Come and see... William."