“So now what are we going to do?” Erwin asked.
He and Ethan had been admiring the Cork Boards bolted onto Erwin’s living room wall to better organize his newspaper clippings. There were 12 boards in total, evenly spaced, 4 wide by 3 high. There was room for 15 more boards, but they only had enough categories and clippings to fill 12 boards for the time being. At first Erwin was reluctant to make such drastic changes to Mother’s house, but once the boards were up and they had run multi colored strands of wool yarn from one board to another indicating a cross reference, the display was pretty much his idea of heaven. Erwin could stand and stare at those boards all day long.
“We’re going to tell the story of the CounterCulture,” Ethan replied.
“What? Write a book”?
“Yeah”.
“What about Soul Force?” Erwin asked.
“That is the story,” Ethan replied. “The first wave of Soul Force came out of the CounterCulture and we have to tell the future how to recognize it when the time comes for them to use it”.
“So, we’re not just going to archive all this information”?
“No,” Ethan replied. “Everything’s being archived now. All the newspapers and media clips. Everything will be available in the future for people to find and reference. What we have to do is tell them what happened and what to look for”.
“How are we going to tell this story?” Erwin asked.
“I’m not completely sure yet,” Ethan replied. “We have to show how protesting and not accepting the status quo overcomes tyranny and creates positive change. Maybe tell a bunch of smaller stories and hope they come together to make the bigger story. Soul Force is our species’ next Evolution. Martin Luther King Jr. is one story. Terence McKenna is another. You know McKenna pretty much figured everything out before he died, and in the future there will be all kinds of media left behind on him, showing what he learnt and all his conclusions and understanding. In the future, a day comes when we recognize with certainty our leaders are taking us down a destructive path and we’re looking for a way to fix things. When we do, we will reference the roadmap left behind by true leaders like MLK Jr., and McKenna whose voices resonate into the future.
“You know,” Ethan continued. “The CounterCulture really defines the repeat cycle that led to our Enlightenment. How everyday people were driven to rise up and defeat the continuing Abuse of our leaders. It happens Erwin. Soul Force rises above all else and defeats the forces of evil. There are examples of it everywhere during your time period. The nonviolent marches of Martin Luther King Jr., a girl offering a flower to a soldier, burning your draft card. These are all nonviolent acts of resistance”.
“Mmm,” Erwin murmured agreeably, confident his wall of clippings could tell the story.
Just then, the phone rang and Erwin walked over to answer it.
“Hello,”
“Hello. Erwin?
“Yes”.
“It’s Terence. Is Ethan in”?
“Yes.”
“Can I speak with him”?
“What about?” Erwin was hoping they were done with Terence McKenna. His conclusion about McKenna and having taken the Magic Mushrooms was that the experience was not as horrifying as he thought it might be, but he was glad it was behind him.
“We’re going to the lake for a picnic, and…”
Ethan grabbed the phone from Erwin. “Terence. What’s up”?
“We’re going to the lake for a picnic and I was wondering if you and Erwin would like to join us”?
Unauthorized use of content: if you find this story on Amazon, report the violation.
Erwin, having heard the picnic invite, was aggressively waving his arms and mouthing, “No”.
“A picnic in January”?
“Yeah, it’s something we do, to greet the New Year. We like to run into the lake as a cleansing for the Year ahead. We’re supposed to do it on the 1st, but organization is not our strong point”.
“We’d love to,” Ethan replied. “I don’t think Erwin has a car. Can you come get us”?
“Yeah, we have a big old bus. We’ll swing by and pick you up”.
McKenna rolled up. He was driving, and the had nothing over this busload. In addition to Terence, there were seven other people, including the Tea Goddess from the other night. When Ethan and Erwin got on the bus, they were greeted with clapping and cheers. Everyone was glad to see them.
There was no wondering where to sit. The young Indian woman, with the extreme exotic sexiness, walked up to Erwin, took him by the hand and led him to a seat on the bus.
“Oh, my friend from the other night,” She said, leading him to a seat. “Are you feeling better”?
“Yes,” Erwin replied shyly, almost obediently. Now that he wasn’t tripping on Magic Mushrooms, he wasn’t the charmer he had been the first time he met her.
“Come,” The young woman said. “I will feed you”.
“Well just as long as you don’t give me any more of that tea,” Erwin replied, as she guided him to one of the vacant bench seats. “I do not want to go through that again”.
“No baby,” the young woman replied, “Just some grapes and cookies”.
“Well, okay then,” Erwin said, as the woman slid up close. “Just as long as there’s no more tea”.
“That’s Priya,” Terence said. “She takes in stray animals”.
“She found a good one,” Ethan replied, taking the seat across from McKenna so they could visit.
It was quite a drive. Terence had chosen a different lake to go to because Erwin lived at a place that took them too far away from the lake they would normally go to. No one seemed to notice the long drive. They were Children of Nature; ‘Flower Children’, and their age was part of it. Young and ready to challenge every moment of life. They had plenty of time and good company was all they wanted, as they sang, clapped, and then pretended the aisle in the bus was a runway, and showed everyone how they would walk if they were a model.
That’s how they arrived. Everyone was happy and not put out by the length of the drive at all. Ethan had a wonderful time too, listening to Terence point out various features of the area. Terence loved nature and was quite knowledgeable about it regardless of where he found himself. His enthusiasm was infectious when he talked about it.
They parked by a camp area that was close to the beach and had plenty of fire pits. Being it January, no-one else was there and they chose a nice pit close to a number of picnic tables and not too far from the water. It was a beautiful day. There was no wind and the sun was shining for a change. It was still cool, and you needed a jacket.
When Erwin got off the bus, Ethan noticed he had a goofy grin on his face and seemed in much better spirits than when Terence picked them up and Ethan almost had to drag Erwin on. He didn’t even notice Ethan as they filed past. He was preoccupied, holding onto Priya’s shoulders, eyes closed, chanting and dancing like he was in a Conga line.
The first thing they did was get the fire going. Terence was in charge of making sure they had the proper kindling and whatnot.
“No. That branch is too green,” he’d say and they’d take it away and come back with another one.
Soon, the fire was a roaring blaze with veggies packed in tin foil having been thrown directly on it. These were intended to share but were mainly for the Vegetarians. The others went hunting for a hotdog stick. Everyone was very proud of their newfound stick, and thought privately theirs was the best. Maybe even Erwin thought his was pretty good, but it was obviously the worst stick of the bunch. He chose a sapling, too weak to hold the weight of the hotdog and it was always springing up and then down into the fire. It was pretty funny watching the hotdog bob up and down, especially because Erwin was laughing the hardest. He didn’t quite connect that he was the reason for the bobbing hotdog. In his imagination, it was doing it on its own, and everytime it dropped into the ashes, he’d burst into laughter, causing everyone else to laugh too.
After lunch, someone suggested they take the plunge into the lake, which was the purpose of the picnic. Everyone was in good cheer, especially after Erwin’s antics, and they all cheered and stripped off their clothes. Terence and Ethan were standing a little back from the group, and it was Ethan who noticed it first.
“Check out the unit on Erwin,” he said.
“What?” Terence mumbled, confounded by the perplexity of the button and zipper on his jeans. He looked over to where Ethan was pointing and after a moment commented. “I would not like to see that angry”.
“No kidding,” Ethan replied, nodding his head and continuing to stare at Erwin’s dick. It was one of those ones that hung half way down to your knee.
“You coming in?” Terence asked, noticing Ethan was not taking off his clothes.
The truth was, Ethan didn’t see the logic in freezing his ass off in a half frozen lake. He wasn’t a full fledged hippie yet, and didn’t get doing things just for the fun of it.
“Not after seeing Erwin, I’m not”, he replied.