Two things came out of the picnic with Terence. First, it was discovered Terence casually knew Alan Watts and would see if he could set up a meet and greet with Ethan.

  “We seem to be on the same journey,” Terence said, “but sometimes I feel we're going in different directions. He’s worth meeting though”.

  The second thing that happened was Priya moved in with Erwin. Actually, a whole bunch of people moved in with Priya who moved in with Erwin. They, like Priya, were not students. These were misplaced kids with good intentions during a turbulent time. The men in the group faced conscription and fighting in the Vietnam War. The women often loved these men, but there was something more to them than that. All of them were desperate for a life different from the one they had been brought into.

  They were good people. None had any money, but were willing to help out if needed. The general idea was to enjoy and experience Freedom as much as you could, before the greater forces took control. When they found out Erwin would let them live at his place for free, they were there. That’s not to say they didn’t contribute and even come up with some money making schemes like selling flowers on street corners, to help out.

  Regardless, they were a new breed of people. Maybe it was the very real threat that so many could die in the Vietnam War, that caused the peaceful movement among the youth of the day. Conscription was in effect, and any young male not disabled or enrolled in higher education, went to war. Those asked to fight, we’re questioning why they should die before they even had a chance to live. To them, it was a war of misplaced values. Many were not coming back from this war, and those who did were changed forever. It wasn’t all flowers for the youth of the 60’s.

  “Are you okay with this?” Ethan asked Erwin. Things were moving pretty quickly for Erwin, but Priya was right beside him, treating him like a doll, dressing him in Indian garb and whatnot. He loved the attention and pretty much went with the flow. He also found he loved Cannabis and Priya had lots of it. She was bringing in hash oil from Afghanistan. It was how she made money and helped support their community. They sold it on street corners too.

  But Erwin. From the moment he ate the cookies and started feeling their effects while Terence drove them to the picnic, he became a completely different person. It was like something had been missing from his life, and he had found it. He never wanted to live without it again, which as mentioned, with Priya around, it was not a problem. She cooked it, smoked it, and even burnt it as incense.

  “Try it this way,” she said, handing Erwin a bong filled with pot and a big dab of oil.

  “Oh, yeah,”Erwin replied dreamily, as the oil raced through brain.

  “Oh, yeah,” Erwin replied to Ethan, looking around and smiling. You’d think he had fathered all the disenfranchised kids now living in his home. In a way he was their father. He was providing a place to live, and Priya was a natural den mother. The two of them were being looked upon with special status. “This is going to be great,” he said.

  It was a pretty fun time. Everyone always helped out. They created all kinds of projects, making posters for Peace Marches and even building little things that would make the house more livable for such a big group. They were busy, and their activities tended to spill out into the neighbourhood. It wasn’t unusual for them all to be out in the front yard drawing their posters or weaving baskets out of twigs, because someone at the picnic came up with the idea they could make and sell them.

  The neighbors did take notice and started complaining among themselves about the noise and unusual activity. Kids they had never seen before showed up day and night. It all came to a boil when the kids found a vacant lot down the street and started preparing it to plant a community garden. They were everywhere now and it was all too much. Strange kids wandering around the neighbourhood with long hair and scruffy clothes. Probably looking for opportunities to break into peoples homes, that’s what.

  Soon, a neighborhood committee was formed and showed up at Erwin’s doorstep at 8:00 AM, a time when decent folk start the business of the day. Everyone at Erwin’s was asleep. They had stayed up quite late blasting music and smoking pot; two of the complaints on the committee’s list. They didn’t really know what pot was, but when two of the men in the neighborhood who fancied themselves military types snuck up and sat under Erwin’s windows at night, they always noticed a strange smell and declared it must be pot. It was, but at first the kids told them it was incense, which was kind of true, and they got away without too much trouble for a little while.

  If you come across this story on Amazon, it's taken without permission from the author. Report it.

  But now the committee had time to sit and brew over it, and decided it was pot. On threat of calling the police, they wanted answers to that as well as a host of other questions. Unfortunately, and maybe fortunately, the only member of the household they could rouse out of bed at 8:00 AM, was a fellow named Al. He was a southern boy and friendly.

  Well, I suppose you should read off your list of grievances, so I can take them back to my people,” Al said.

  The committee did better than that. They handed him the list.

  Al looked it up and down and whistled. The list was pretty long, and the long and short of it was Erwin must remove said vagrants from his home, decease pot smoking and playing loud music, or the committee would call the cops.

  “This is pretty thorough,” Al said after reading through the list. “Have you been spying on us? You even have something here about us peeing outdoors”.

  “We were not spying,” one of the women of the committee said defensively,” and then. “It was a girl too,” she said. “Just dropped her drawers right in the middle of the day for all to see”.

  This set off a disapproving grumble.

  “Out here,” Al said, pointing to the front lawn.

  “No. In the back yard”.

  “And you saw that?” Al continued. “With that big fence and all those trees back there”?

  “I can see plenty from my bedroom window”.

  “Hmm,” Al grunted at her, letting the rest of them know what he thought about someone so petty.

  “Hey,” he said, recognizing one of the women. “You live across the street”.

  “I do”.

  “We met once. How’s your husband”?

  “He’s fine”.

  What happened was her husband had brought home a new stove and was struggling to move it into the house. A couple of guys sitting on Erwin’s doorstep noticed he was having trouble and ran over to help him. Between them, they lifted the stove right up and put it in its proper place in the kitchen. Took the old stove out and set it on the driveway too. Al was one of the guys.

  “Good,” Al replied.

  “Thank you for your help,” the woman said.

  “Hey, what are neighbours for?” Al replied. “You know folks, we might live a little different than you, but we’re facing different challenges too. Three of the guys here are headed off to basic training in the next few months. We’re just trying to live with our friends before some of us go off to war, and quite frankly a lot of people question whether this war should even be happening. You can understand that, can’t you”?

  There was some grumbling, and comments about how it wasn’t proper behavior, but then one of the women spoke up clearly.

  “I can understand,” she said. “When my Josh was sent off to basic training six months ago, he felt so isolated. I wished he had more friends with him before he left”.

  “Exactly,” Al replied. “We want to be good neighbors. We can bring down the noise a bit, and you know, if you ever need a hand with something, we’re happy to help. Why don’t you come over tonight and meet everyone. We’ll talk things through and see if we can come up with some rules everyone can live with. As a matter of fact, come for supper, and share food with us”.

  Saving a few dollars on meals appealed to the committee, and they accepted Al’s offer. By the time they showed up for dinner, they had thought things over a little from the kid’s perspective, and brought some dishes of their own to make the dinner into a potluck of sorts, which was probably a good thing as Priya infused the Indian dishes she prepared with hash oil, claiming it would do the neighbors good to get high. Priya’s food was a success, and everyone laughed and was happy. Later, they found themselves in an intense discussion with the kids about their fears of going to war, and when they went home, they felt grateful for the opportunity to meet and talk with them. None of the neighbors had the slightest idea they were a little stoned.

  Once the neighborhood got to know the kids better, they supported them like their own; always stopping to talk and offering encouragement. Some of them, like Josh’s Mother, helped make protest posters, and even participated in anti-war rallies. A few years later when the kids drifted off, they were missed.