Finders Keepers

Finders Keepers - Chapters 66-75

DISCLAIMER: This title contains coarse language and mature content. It is not suitable for readers 18 years of age or younger.

 

PART III
I GOT YOUR MUFFIN RIGHT HERE

Chapter 66
The Great Ohhhmmmmmmmm

Amsterdam, The Netherlands - Outside the Anne Frank House
Saturday, September 17, 2005, 2:03 p.m.

There was a blast of white light. There were streaks of screaming fluorescent color. There was the sensation of being swallowed by a tornado. And then there was friendship. Lots and lots of friendship.

            They both felt the flash that time. Hell yeah, they did.

            Jason could barely speak. "What are you doing here? I'm just ... this is ... I mean, wow. Just ... wow. How'd you even find me?"

            Theo was wearing those same beat-up moccasins and blue-and-green pullover. "I dunno. You wanted to see Amsterdam, so I took a chance. We saw The Band Wagon in your guidebook, yeh? I just had a feeling you'd be here. I can't explain it."

            Jason looked at Theo, and blinked, and while it may have taken his eyelids only a second to close and then open again, it was like wiping a squeegee on a windshield, sponging away a translucent layer of grime. The result was that he was now able to perceive a world more textured and nuanced than he ever noticed before, but one that had actually been there all along.

            Jason was stunned by the notion that Theo had trekked thousands of miles-on a whim-just on the chance he might be here. So Jason looked at Theo, his friend ... really looked at him ... in one way bewildered and honored and overwhelmed with gratitude, and in another way not at all surprised, because that was Theo.

            Would I have done the same? Would I have taken that chance?

            "What?" Theo laughed at Jason's laughter. "What?"

            And Jason kept right on smiling. I would. I really would.

            They came in from the rain, checked Theo into The Band Wagon, and then caught up with Jackie and Omar, who stayed an extra hour at the Anne Frank House, and looked every minute of it. The four bunkmates agreed to find a quiet diversion, to unwind, and as came as no surprise to anyone, Jackie knew just the place.

***

Jason had never been to a hash bar. And given that Hell would have to freeze at least ten times over before he would bungee jump, skydive or vote Republican, for him, this was extreme living.           He stood at the bar while Jackie and Omar took seats at a table near the open café windows, each drinking a pint. Theo ordered a hefeweizen.

            Jason examined his ganjanic options displayed beneath the glass countertop, deciding between Nederhash (hash made from Dutch weed), Hydro (weed grown using hydroponics), and Hashish (imported from places unknown). This was to be the first joint he ever bought, so he wanted to pick just right. "Third from the left," he finally said.

            Two beers down, the foursome passed the joint, and after just a few minutes, there wasn't a wide eye among them.

            "So, dude," Jason began. Warm, elongated waves rolled over him.