In trying to expose, disrupt, and otherwise neutralize activities of the 'new left', the Bureau is faced with the rather unique task because first the 'new left' is actually difficult to define and second because of complete disregard of 'new left' members for moral and social laws and social amenities. It is believed that the non-conformism of in sic dress and speech, the neglect of personal cleanliness, the use of obscenities, printed and others, publicized sexual promiscuity, experiments with the use of drugs, filthy clothes, shaggy hair, wearing of sandals, beads, and unusual jewelry, tend to negate any attempt to hold these people up to ridicule.
FBI memorandum
May 27, 1966
When the Moon is in the Seventh House This is the dawning of the age of Aquarius Harmony and understanding
And Jupiter aligns with Mars
Then peace will guide the planets
And love will steer the stars
The age of Aquarius
Aquarius
Aquarius
Sympathy and trust abounding
No more falsehoods or derisions
Golden living dreams of visions
Mystic crystal revelation
And the mind's true liberation...
Severus shifted on the 50-pound sack of oatmeal so that the sun wouldn't shine directly into his eyes, and accidentally knocked a bag of buckwheat onto a semi-dozing Angel.
"Sorry," he said softly so as not to wake the others, but he wasn't sure they were actually asleep.
"'This is the dawning of the Age of Aquarius!'" Annie screeched along with the radio. "'Age of Aquarius...Ahh-kware-eeee-usss!!'"
Severus shifted on the sack again, grabbing a small sack of peanuts to use as a pillow. He saw Azalea looking at him, then glancing at Annie in the front seat, then looking back at him with a smirk, rolling her eyes.
"'Lehhttt the sun shiiiine'," Annie continued screaming. "Lehhttt the sun shine in...the suuunnn shine iinnn...'"
Bless Annie, Severus thought to himself, she was a great lady for taking them all in and taking care of them -- but she sounded like a scalded cat when she tried to sing.
"Are we there yet?" DeWard whined. He was sitting on a bag of barley.
"No, honey!" Annie called back to him. "It's slow going; there are a lot of other people coming to this concert!"
"I gotta pee!" Azalea muttered as she sat up.
"Told'j'ya not to drink all that soda back there," Angel mumbled, taking a bag of lentils and putting it over his head in an attempt to block out both light and sound.
"I ain't the only one!" Azalea whispered vehemently, glaring at Angel's inattentive back. She then glared at Severus, who didn't say anything.
Angel had earlier given Severus a 'heads up' about not taking in too many liquids before starting out on their road trip up country, or when they subsequently stopped for something to eat shortly after finally getting out of the city.
But Azalea hadn't paid any heed, and was now paying the price. And Yesmina's sheepish look betrayed her lack of foresight, also.
"I gotta go to the bathroom!" DeWard loudly announced, revealing the fact that he had spent the afternoon and evening with the girls rather than with Angel and Severus.
"Oh brother!" Angel muttered, turning over and slapping the bag of lentils over the other side of his head. "I told you so!"
"Yeah!" Annie exclaimed. "We girls need a pit stop!"
"I'm not a girl!" DeWard protested.
"No you're not, hon!" Annie laughed. "But three of us girls need to go!"
She gave Benjie, who was driving the minibus, a pointed look.
"And I think some boys might like to take a break, too!?" she exclaimed.
"I'm actually fine, honey," Benjie answered, keeping his eyes on the road, particularly on a garishly painted school bus some yards in front of them.
This answer garnered Benjie one of Azalea's glares.
"I'm fine, too!" Angel mumbled from under the lentils.
Three sets of female eyes looked at Severus, Azalea's almost murderous. Severus decided to say nothing, and instead he looked through the window at the procession outside.
Cars were parked on either side of the road. The road itself was clogged with people walking to the concert site. Benjie had indicated that they were still some eight to ten miles from their destination. Because Annie and Benjie, along with their friends, were going to be helping out with the Free Kitchen at the concert, they were lucky to be allowed to park right at the festival site.
But the crowds of young people making their way to the concert on foot meant that their vehicle had slowed to a crawl...it was going to be some time yet before they made it to their final destination.
Severus didn't have the urgent need to answer Nature's call like the others had. But is was hot, especially stuck in the back of the VW minibus with their luggage (such as it was), Benjie and Annie's camping gear, cooking utensils, and dozens of bags of various dried food stuffs. He wouldn't mind an excuse to get out and stretch his legs and get a breath of fresh air.
"Honey!" Annie exclaimed to her husband. "It doesn't matter if you are okay! I need to go! And the kids! We can't wait!"
She laughed, then clutched her stomach.
"Oooh! She kicked hard that time!" Annie exclaimed.
Yesmina and Azalea leaned over Annie's the back of Annie's seat as if they thought they'd be able to see a little foot pressing out of Annie's stomach. When nothing more exciting happened, Azalea glared at Benjie.
"I gotta pee! Bad!" she exclaimed in a hoarse whisper. Benjie chuckled.
"Okay...okay," he answered, leaning forward to flick the minibus' lights on and off a couple of times.
The brake lights on the garish bus ahead of them flashed on and off a few times in response, then pulled as far to the right as possible and came to a stop. Benjie pulled in behind it and parked, then he jumped out and ran to the back of the vehicle to open the door for the children to get out.
There were vehicles already parked on either side of the street, so the garish school bus and the minibus now took up a good portion of the road, forcing all those who were walking towards the festival site to press into the narrow space remaining.
Benjie was yelling an explanation of why they had stopped to a few of his friends that had already gotten off of the school bus, stating that someone needed to go with the girls, but Azalea had already grabbed Yesmina's hand and had shoved their way through the crowd to a nearby stand of bushes.
Severus stood by the back of the bus, bemused by the exotic and colorful crowd of people passing by. Angel slid out the back of the minibus, rubbing his eyes, and then helped DeWard to get out.
"Hey!" they could hear Annie exclaiming from inside the minibus. "I need some help here!"
The pre-pregnant Annie would have had no problem being able to negotiate the narrow space between her side of the minibus and the cars parked on their side of the street. But the almost-8-month pregnant woman now could not get out of the passenger-side door.
Her solution to this dilemma was to lie down across both the passenger and driver's seats and attempt to push herself headfirst out the open driver's side door by pressing her feet on the closed passenger door. The steering wheel and the stick shift were making this attempt difficult at best.
Benjie had made his way up to the school bus and was talking to some friends, and so was unaware of his wife's predicament.
"Hey!?" Annie called out.
Severus and Angel went to her aid. They tried pulling on her arms and shoulders as she pushed her feet against the passenger door. This succeeded in moving her some inches, but when her feet could no longer reach the door, and the rise of her stomach reached the steering wheel, and the stick shift was pressing into her backside, all attempts to move her failed..
Annie was laughing hysterically. "Move the seat back, hon!" she told them. Angel adjusted the driver's seat, which freed Annie's pregnant stomach from the grip of the steering wheel, but didn't help to enable her to move out of the door. She tried pushing her feet against the dashboard, but couldn't get her butt over the stick shift.
"Help!!" she cried out, still laughing.
A couple of guys who were walking by stopped.
"Can we help?" one of them asked.
"Yeah!" Annie laughed, sprawled across the front seats, her head hanging upside down out the driver's door. "I can't get out!"
The newcomers quickly assessed the situation, and one went over to the passenger side, opened the door, and squeezed through the opening. He lifted Annie's legs as his friend pulled from the driver's side, and managed to lift her over the stick shift and around the steering wheel. Finally Annie was able to get out and stand on her own.
"Thanks!" she exclaimed, still laughing. "I did use to have a husband at one time! Don't know where he's gotten to!"
"No problem!" one of the young men said.
"Peace!" said the other one, flashing the peace sign as he rejoined his friend and they continued walking down the road.
"Where're the girls?" Annie asked Angel and Severus.
"Over behind those bushes," Angel answered, gesturing to a wide, dense strand of vegetation across the street.
"You okay, honey?" Benjie called out, jogging up to them.
"Oh yeah, now I am, thanks for parking so close to those cars and for sticking around to help me!" Annie exclaimed. Even though she said it with a laugh, Severus could discern that her statement lacked the level of good humor she had been displaying just a few moments before.
"Help me get through this crowd to those bushes," she ordered Benjie. Severus watched as Benjie steered his wife like some heavy ship against the tide of humanity passing them, then disappeared behind the vehicles parked on the opposite side of the street.
"I gotta go, too!" DeWard yelled out, standing at the back of the minibus.
"I guess we'll take those bushes over there," Angel muttered, gesturing to a small group of vegetation on their side of the street.
He grabbed a bottle of water and some paper napkins from the back of the minibus, took DeWard by the hand, and walked over to the bushes. Severus followed.
As soon as they were behind the bushes, DeWard immediately set about taking care of his most pressing need, but something silver and shiny under one of the bushes caught Angel's eye.
Angel bent down and scooped up what turned out to be a packet composed of aluminum foil. He looked at Severus with a smirk and winked.
"What is it?" Severus asked. Angel just shook his head, slipped the packet under his shirt with one hand, and with the other held his index finger up to his lips.
"Shhh!" he admonished Severus. "Later. Just act cool, do what we gotta do, cuz y'don't know when we'll get another pit stop..."
Severus could never figure out why they all referred to the act of going to the bathroom when not at home as "a pit stop"...
Angel had them use the bottle of water to wash their hands and dry them with the napkins as they went back to the minibus. Azalea and Yesmina were already back, sitting off the back of the minibus singing with the radio that had been left on, but Annie and Benjie were nowhere around.
That's when I had most of my fun, back I Cloud Nine when I want to Out of school, yeah County fair in the country sun And everything, it's true, ooh yeah Hot fun in the summertime
High high high high there
Them summer days, those summer days
Hot fun in the summertime
Hot fun in the summertime
Hot fun in the summertime
Azalea did not miss the look on Angel's face of the-cat-that-ate-the-canary.
"What you up to?" she demanded.
Angel didn't answer, just smiled enigmatically, sat on the back of the minibus, and then shoved himself inside. Once ensconced on a sack of oatmeal, and making sure no outsiders were paying any particular attention to them, he quickly lifted part of his shirt to flash the aluminum package he was hiding there.
"Where you get that!?" Azalea demanded in a hoarse whisper.
"It was under those bushes," Angel answered, gesturing to where they had just come from.
"How much is there?" Yesmina asked.
"Don't know, didn't open it. Looks like a lot, by the size of it..."
"What is it?" Severus asked.
Angel looked around furtively.
"Weed," he whispered. "Most likely..."
"Most everyone here be trippin'!" Azalea exclaimed. "More than just weed, by the looks of it!"
"'Tripping'?" Severus asked.
"Yeah, trippin'!" Azalea answered. "They be taking one of those mental trips, y'know? Flyin' first class express via Trans Acid Airlines, y'know?"
Azalea tended to end many of her statements to Severus with "y'know?", but Severus rarely knew what she was talking about, and this time was no different.
"LSD," Angel explained, knowing that Severus rarely understood what Azalea was talking about. But Severus didn't understand Angel's answer, either.
"It's a drug," Yesmina added, seeing Severus' confused look. "It makes you see funny things when you take it."
"It mess you up!" Azalea exclaimed. "Make you act crazy!"
Severus was surprised at her vehemence; she almost sounded afraid.
"Have you ever used it?" he asked her.
"No!" she exclaimed. "I told you, it makes you crazy! Some people never stop being crazy after takin' that shit!"
"I have," Yesmina stated quietly.
Both Azalea and Angel stared at her, shocked. This was obviously a revelation they had never heard from Yesmina before.
"My mother gave me some a few years ago," Yesmina continued. "I think that's why they took me away and put me in foster care..."
"What was it like, Mina?" Angel whispered. It was obvious that Angel held this LSD/acid thing in awe.
"It's hard to explain," Yesmina answered, pulling DeWard to her and hugging him. "I remember I was watching TV...I think my mom put it in my soda...I'm not sure, cuz I didn't taste anything funny..."
"It don't have no taste, they say," Azalea stated quietly. Azalea rarely said anything quietly, so Severus knew this must be something important.
"So what happened?" Angel demanded.
"I'm not sure when the trip started...like I said, I was watching TV, and then stuff just got funny," Yesmina stated. "It's hard to explain. It was like suddenly the TV show had a taste and a smell. That wasn't bad. But then it looked like everything was melting, and that sort of scared me..."
She started swinging back and forth, still hugging DeWard. Angel and Azalea were gazing at her, transfixed. Severus was just curious.
"And then there were these people, except they weren't people, exactly..." Yesmina attempted to explain.
"What do you mean, Mina?" Angel prompted.
"I don't know!" Yesmina answered, clearly still confused about the experience. "They were sort of like people, but not really human...like I said, it's hard to explain. It was sort of like they were spirits..."
"Y'mean ghosts?" Azalea asked, obviously afraid. Severus had never seen Azalea afraid of anything, and found it curious that she was fearful of the spirits of the dead.
"No, not ghosts," Yesmina answered. "They were more like...like...I think more like what the real thing of something is..."
Angel and Azalea clearly did not comprehend what Yesmina was saying; but Severus' interest picked up.
He vaguely remembered his mother telling him something like that, about how all things had magickal properties, which one could tap into if one knew how and was talented enough. That was how a potion or a spell could become more than the sum of its parts.
"You mean it was like seeing the true nature of a thing," he stated, "the true essence manifesting itself in physical form."
They all stared at Severus.
"What you be trippin' on?" Azalea demanded, before turning her attention back to Yesmina.
"Yeah, I think it was something like that, Sev!" Yesmina admitted. "It was like everything has it's own spirit, and everything's connected. That wasn't too bad, either, just strange. They talked to me. I didn't understand most of what they said..."
"So what else happened, Mina?" Angel prompted when she trailed off.
"I'm not sure...I didn't know what time it was," she answered. "I mean, it was like there was no time, time didn't exist anymore. I saw pretty things but I saw scary things, too. Things I can't explain, cuz there's just no way to explain it..."
She paused, as if searching for the right words, then gave up with a sigh.
"Anyway, last thing I remember is a bunch of birds, and then thinking I'm a bird, too, and I needed to fly away to join them, then next thing I knew I was standing on the ledge outside my bedroom window. Seven stories up. And it was a day later than what I remembered. There were a bunch of people and the police and the firemen down below. That's when I got taken away from my mom..."
Severus thought this sounded very interesting, but Angel stared at Yesmina with his mouth open, and Azalea just glared.
"I told you that shit make you crazy!" she exclaimed. "Good thing you didn't stay crazy!"
Severus wasn't sure about that last point. Yesmina seemed very odd to him, but of course he hadn't known her before she had the experience of thinking she was a bird and could fly, so maybe she was no different after her experience than before it.
"Anyway," Azalea continued, turning back to Angel. "You keep that stuff outta sight until later…"
While Annie and Benjie's friends, and even Benjie himself, were rather fond of smoking pot, Annie did not approve of it being smoked in her presence because of the baby on it's way, nor did she approve of the children smoking.
As if on cue, Benjie returned with Annie waddling in his wake. She stood off to the side as the children returned to the back of the minibus. Benjie closed the back door, and then pulled the vehicle out onto the road a bit so that Annie could now open the passenger door and get in.
"Everyone okay back there!?" she asked as she hoisted herself onto the passenger seat.
The kids mumbled variations of affirmations, as Benjie cautiously pulled out onto the road, trying to avoid hitting the hundreds of people who were still arriving for the concert.
The rest of the journey occurred with no incident, other than it taking almost three hours to travel less than ten miles. They finally arrived at their destination as the sun was setting.
They were on the edge of the festival site itself. As Severus got out of the minibus he saw what looked to be a small village of tents already erected on the site by those who had gotten there early. There was a fence around the site that was already bent down in a few places…this presumably was the fence they had come to take down.
The sound of music drifted to them from the dozens of radios playing around the site, and Severus could hear hammering coming from what looked to be a stage off in the distance.
But where they were there was a much smaller stage, which Annie had told them was a "Free Stage", put up to provide entertainment for the thousands of people without tickets who were supposed to show up. This was adjacent to the "Free Kitchen" they would be helping to run, and something called a "Free School", which both Annie and Benjie had assured the children would be "fun", but none of the kids were convinced.
Someone was currently playing a flute-like instrument on the Free Stage, accompanied by someone banging on a set of bongo drums.
Severus kept turning around, trying to take it all in. Adjacent to the Free Kitchen/Stage/School was an area where people were selling items like jewelry, clothing, and handmade decorations. Annie stated that if she'd known, she'd have brought some of her tie-dyed creations, but then Benjie pointed out that that would have been in direct opposition to their professed anarchic beliefs that the whole thing should be free…
Azalea, Yesmina, and DeWard ran off to check out what was for sale. Annie waddled off to the Free Kitchen to let them know that they'd arrived, and Benjie drove the minibus behind it to have it unloaded, and then enlisted Angel and Severus in helping him to set up their own tent a little behind the Free Stage and adjacent to the area where the Free School was to be conducted.
After the tent was erected, Benjie hung one of Annie's tie-dyed sheets from the side of the minibus, and attached two poles to the other end of it to create a place to be able to sit in the shade. He then hung some more tie-dyed sheets from two of the sides, and had the boys finally place the quilts and blankets and pillows that they had used on the roof back in the city on the ground under the canopy.
It all actually resulted in a rather cozy arrangement; now that the minibus was mostly cleared out, it provided a place to sleep in addition to the tent, and the canopy provided a place to sit without being subject to the sun's direct glare.
The girls and DeWard returned just as they were finishing. All three were wearing beaded necklaces and beaded and feathered strands in their hair, and someone had painted flowers and a peace sign on DeWard's face.
"Great timing!" Angel muttered. Yesmina looked guilty, but Azalea ignored him and threw herself onto one of the quilts under the canopy.
"Look what we got!" she exclaimed, fishing items out of her large bag.
She tossed a variety of beaded necklaces onto the quilt, a dozen or so buttons with various sayings, and a couple more of the beaded/feathered hair strands. Angel took a closer look at those.
"What are these?" he demanded, taking a close look at the clip end.
"You wear them in your hair!" Azalea answered, demonstrating the couple she had in her own hair.
Angel looked at her skeptically.
"Of course," she laughed, "those clips can come in mighty handy for other purposes, too!"
Yesmina sat down and picked up one of the hair clips.
"We got extra for you and Angel," she said, offering the clip to Severus, who took it questioningly.
"You expect us to wear this!?" Angel demanded. Yesmina looked crestfallen.
"Lot's of guys are wearing them!" she explained. "Look at DeWard…"
But DeWard had taken his off and was now swinging them in mad circles over his head.
"Well I ain't wearin' it in my hair!" Angel answered, clipping the ornament to the edge of his tee-shirt instead.
Severus stared at the one he was holding. Yesmina looked ready to cry, but she usually looked like she was about to cry. But Azalea was looking at him expectantly, as if she really wanted to see him wear it in his hair. He obliged, clipping it to the left side of his head.
"How does this look?" he asked. Yesmina looked like she now wouldn't cry; Azalea laughed.
"Here, you need this!" she exclaimed, grabbing a couple of the beaded necklaces and putting them over Severus' head. One of the necklaces had an Egyptian ankh suspended from it. Yesmina picked up a button and pinned it on Severus' shirt. It stated just one word, "Love".
The girls assessed their work with satisfied looks. DeWard stopped spinning his hair ornaments and stared at Severus with narrowed eyes. Angel just snorted and stated, "You look like a real hippie now!"
Severus wasn't sure if Angel approved or not. But Severus had wanted to become a hippie, so he was glad that the girls had helped him to achieve that.
"Thank you," he said to them. Azalea just laughed and lay back on the quilt. Yesmina looked extremely happy.
By this time it was almost dark. Benjie came over and told them that they all could get something to eat at the Free Kitchen, which the children rushed to.
Inside Annie was ensconced on a stool, ladling something out to those who brought bowls to her. There were a few other workers also ladling out items. The children got in line behind a short queue.
The only thing Severus recognized when it was plopped into his bowl was some broccoli; the rest was some unrecognizable "something". While Azalea didn't say anything, Severus could see that she was somewhat less than happy with what was being served.
Their last stop in the queue was at Annie's station; she ladled a portion of tomato sauce over what was in their bowls.
"Hi, kids!" she exclaimed. "It's not my sauce, but it's not bad! How're you all doing?"
She looked at Severus.
"Fine," he answered.
"What is this shit!?" Azalea asked her in a hoarse whisper.
"Oh, honey!" Annie exclaimed. "Ya got broccoli and that brown stuff is barley with lentils, and the tan stuff is brown rice with wheat germ, and the square thing is fried tofu!"
As far as Azalea was concerned, Annie could have just said that they were being served cat droppings.
"It's really good!" Annie tried to assure her. "And this meat sauce is pretty good. Like I said, not quite as good as mine, but pretty good. Give it a try!"
The children went back to the minibus with their dinner, and sat under the canopy. All except Severus pushed the food around in their bowls, as if expecting to find something even more disgusting hidden in it.
"Don't these people ever make good food?" Azalea demanded. "Why can't they make fried chicken…my granny makes a whole mess o' fried chicken whenever a crowd shows up at her place! And fried greens…" she added wistfully.
"Fried plantain…" Yesmina added. "You ever have that? It's really good…"
"Yeah!" Angel interjected. "My grandmother makes that!"
"French fries!" DeWard exclaimed.
"And barbecue!" Azalea continued. "Granny does a whole mess o'ribs, fall apart in your hands! Melts in yo' mouth!"
"Even some rice and beans!" Angel added. "A decent batch of rice and beans…"
"Pizza…" DeWard whined.
Severus was silent. He was too busy eating.
"It's not bad," he stated, taking a pause from shoveling the food into his mouth. "Annie's correct, the sauce isn't bad. And they put some sort of spice in the barley lentil thing, also in whatever they coated the fried tofu with. The rice doesn't have much taste, though, and the broccoli is, well, broccoli…"
He went back to eating. The others stared at him as if he had suddenly lost his mind. They continued to push their food around with their plastic sporks, then each eventually took tentative tastes of each item.
The general consensus was that Severus was correct, that the sauce was okay, and that even the "lentil barley thing" and the fried tofu were palatable. There were mixed opinions, though, regarding the broccoli, and no one liked the rice.
As they were finishing eating, Benjie came out to collect their plastic sporks and paper bowls. He stressed that they needed to be aware of the environment and not pollute it. He then told them that there was milk and soda available inside the kitchen, which the children gratefully rushed to take advantage of.
"What should we do now?" Severus asked, as they all stood outside the kitchen, surveying their surroundings.
"Go check this place out!" Angel answered, popping the tab on his soda can and throwing it on the ground besides him. Yesmina helped DeWard open his carton of chocolate milk, letting the straw wrapper fall to the ground.
"Yeah!" Azalea agreed, tossing her own soda tab to the ground.
As they set out, Severus popped the tab on his own can of soda, but rather than throwing it away, he stooped down and picked up the two that lay on the ground. He then bent the tab of one through the ring of another, making a chain of three tabs. He then bent one of the tabs over the collar of his shirt, and then ran to catch up with the others.
"Why you do that?" Azalea demanded, noticing the short metal chain hanging from Severus' collar.
"Dunno," he answered. "Sort of looks like chain mail…"
"You gonna need a shitload of those things t'make a chain mail shirt!" Azalea laughed.
Severus bent down and picked up two tab tops he saw glinting in the grass.
"Looks like this is the place to do it!" he laughed. Azalea laughed even harder, which made Severus even happier.
There really wasn't much to see. Most of the people who were already there were partying at their tents, or else making love. Severus was quite surprised when the others told him what those couples were doing, and he would have liked to have gotten a closer look. But Angel just grabbed him by the arm and yanked him away, asking him what was wrong with him, and the girls looked at him like he was crazy.
But he was curious. He'd never seen something like that before, but the others made it clear that it wasn't something that he should be looking at. But if that were true, he pointed out to them, then why were those people doing it in public where everyone could see it?
No one had an answer for him. But by that time they had gone by the stage area, which was still frantically being put together even at that hour, and had then gone into a wooded area, where again there were amorous couples to avoid.
They found a place near a lake where there was no one else close by, and where a large rock blocked them from close scrutiny, and which they proceeded to sit next to. Angel then pulled the foil packet from under his shirt, and Azalea retrieved a packet containing small pieces of paper from her bag. She used these to expertly roll the bits of green herb in the packet into cigarettes. She folded most of the cigarettes back into the foil packet and put it into her bag, but kept a couple of what she referred to as "joints" out for them to smoke.
She used her lighter to light up the first one, took a puff, then passed it to Angel who, after his turn, passed it to Severus who then gave it to Yesmina and DeWard after he had taken a drag.
The joint continued around the circle as each took what Angel had told Severus was a "toke", and they got sillier with each round. The others teased Severus about wanting to watch people having sex.
"But it looks so stupid!" he laughed. "I don't believe it, that that is how babies are made!"
It was his turn to take a drag, which he did and then passed it on.
"I mean," he continued, laughing, "you are saying that that is what Annie and Benjie did? That's how she became pregnant?"
Severus suddenly became very serious.
"What is it, Sev?" Yesmina asked. He took a close look at each one of them, and then fell over, laughing hysterically. This got everyone else laughing hysterically, too.
"No!" Severus gasped. "No! There's no way! What you are saying means that that is what your parents did to get you! Merlin's Ghost! You are saying my own parents did that? No! Impossible!"
"That's the way it works, English Boy!" Azalea laughed. "No other way to do it!"
"No! No! No! No!" Severus laughed, rolling from side to side and clutching his stomach because it hurt so much from laughing.
"Azalea's right, Magic Man," Angel added, "that's how babies is get made…"
"Nooooo!" Severus gasped. "Nooooo! NoNoNoNoNoNoNoNoNoNoNoNO!"
He giggled hysterically.
By this time the joint had gotten so small, that it was difficult to hold. Azalea took one of her hair clips off, and used the clip end to hold what they called "the roach". Severus thought that it was also hysterically funny.
"You laugh now, Magic Man," Azalea stated after taking a toke and passing it to Angel. "But that's what you gonna do when you fall in love wid someone…!"
Angel snorted, but said nothing, taking a drag and passing it to Severus who sat up and decided to use one of the tab tops he'd picked up to wear as a ring, placing the roach in the curled tab part, to the delight of the others.
"No way!" Severus asserted, taking a drag and then passing it to Yesmina, who had stayed strangely quiet through this whole conversation.
"No way!" Severus repeated. "I'm never doing that! It's…it's…it's, well, it's too undignified!"
Both Azalea and Angel screamed with laughter.
"Well, it is!" Severus exclaimed.
Azalea took a toke and passed it to Angel.
"You come talk to me in a couple o'years!" she laughed. "I will be singing you the I-Told-You-So song!"
"NoNoNoNoNo!" Severus exclaimed. "It will never happen!"
"But things will be different when you fall in love with someone," Yesmina finally spoke. "Then you will WANT to be with them that way…"
Both Angel and Azalea snorted at that comment. But Severus suddenly thought of Lily. No! No way! He loved Lily, and he could never imagine doing that with her!
With a pang he realized that he had left her flower back in the minibus in his duffle bag. He wished he had it with him right now.
Azalea lit another joint, and the others started talking about what musical performers were scheduled to start playing the next night. But Severus became very introspective and didn't take part in their conversation. He felt guilty that he'd actually forgotten about Lily. And his mother. He needed to find a couple of owls and get a message to each of them. But then he remembered that Angel had told him that owls wouldn't be able to make it across the Atlantic Ocean.
He had so much to tell them. He wondered when he would be able to.
Finally it was time to go back. DeWard had fallen asleep, so Severus lifted him onto his back and carried him piggyback-style back to their camp.
The original plan had been for Annie and Benjie to sleep in their tent, and the children to use the minibus and canopy. But when they got back they found Benjie asleep in the tent and Annie asleep in the minibus. The children ended up sleeping outside under the canopy like they had done most of the time back in the city.
The first thing Severus did after placing DeWard carefully on some blankets was to quietly retrieve his duffle bag from the minibus, avoiding waking Annie. He took off his hair clips and necklaces and Love button and the beginning of his chain mail shirt and carefully laid it all in a pile next to him. He then retrieved Lily's flower from his duffle bag.
It was still opening and closing, but much more slowly than it had when Lily had first charmed it. Severus stared at it for a few minutes, and then placed it carefully on top of the small pile of necklaces and hair clips. He then placed the button Yesmina had given him next to Lily's flower so that the word "Love" was clearly visible.
He lay there gazing at the two symbols of love, and drifted off to sleep as Marvin Gaye serenaded them from someone's nearby radio.
I ain't got time Too busy thinking about my baby I ain't got time to discuss the weather Too busy thinking about my baby All the diamonds and pearls in the world Too busy thinking about my baby
To think about money
Or what it can buy
And I ain't got time
To sit down and wonder
What makes the birdies fly
And I don't have the time
To think about what makes the flowers grow
And I never give it a second thought
To where the rivers flow
And I ain't got time to nothing else
Too busy thinking about my baby
And I ain't got time to nothing else
Or how it's gonna last
And I ain't got time to do no studying
Once I get out of class
And I'm just a fellow
I got a one track mind
And when it comes to
Thinking about anything about my baby
I just don't have the time
And I ain't got time to nothing else
Too busy thinking about my baby
And I ain't got time to nothing else
Could never match her worth
She's some kind of wonderful
People tell you
I've got heaven right here on earth
And I'm just a fellow
With a one track mind
And when it comes to thinking about
Anything but my baby
I just don't have the time
And I ain't got time to nothing else
Too busy thinking about my baby
And I ain't got time to nothing else
Marvin Gaye
1969
When the moon is in the Seventh House
And Jupiter aligns with Mars
Then peace will guide the planets
And love will steer the stars
This is the dawning of the age of Aquarius
The age of Aquarius
Aquarius! Aquarius!
Harmony and understanding
Sympathy and trust abounding
No more falsehoods or derisions
Golden living dreams of visions
Mystic crystal revelation
And the mind's true liberation
Aquarius! Aquarius!
Let the sunshine, let the sunshine in, the sunshine in
Let the sunshine, let the sunshine in, the sunshine in
Let the sunshine, let the sunshine in, the sunshine in
Oh, let it shine, c'mon
Now everybody just sing along
Let the sun shine in
Open up your heart and let it shine on in
When you are lonely, let it shine on
Got to open up your heart and let it shine on in
And when you feel like you've been mistreated
And your friends turn away
Just open your heart, and shine it on in
AQUARIUS/LET THE SUN SHINE IN
The Fifth Dimension
1969
End of the spring and here she comes back
Hi Hi Hi Hi there
Them summer days, those summer days
That's when I had most of my fun, back
High high high high there
Them summer days, those summer days
I Cloud Nine when I want to
Out of school, yeah
County fair in the country sun
And everything, it's true, ooh yeah
Hot fun in the summertime
Hot fun in the summertime
Hot fun in the summertime
Hot fun in the summertime
First of the fall and then she goes back
Bye bye bye bye there
Them summer days, those summer days
Boop-boop-ba-boop-boop when I want to
Out of school, yeah
County fair in the country sun
And everything, it's true, ooh yeah
Hot fun in the summertime
Hot fun in the summertime
Hot fun in the summertime
Hot fun in the summertime
HOT FUN IN THE SUMMERTIME
Sly and the Family Stone
1969
