San Francisco

Chapter 3

By A Shot of Amber

Please remember to read and review or send all comments, questions, suggestions, and flames to Also please remember that this story is set in the summer of 1967. Thank you!

San Francisco

Chapter 3

The sun was just rising over the horizon when I woke up. Serena lay against me, still asleep, one hand resting on my arm as if she meant to hold me down in case I had tried to escape in the night. In the front Tim was still driving though he looked tired and more haggardly then ever. Rei had climbed in the back for the night and was asleep with her head lying against someone's guitar case. As I slowly woke up and came to I watched the two girls sleeping then looked up at Tim. He hadn't seen me.

I moved Serena's hand from my arm and gently laid her on the floor near Rei and stood up, or at least stood up the best I could and walked over to the front of the van. Tim looked away from the road to see me standing between the two seats holding one hand to the ceiling.

" You want me to drive for awhile?" I asked.

Tim looked away from me back to the road and in the newly rising sun I could see how tired he was. He had dark circles under his eyes and he beard was even more scraggily from him running his hands through it. He looked back up at me and smiled. "Yea that would be great man."

I nodded and watched as Tim pulled the van over to the shoulder on the empty road. We switched spots and I climbed into the driver's seat. Tim climbed into the back and ruffled through some things before pulling out a well worn pillow which he laid down on the floor and flopped down on it. In a matter of minutes he was asleep and I was left to drive. I didn't really know where we were going so I just drove straight over the highway through the prairie with the sun rising in the east to my side. Its light slowly filled the van falling on the three sleeping people or at least two of them. I heard someone stir and stand up. They walked towards the front, stepping over Tim who lay just behind me.

" When did you get up?" It was Serena.

I didn't even look up from the road as I answered. " About 40 minutes ago. Tim wanted to get some sleep so I took over driving."

She nodded or at least I think she did and climbed into the passenger side seat. I watched from the corner of my eye as she tucked her legs underneath her and adjusted her skirt then I looked back at the road.

" Do you wonder where we are going?"

" Yea, Tim never told me where to drive so I've been driving straight down this road."

Serena smiled. The sun shone on her face. " We are heading south towards the camp near the river. We have to meet the others there so we can head west together." She looked towards me, studying me with her eyes. " But first we need to find a river so you can wash and change. You'll never be accepted into camp in those clothes."

I looked down at my clothes, a pair blue jeans and a pale blue polo. I look pretty standard by my town but then I looked at Serena in her white dress and leather vest and I knew I wouldn't fit in. " If you can find a river then I can change," I replied.

" Good because I think we all need a bath also."

I was a little shocked by this. They bathed in the river? Serena must have seen my shocked look to because she answered my question before I had time to ask it.

" Darien you have to understand our way of life if you are going to live with us. We don't live in the conventional houses that your kind do. We live under the stars and in the ground. We bath in the river and eat only the fruits of the Earth. We are natural people just like our ancestors where. If you want to be among us you'll have to accept our ways and cast off the shadows of your past." She demonstrated this by throwing her arms out to either side of her.

I nodded and turned my face to the road again. " Since you probably know where we are better then I do then you can lead me to the river. I really could use a swim."

Serena smiled at me with happiness in her eyes then opened the window and stuck her head out into the wind. She looked as if she was enjoying herself immensely with her hair fluttering behind her. I kept my eyes on the road making sure not to swerve or anything or hit anything but the road was empty except for us. Serena wasn't long in keeping her head in the wind. She soon slipped back into her seat with wind blown bangs and closed the window.

" I smelled water about a mile from here. I think we can pull over there."

" You smelled water?" I asked looking a little confused.

" Yes, God blessed with me many of Mother Nature's talents," she replied.

I nodded but I didn't really understand but then again this girl was truly confusing, maybe all hippies were like her. Then maybe not, Rei was quiet and serious, Tim was a born leader, and Serena, she was wild and exuberant. Each one that I met was different from the others though they were only connected by their dress and the need to be with others of their kind.

A minute later I lost my thoughts as I saw water. A river snaking through the trees growing on either side of its banks. Serena smiled happily and bounced a little in her chair as I pulled the van off the road onto a smaller dirt road that bounced and jutted us through its holes. Serena directed me to pull into a clump of trees far from the main road and shut off the van. I did and silence enveloped us except for the soft breathing of Tim. Rei had woken up and was rubbing one eye.

" See I told you there was water ahead," Serena grinned opening her door and jumping out.

" Moon found water?" Rei asked standing up.

" Yea, she said it was for bathing," I replied watching as Serena ran through the trees towards the river.

" Good, I could use a nice long swim." Rei climbed over Tim and opened the side door to let herself out. I did the same except using my door. Underneath the van the grass was green and soft, obviously well fertilized by the river and the trees above us. I followed Rei to the river banks where Serena stood pulling off her sandals. Rei did the same then reached up for her shirt and it suddenly struck me, they were bathing so of course they were going to get naked. I blushed a bright tomato red and turned around heading back to the van. Serena saw me first then gestured to Rei. Rei let go of her shirt and looked at my retreating back. " Oh," she said softly while Serena dropped her sandals and ran towards me.

" We don't have to take off all our clothes you know," she grabbed my arm and stopped me. " If you like we can wear our underwear like those girls who wear bikini's do."

I shook my head. " I would still feel uncomfortable. I'm not used to seeing a girl in her underwear."

Rei had come over. " If you want to live with us then you'll have to get used to things. We aren't very modest people. We live close to nature and that doesn't always mean wearing a lot of clothes."

Serena tightened her grip on my arm so I would look down at her. " Let go of your modesty Darien and join us. We promise not to get naked but at least come swimming with us. It will do you good to feel water."

" I really don't know," I replied looking a little hesitant.

" Then go back to the van and hide until we are done," Rei replied turning back to the river and pulling off her shirt. I watched as she exposed an off white bra. She didn't reach up and un-snap it though but instead dropped her shirt on to her shoes and began unzipping her pants. Serena smiled and began to pull my arm leading me towards the water.

" Come join us and you'll see its not so bad." She smiled up at me as we came to Rei's pile of clothes. " Come on." She let go of my arm and pulled off her vest. " Come on, I dare you." She dropped her vest on the ground and pulled up the hem of her skirt so she could pull of her dress. I was a little awestruck by the fact that she had no modesty in pulling off her clothes in front me. She was smiling and has a mischievous look in her eyes as she pulled the airy white cloth over her head and dropped it next to her vest. Underneath the dress she wore a pair of white panties and a white bra.

(AN: Think of the underwear of the 60's. It was a little more modest in its cut then underwear of today.)

I knew I was blushing as Serena grinned at me while she stood there. She pulled off her love beads and her head band then turned and ran to the river where Rei was. I watched as she jumped into the water causing little splashed and rippled around her. Rei was washing her arms, running the water over them while Serena crouched down let the water come to her waist then stood up and turned to me. " Come in Darien! The water's fine!"

" It's a little cold," Rei added more to herself then to me as she stood up and wandered farther into the river.

I didn't hear her though; my eyes and ears were on Serena with her wet clothes sticking to her body and her long hair shining in the sun. Inside me a war raged but one side won and I found myself pulling off my shirt and my jeans and walking over to the water dressed in only my white t-shirt and a pair of blue and red boxers. Serena was skimming her hands over the water as I walked up to her, the water flowing around my legs.

" Good for you," she said happily skimming her hands towards me then stopping. " But the shirt has to go. You won't need it." She stepped over the rocky bottom and grabbed my shirt pulling it over my head with such ease and grace that quite before I knew it my shirt was floating away down the river.

" Why did you do that?" I cried watching the white speck get smaller and smaller.

" Because you are to modest and besides I wanted to see your chest," she replied blushing. Then she ran, or at least tried too, through the water towards the middle where Rei stood with water up to her chest washing her hair. I watched her go then looked back at my shirt which was disappearing over the horizon. The devil in me rose and a mischievous look came upon my face. I was in about four feet of water so this would be perfect. I slipped under the water completely disappearing from sight and swam towards Serena who had stopped to see if I was following her. She had a confused look on her face and called to Rei if she had seen where I had gone. Then I appeared or at least I sort of appeared. Serena screamed as something grabbed her legs and pulled her underneath the surface. Rei screamed to and stood up as Serena disappeared into the river. Underneath the surface I laughed in my mind as Serena saw me pulling her down and a shock look appeared on her face. I let go of her legs and we both stood up, the water now to our chests. She was gasping for air and pushing her wet hair behind her while I laughed.

" You are evil!" Serena cried placing one hand on her chest to still her rapidly beating heart. I just laughed some more. " Why did you do that?" She asked.

" Its revenge for you throwing away my shirt," I replied. She looked at me for a second in confusion then burst out laughing. " Some good revenge, you scared the life out of me!" Suddenly she grinned and pushed me into the water. " Now lets see if you can catch me!" With that Serena took off diving under the water and swam away while I fell backwards into the water but I wasn't long in chasing after her. Meanwhile Rei gave us what could only be called patronizing looks and continued to wash her hair.

" When I lived at home I was known as Bunny because my parents said I looked like a rabbit with my hair style."

" What was your hair style?" I asked.

She demonstrated by pulling her hair up into two ponytails then doubling them into buns. I looked at her for a moment then nodded. " You do look like a rabbit with that hairstyle."

" I know and I hated it. My mom started fixing my hair when I was a baby and she always fixed it in that style. I absolutely hated it because I was always teased about it but I didn't want to hurt her feelings and tell her. Then I met Rei and the others and ran away with them. Soon after I ran away and joined camp Rei cut off the two ponytails and fixed my hair to be better suitable to me."

I looked over at her. Her hair was almost dry now. It was sort of long, to her waist, a pure golden blond that hung straight and close to her scalp. We sat under a clump of trees in the grass near the river. Tim was still asleep and Rei was washing our clothes in the river. Serena and I had slipped off into the woods and found this grassy spot. I lay on my back with my arms underneath my head and one leg bent at the knee while I chewed on a grass stem. Serena sat next to me still dressed in her underwear with her legs bent at the knee and her feet resting on the grass. She leaned back on her hands and was looking up at the sky.

" Mom was a trip. She never worked a day in her life but instead stayed home all the time and took care of my brother and I. Dad worked in an office and was in the army during the war. After he came home he married my mom and they had me first in 1952 followed by my brother when I was two in 1954. We lived in your pretty average house. We lived in what Arapohdite calls the "Hell of Suburbia.""

" Who's Arapohdite?"

" Mina, you'll meet her tonight at camp."

" How many are in camp?"

" Well in our group we have eight but there are many more in camp. It's a big place for everyone to meet. We are just going to get the rest of the group then we are headed to San Francisco."

" Why San Francisco?" I asked turning my head to look at her.

She brought her legs closer to her chest and looked out over the water through the trees. " Well in San Francisco Rei and Mina hope to get singing careers. Tim is only driving us. He may stay in San Francisco, he may not. He's talking about going to Washington to march and protest the war. That sounds really interesting so I may go myself, after staying in San Francisco over the winter. I hate being in the van during winter when it gets dark early and it snows a lot. I hate all that ice and wind so Tim and I'll spend the winter in San Francisco then probably head off back across the country to Washington and spend spring there then maybe New York in the summer. The Greenwich Village as a lot of great clubs we like to go to and of course Rainbow is there. She didn't want to come with us. She had fallen in love with this older man who was the owner of the Black Pot, this little club we went to. When Tim picked me up she was about to move in with him." Serena lowered her voice significantly so that I had to strain to hear her. " I think the real reason she didn't come was because she was pregnant with his child and she knew she couldn't get away from him. He used to beat her and sometimes I would come home to find her crying in the corner of our room with a black eye. It was really awful the way he treated her but she couldn't get away, she loved him."

I sat up on my arms and looked at Serena who was shaking her head while she mumbled softly to herself. " Are you going back to New York to find her?" I asked.

Serena shook her head and raised her face to the sun. " I would love to find her and get her away from all that but I wouldn't know where to find her. She may have left the guy already and could be a thousand miles away from New York. I wouldn't know where the first place to look is." Serena hugged her knees tightly. " I'm just glad I didn't fall into that same trap like Rainbow did. I know that I never want to be the breeding purpose of some man who treats me like a doll. Tim is great because he treats me as an individual and you're great because I can tell you're in awe of me and that gives me power and I like that power." She smiled at me, the sun glinting off her golden face. "But don't worry Darien; I will never abuse that power. You're the first real man that I've ever liked and I know that I never want to loose someone like you."

I blinked once then twice and was about to same something when Tim came out of the trees. His hair was wet and hanging around his ears. You could see that he had bathed in the river from the wet look of his skin and the dampness of his clothes.

" There you two are. Moon we need to get going. We still got a way to go before hitting camp. I want to be there before the sun sets in the west and the shadows grow longer then my body."

Serena let go of her knees and stood up brushing the wet grass away from her legs. " Alright Tim, we'll go and get dressed." She turned to me and affected a sad look. "I'm sorry our conversation couldn't have gone on longer."

I just smiled and stood up to. " It's alright Moon, I still enjoyed it all the same."

She grinned up at me then followed Tim through the trees back towards the river. Tim glanced back at me over his shoulder then walked off leaving me standing in that patch of green grass where Serena and I had sat. I started to walk behind them to where Rei was pulling dry clothes off tree branches. I looked around for my own clothes while Serena pulled on her white dress but didn't see them anywhere.

" Rei where are my clothes?" I asked her as she folded a pair of blue jeans.

" My name is Fire and your clothes are packed away. Tim is lending you some of his."

I must have had a blanched look on my face because Tim quickly spoke up. "Since you have joined us brother I thought it would only be fair that I lend you some clothes to better suit you for the journey. Here," he handed me a pair of blue jeans and a white shirt. " We also have some sandals so you don't have to trudge around in those sneakers of yours." I looked over at Serena who was smiling happily. She nodded her head while Tim directed me to dress behind some trees. He and the girls gathered up the remaining clothes and headed towards the van while I changed there on the river bank.

The jeans were a little big and moved down to my hips along with dragging slightly on the ground. I fixed this problem by rolling them up slightly then pulled on the shirt. It was made of an airy white material with big sleeves done up with blue embroidery. The neck came down slightly to show the skin at the bottom of my throat and also had embroidery around its yoke done in the pattern of birds and other symbols that I didn't really understand. Barefoot I walked towards the van where Rei was shoving the clean clothes into bags while Tim moved things around inside. Rei looked up first and for the first time I saw into the real person behind the cool exterior as she smiled. Tim popped his head out waiting for the next bag to be handed to him but he saw me instead. He smiled to at me standing there in a pair of to big blue jeans and a white hippie shirt. The last person who needed to see me was no where in sight so I guessed she was in the van.

" Why did you roll up your jeans?" Rei asked looking at the rolled cuffs then up at me.

" They were to big," I replied.

" We can easily remedy that," Tim replied. " Moon get me the scissors!" He called back into the van.

Serena who was definitely inside the van suddenly popped her head out of the back then swung down to the ground. She studied me for a moment then smiled happily. " You look like one of us now." She headed towards me and I saw that the scissors were in her hand. " I'll fix this Leader," she called bending down in front of me and unrolling my jeans. She then began cutting until a strip of cloth lay on the ground. She repeated this with the other leg then stood up and nodded her head. " A lot better."

My bare feet were now revealed in the dusty road. I looked and felt like a hippie and was already in need of a bath.

" Now all we need is the shoes and his look will be complete," Serena said stepping back as Rei handed me a pair of brown sandals to slip on. I did so obligingly while the others studied me critically.

" With those pretty boy blue eyes he may not fully pass," Rei mussed as she nibbled at her fingertip.

" Yea but with the clothes there is no doubt," Tim replied while I stood there feeling like a side of beef. Only Serena stepped forward and looked me once over. " I know what's missing." She pulled a string of her love beads up over her head and then placed them down around mine. " They say these beads will forever connect two people so I give one to you so we are forever connected." She stepped back and smiled. The beads around her neck clinked softly but now one string hung around mine. Behind her I saw the leader give us a look but he didn't not say anything. The moment passed between us and Serena turned away.

" Come on Darien, we need to get going."

I nodded, still a dumbfounded by her words about us being forever connected but I did help in packing up the rest of the things and climbed into the van to sit next to Serena. Rei climbed into the front and we were off. Off the dirt road back onto the high way for smooth driving the rest of the day towards what I was certain to be a new and unconsidered destiny.

" We should arrive at camp around dusk," Tim said at one point over the music playing on the radio. I hadn't recognized the tune but Serena had whispered that it was a tune by Scott McKenzie about San Francisco. " It's our theme song to the trip."

Then it was all silent with Rei and Serena dozing off now and then and me staring out the window. I felt weird in my new clothes like I was about to set sail and fly in things that were to big for me. I also felt weird because I knew if my dad and mom saw me dressed like this they both would have a fit. My dad would probably have a heart attack, his face going first red then purple while mom simply slipped into a dead faint. It felt like so long since I had last seen them but it was really only a day and a half now. I knew they had gotten the note and were probably calling the police to report me kidnapped but with the way Tim was driving I knew they would never find me. I was to far gone in the middle of the prairie to be found. Then I looked down at Serena who was asleep against my arm and I knew why I was on this insane trip to California, because of her.

I knew she liked me. She made it very obvious with her giving me the love beads and her words but I didn't really know why. She was so young, only 15 years old, and she was so full of life. Compared to her I was an old man with old man feelings and ways. I could never measure up to her but in a way I wanted to. I wanted to be like her. I wanted to measure up to her. I wanted her to like me more then she already did. I was a fool.

Chapter four will be out next week! Please remember to read and review or send all comments, questions, suggestions, and flames to Thank you!