A Life Wasted

A Bad Trip

Several months later, when we retuned to the United States two of my buddies and I went out on the town together. I had three hits of Purple Microdot left, so we all dropped one. Somehow we ended up in a large suburban shopping mall and managed to make complete fools of ourselves by spinning around like human tops while looking up at the high ceiling. One of us realized that we were making a scene and that we needed to chill out so we decided to go to a movie. Somehow we picked the Poseidon Adventure. It had come out while we were in the Arctic so none of us had even seen the trailers, all we knew was that the poster had a ship on it, so that was our choice.

It was the first time I'd went to a movie while tripping. It was a noteworthy experience. We were sitting towards the front so the large screen seemed lifelike to all three of us. I was really into the movie, experiencing every bit of it, including swaying with the rolling waves. We'd been in port for less than six hours, so it really wasn't difficult to experience the movie, especially on acid which accentuates everything. It seemed so real to me that I was having to fight overreacting to every scene. It was a struggle that I lost when the ship on the big screen flipped over. When it flipped over I was back in the North Atlantic fighting to hold on with every wave. I felt the Poseidon flip and flipped with it. The era appropriate term is flipped-out. I stood up screaming that we were all going to die. I screamed long enough that they stopped the movie and turned the lights on. My buddies were with it enough to carry me out between them with me screaming the whole way.

When they got me outside there was a taxi there so we got in and gave our destination as the Coast Guard base. I'd calmed down once they got me outside, but I was hyper-reflective. I hadn't said a word and wouldn't respond when asked a question. When we got to the base we had to get out at the gate and walk to the ship. My buddies both got out but I stayed in the cab. I told them I wasn't going back. They were shocked at this, but I wasn't due back until the next day so I told them I was going to get a hotel room and chill until morning. When the cab pulled away I told the driver to take me to the Greyhound bus station. I never took acid again and I never went back to that ship.