sensitive to every little twitch and twinge. Every thought and
sensation instantly was held up for arbitration to decide whether or
not they were normal. I watched Noi at the table next to us chatting
with some Italian diners.
“Ganja…” he said, holding up a small marijuana cake. Then he
added, “Manga? Hahahahahahahah…” His voice seemed to be in
stereo. Was that normal? Aren’t peoples voices always in stereo? I
began to feel very antsy. The palms of my hands were sweating and I
was gnashing my teeth. Either it was the acid or I was turning into a
werewolf.
“Are you feeling it, buddy?” asked Huge. I turned my head to
look at him, and my entire field of vision spun violently, landing on
his puffy face. He was a cartoon character.
“Yes.” I said. The sound of my voice resonated from inside my
skull.
“Is it good?” he prodded.
“Um…well…”
Helen who was sitting next to me put her arm around my
shoulders and pulled me close. She pressed her lips to my cheek and
reassured me.
“Don’t worry Jake. We will make sure that your trip is a safe
one. Just hold on to me if you feel yourself slipping.” She held me and
didn’t let go.
As if by magic, any bad feelings started to go away, and I found
that I was grinning so strenuously that it hurt. My teeth were
clenched so firmly that I could have chewed coal and spit diamonds.
And I felt marvelously alive. Everything that I felt or saw or touched
was amplified. Where emotions and thoughts and sounds were
previously little blips, they were now all-encompassing and jockeyed
for my attention. It was like a crazy stock exchange of sensations all
trying desperately to bid on the neural fluid of my brain . But I was
totally in control of it now. I felt powerful and lucid. In my high-
school health courses they tried to explain to us what it was that LSD
did to you, but they never said anything about this. They made it
sound like acid made you stupid. Au contraire. I began to see
relationships in things I had never thought of before, but they all
occurred so rapidly that I couldn’t keep them straight.
We were all laughing and grinning, and the girls decided that we
should go down to the beach. Go down to the beach! I was in the
process of evolving into a higher being and they wanted to go down
BIG AMERICAN BREAKFAST
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