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'18th July 2001
1:42am: Memoirs of Raoul Duke II --

The road to hell is paved with good intentions, and every twenty minutes or so you'll pass a billboard saying, "Happiness and understanding; Next exit" It's a fairly long walk, but if you were driving you wouldn't have much time to enjoy the scenery. On second thought, there's not really much to miss.

Though you're bound to drag your feet a bit at times, you keep trudging along, keeping an eye out for that off-ramp; not one of us wants to miss it, or so I'd figure.

Sooner or later though, you'll start wondering if you've gone too far, so you look up, just in time to catch a glimpse of another one of those billboards. 'Okay then, can't be much longer...'

Then the road of good intentions ends, replaced with a cobblestone-like path of multi-colored tablets and various pills, bordered on both sides by THC dusted shrubs and psilocybin fungi.

The sudden change stops me for a minute, but I'll be damned if anything is going to get between me and happiness; So I move on. No more billboards, just an occasional towering coca plant. 'Must be really close, I guess...'

I jump as I feel a hand on my leg, and looking back I see one of my old friends, who, having stumbled in a pot-hole, grabbed me in an attempt to stay on his feet. When I look back again, he's fallen in another, this one wider, and deeper; like a vein tapped too many times. I moved on, and didn't see him get up again.

I fall a few times myself, tripping in the gaps along the path as it slowly begins sloping upwards, and I work my way up, slowly but surely. It seems like forever, but turning around I find I've barely moved at all.

What seems years later, I arrive at the hill's peak. I stand for a moment on the dusty methamphetamine beach, my jaw agape as I watch hundreds plunge into the thick waters. not even splashing; instantly devoured by the acidic fluid that stretched to the horizon. In the distance I watch some large clouds as they move,slowly wiping across the giant blue arms with which the sky hugs the world. 

This is not what I was looking for, this is not what I was promised. This is not what I thought it would be. I only hope I have time to make it back...

  :   07/18/01