The other side of the rainbow

The Mail Order Intruder

This was the time of my life that I started to fall into a rut. Full of routines, where one day is like the last and tomorrow will be the same as today. Mary and I did this for 6 years and only 2 things really changed. 1 was the on again and off again relationship with my dad and 2 was Mary's weight which went from 5'0" and 119lbs to 5'0" and 172lbs. I tried to keep my self in reasonable shape, to look presentable to Mary, she did not have the same philosophy. She attributed the weight gain to getting old (we were only in our 30's) Maybe she saw the anguished look on my face when she was naked, but our sex life was starting to change and become less and less frequent. As much as I would have like her to look presentable and for her to take some pride in her appearance, I still wanted to have sex. One day when I was down in the basement printing, I had to come upstairs to get something. When I got to the living room, I could hear a faint buzzing coming from upstairs. I decided to investigate, but as I started up the steps, the sound vanished. I got to the bed room to find Mary "sleeping."  The next time I was home alone I searched the bed room to find a vibrator. Now I knew that Mary had some sex toys, but this was different. She got it mail order, from a company that makes high end sex toys. By the looks and feel of it, you knew it was not the cheap stuff you find in sex shops, this was a quality instrument. How do you like that, Mary was starting a new relationship with her vibrator. I thought, if I confront her, she will be embarrassed and resentful of me. So why would a person give up a sexual relationship? Poor performance, is why most people give it up. I could not just break the vibrator, I just wanted to make it unreliable. So with Swiss army knife in hand, I cut a wire, but let it touch the contact just enough, to work sometimes, but never to full satisfaction. It worked, our normal sex life slowly returned, but it never changed Mary's weight. Eventually, I got tired of seeing fat during sex, and Mary was not sexually attractive to me. We were still young enough to move on. I did not want to make Mary feel guilty about her weight gain. It's a free country, and you can get as fat as you like, I just didn't want any part of it. So we broke up.  

It is about time to take stock of my situation. I broke up with my girlfriend of 9 years, moved into my own home, started a business with marginal success, and work a job that keeps me at work for 10 to 14 hours a day. One of my friends got into the sound system business. He would set up his speakers and amps for small concerts and this new thing called raves. He told me that the rave people spend tons of money on flyers, so I thought that I would go after that business. I went to a rave dressed as a preppy and watched kids "dance" all night. My friend said the rave promoters are pretty tight, and they don't take to outsiders. At another rave my friend gave me an "e" pill. I said what is this? He told me it would keep me up all night. I took it and not much happened, except I wasn't sleepy. I started helping my friend and his brother set up his sound system and tear it down in the morning. My friend would give me and his brother "e" pills to keep us awake. I told his brother, I don't see much in the "E" pill and he agreed. We decided to go smoke a joint and chill for a while since we had 9 hours before we had to reload the truck with the sound system. It must have been the combination of the pot and the e, because we started to "roll" . The best way I could describe it is 1 our feat felt like we were as light as a feather, almost as if every step our feet had some sort of springs on then. 2, do you remember in the wizard of Oz, when Dorothy left her black and white world to the full color of Oz? All the colors were now brighter and the music was clearer, and layered. 3 the feeling was as if you went to Disney World at 6 years old. I had forgotten how happy I had once been in my life. Maybe because I had been seen at the raves or maybe because a promoter saw me bouncing up and down like an idiot, whatever it was I started printing rave flyers. Every weekend I would help my friend with the sound, talk to promoters, and pick up printing jobs, all cash, all under the table. One rave, I was talking to a raver chick, she gave me a loli pop, and said it was nice I was helping a friend. After about and hour I started to hallucinate. I told my friend there was something wrong. He ask me what my symptoms were. I told him that I could see streams attached to moving things, and that the music was very layered. He told me that I was on acid. I said no way, I never took acid. He said, weather you took acid or not you are on it now. After that, I figured this was a great escape, for me. I wanted to get so screwed up on the weekends, that I didn't remember my slave driver boss and working in a shop that reached over 100 degrees in the summer, I wanted to forget my ex-girl friend Mary, and maybe pick up a raver chick, and I also wanted to forget my dad, who told everyone that I know that I stole from him and was on drugs. What would he say now, " he really is on drugs this time"? I started doing acid more than, e. Acid did not give you a run down hang over like e, but I thought that it would open my mind up. After all most of us will not explore space, and the world has already been explored, the final frontier, is your own mind.
Financially I was doing OK. In 3 months I sold $60,000 in rave flyers alone, all cash. My flyers were went all over the country, but mainly on the east coast. In my home town, I did flyers for the clubs around town, and on a Sat. night, I could by pass the lines, and walk right in, my friend Ron was doing security for the clubs and the raves.

The Rave flyer business.

   The Rave flyer business was pretty much open for me, as I did not have any competition, kept my mark up low, and fit in by partying with promoters and club owners. Then the flyer business started to drop off. It started with the out of town customers, then it hit my town.  A out of town promoter, decided he was not getting enough money from the rave, so he decided to enter the flyer business. He was from Russia, and gave the appearance of coming from money. He drove a BMW, had a wife that looked like a model, and threw lavish parties. He was taking my clients out to show them his print shop. My clients described a shop that would cost several million dollars, with state or the art equipment. He was always beating my prices by $50 to $100, which was my mark up on most jobs. It didn't make sense to me, to spend that much for such a low return.  The flyer business for me was just about over, with the exception of some loyal customers, and some promoters that tried to stiff me on the full payment. Then one day my phone started to ring off the hook, the flyer business was back with a vengeance.  What was going on, you may ask. The Russian, which we will call Ivan, found a company that did cheap flyers. The company did not own 1 press. they would take your flyer and put it on a press sheet with several other flyers, thus dividing the set up costs among several people. At the time business on the internet was new, and only a few people knew of this flyer company, who was nothing more than a middle man. Ivan, was involved in several scams, one of which, he would order flyers from this company, have them shipped via Greyhound, then would sneak in, or pay off the Greyhound shipping employee, late at night, at about 2AM. He then would get paid for the flyers, then call the flyer company, and say he did not receive his flyers, and it was too late to reprint. The flyer company would turn in a claim to Greyhound, and get reimbursed. 100% profit to the Russian. This scam did not stop Ivan. He was caught by the FBI with a mobile surface to air missile launcher among other arms, stolen from local armories. He spent some time in jail, then deported to Russia. I found him recently on FaceBook. About that print shop he said he owned, he told a local printer that he was a printing broker, and he wanted to take some clients, on a tour of the shop, so they could see the quality and professionalism of the shop, all of course was BS. 

    For my company did well after Ivan was in jail, but as the internet became more popular, and the word got out about this company that did bulk run flyers, my customers only saw  they could save $50 to $100, they went to the middle man flyer company. Quality was poor, and they rarely ever got the flyers out on time, cheap now ruled the flyer business. As a side note, since so many people are on FaceBook, and internet, the flyers are now sent out electronically, and the middle man flyer company, is not doing so good, thus the evolution of the printing business.    

 Getting back to drugs, since I did a lot of acid, it caused me to think a lot, especially about my ex-girl friend Mary. I also had a thing for Mary's sister, Sue. So I put it to fate, in a years time, if Sue did make contact with me, and if I did not fall madly in love with someone else, then I would try to patch things up with Mary. A year came and went, but not much happened except I had already started dating Mary again. I took her to a rave and told her about E, but she did not want to take it. So at the rave we got high, then I again suggested E. She took it and wow, she was a whole different person. She loved it, and let me tell you that sex on E is more wonderful than you could imagine. Mary and I started raving together, we would get into the back rub thing. We did a 3 way with a raver friend. We were both surprised that this guy who was relatively a runt, had a 9" member that was pierced. I really didn't think white guys got that big. During the drug phase we would do acid and e at the same time. I would always make suggestions, that Mary would hook up with a raver chick. Who could blame me, every guy wants to have 2 chicks. Mary made out with a couple of raver girls, but then ask me if you want me to do it with a girl, why don't you do it with a guy. Right in my face with a good question, turn about is fair play I guess. One time during one of our 3 ways with my friend (we were all fuked up) me and the friend started kissing. We then proceed to a all oral 3 way, which was not as bad as I thought. That expression, girls do it well with each other because they know what they want, also works for guys. I guess I will go into the introspective drug direction, for a short time. Why did I do drugs, 1 to expand my mind and experiences, and 2 on weekends I wanted to forget my crappy job, and I was especially not looking forward to all the insults my dad would hurl at me on our visits on Sunday. It was at one particular rave, when the e and acid was wearing off, and I started thinking that I had to meet my dad later on in the day. I did not want to take acid again, because the effects can last up to 12 hours, and e would last 4 hours and the rave was over in 2 hours. I took this stuff called ketamine or "k". Ketamine is like acid only, instead of being an observer you are right in the action. I did a bump of K and nothing happened, then some more, nothing, then I did what was left in my bullet ( special vile for dosing inhaled drugs). I just started to have some effects, then a voice came to me and said, are you ready to play with the big boys. I said I will give it a shot. All of a sudden I was pulled out of my body, from below. I could see the inside of my face as if I was looking at a mask from the reverse side. Down, down I went all the way through my shoes. I ended up in a very dark place with neon lights here and there. I could hear the rave, but it sounded like it was muffled, but I could hear talking where I was at, and it was crisp as a bell. After a few seconds, I started going up, back into the empty shell. Started with the feet and back into the mask. The next thing I knew, I was looking out of Mary's eyes, looking at myself. I could see her hands and arms where mine should have been. She was shaking my body, but I saw it from her perspective. I saw my self, and thought that I looked really out of it (no pun intended) About that time I reversed, went back down then back up into my body and was now me again. Another "k" experience was when Mary and I got home from a rave, and we wanted to make the e last a little longer, so we both did a bump of K. The next thing I knew is that, I was laying on the floor at the rave. The party was over, and they were cleaning up. I said to myself that, I better get up off the floor before someone sees that I am passed out. About then someone swept right over me, as if I wasn't there at all. I then ended up in this huge area, that was filled with these bluish white balls. I looked and saw that I had no body, but was one of these little balls. There were millions of little balls in this room. I ask what am I doing here, am I dead? a voice said that I was one of many looking for answers. I then went back to floor at the rave, and then woke up back at my house. A week later I ask if Joe was sweeping up, and If Don was taking out the garbage, they told me yes. That is what I saw in my "hallucination".
Mary and I would go to rave about every weekend. At one party, some guy showed an interest in Mary that went beyond a back rub. We were all rolling on E at the time, so I said what heck, lets do something about it. We all went to the basement, and we started a 3 way with Mary. A few moments later we were caught, and kicked out by the security. When Mary and I sobered up, we had a talk. I told her this was bad for my printing reputation at the rave scene. I told her that we might end up with someone under age, or a disease. I said that if we wanted to have sex with other people, that we should do it with people that want to, and have rules for safe sex. Guess what, we then got into swinging, but that will be another chapter.