I was tired today, even with the blue sky, the warmth, Mexican food along the River Walk. Some work with Carlos. A chance meeting with an old friend.
At night, when I tried to sleep, an infernal beeping kept me awake. At first I couldn't figure out what it was. When finally I looked outside, near my door was a pager. It beeped constantly every few seconds, and occasionally would go off like crazy.
Weird. Whose was it? Some drug dealer's forgotten toy, something more bizarre? I shut it off, left it on the curb, and went back inside.
I couldn't sleep now so I read Terence McKenna's Archaic Revival, about psilocybin and DMT and such natural substances potential to save the world.
LSD is too stark, too analytic.
I grew tired again. I looked outside. The beeper was still there. I picked it up, put it in a bedside drawer. Slept.
5:00 a.m., a pounding. On the door, another rap on the window? What? I stumbled to my feet, glad I had bolted the door.
I pulled the curtain aside. A woman was there, attempting to shout through
the window. I couldn't hear her and I looked around. No one else but her. I
opened the door.
"I lost a pager around here tonight," she said. "Have you seen it?"
"No," I lied.
"I was here visiting one of these rooms but I don't remember which one."
She was dressed scantily, a hint of lace across her breasts, the tops of them bare. She was pretty but trashy. For some reason I didn't tell her about the beeper inside the bed table drawer.
She thanked me, knocked on one other door, and left.
I thought about throwing the thing in the pool but that wouldn't
be right.
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