Fear and Loathing in India: Part IV

It had been about a month since I had been in the Sadhus presence, since then, I had become tan, traded my shoes for sandals, and had experienced a stomach shrinking of epic proportions, the equivalent of a quarter of a hamburger from a McDonald’s dollar menu would now fill me up. On my belt hung a masterfully crafted Indian knife, which was sharp enough to go through almost anything with the lightest touch.

I sat by a fire, on a bed of ground, and, as I thought to myself quietly, I realized something, for the first time in my life, I was happy, 100% happy, 100% comfortable, 100% at peace. My bed of dirt and leaves was more comfortable than any luxury mattress back home. I decided that it was finally time to take some hallucinogens, I took about 4 hits of T-U-I and 3 of acid, for the first hour after the onset, I stared at the fire, in awe of the sizes, shapes, and colors the fire contorted into. A bed of grass grew around me, in my state, I deemed it necessary to put the fire out before it ignited the grass. In the newly found darkness in the absence of the fire, I noticed a small boy, who had walked out from behind a tree. In his hand was a bow, he was blue from head to toe, he motioned me to follow him, so I grabbed my suitcase and backpack and followed him into the thick brush of the Indian wilderness.

For about an hour, I followed him, until I lost him to the leaves around me. I stumbled into a clearing, I looked up at the moon, it grew larger and larger, until all I could see was a pure white, all around me. I blinked. The boy appeared. I blinked again, the boy was gone, replaced by a world of magnificent colors. I stared at them for hours. They told me a story, of past, present, and future. They spoke to me, I spoke to them, I was happy.

The sun rose a while later. I was in the middle of nowhere. I knew from the position of the sun which way was north, so I started walking.

After about two days of walking through the wilderness, my food and water supplies were completely gone. After 3 days, I was delirious. I decided to take two hits of acid to relieve my cotton mouth. I saw the blue boy again, but, in a blink, he was gone, only to be replaced by my guardian, he knocked on a tree, shook his head, then knocked on another tree, and nodded. I realized something, there would be water in the trees, how stupid could I have been? I drew my knife, and chopped the tree my guardian had nodded to, there was enough inside to drink, I sucked the low flow stream of water for hours. I stumbled onto the trail about 4 days later, still starving without any food, I made my way to the next village on my path. Ready to set out again.