Do Not Enter

A few weeks ago I had an idea for a story inspired from my dreams, and also from the series "Virtual Mode" by Piers Anthony.  So climb into my mind and enjoy the ride!

"Do Not Enter"

I wake up in the middle of the night to the sounds of breaking glass.  Or was it just my imagination?

No, I definitely hear footsteps downstairs.  An intruder!

I race to put on my clothes, and search for a weapon.  Hmm, nothing in sight.  I guess a shoe will work.

Holding my shoe up ready to beat someone with it, I creep down the hallway and down the stairs.  It's so dark I can hardly see, but I hear someone causing a racket in the kitchen.

Peeking around the corner I see two large men rummaging through the cupboards!  Robbers!!  I turn around and run to grab my cellphone, and stumble in the dark and trip over the coffeetable!  "Ow!" I yelp in pain as I fall to the ground.

Suddenly, light blinds me from the kitchen.  I look back and see the two flashlights pointing at me.

A gruff voice yells, "What the hell!?  The owner is away on vacation!  Who are you??"

"I'm a f-f-friend!  House... uh... house-sitting!"

My eyes gradually adjust and I see the two men are wearing biker masks painted to look like skulls.  I look over at my cellphone plugged into the wall.  As I jump up and run to grab it, a gunshot rings out completely deafening me.  I look back and see one of the men holding a smoking gun, and that they had shot my cellphone.

"My cellphone!  Damn!  You bastards.  That costed me a months pay!"

"And it's about to cost you your life!  Sit still.  Our gang is coming, and if you're lucky, we will let you live."

I widen my eyes with fear, and try to think fast.

"You already broke a window and set off the silent alarm.  Police will be here any minute."

"Oh?  Is that so?  Well, then disarm it!"  The taller thug shakes his gun at me.

"Ok, ok.  The control panel is near the front door."

"Lead the way."

We walk down the hallway through the living room to the front door.

"Hmm... I don't see the control panel.  It must be by the front door on the porch."  I open the door, slam it, open the porch door and run as fast as I can towards my car.

There was no alarm system... but thankfully my bluff had worked.

I hear the front door slam behind me as my pursuers chase after me.  About 20 feet from my car, I hear the roar of motorcycles turn down the driveway.  I'll never make it to my car in time!  I veer right, and I run behind the house, then across the field and into some woods.  I stop to catch my breath and listen if I'm being followed.

Sure enough, I hear yelling and footsteps chasing after me.  I jump up and continue running through the woods.  I'm not really familiar with this area and have no idea where I to go, so I just keep running.

I come to a clearing in the woods and find a run-down mansion with rotted out wooden steps.  I carefully climb up the steps, walk through the broken front door and I hide around the corner and wait.

But they're still chasing me!  By the sounds of it, the entire gang is on my trail now.

"He must have ran inside that house!  Everyone circle around it so he doesn't escape, and two of us will go inside after him."

Shoot!  Now I'm trapped!  I look around the house for an escape.

The floorboards looked old and rotten just like the front steps, and the remnants of a stairway leading up to the second floor.  I see the main zig-zag beams that held the stairs are still there, but the boards are gone.  I figure the bikers would not expect me to make such a dangerous climb, so I carefully make my way up the beam, using the wall for balance until I reach the second floor.

At the top of the stairs is a large wooden door.  It appears there are words carved on the door but are so worn I can barely make them out...  "Do not enter."  Strange.  I push the door open and run through.

It's bright and noisy.  My eyes struggle to adjust.  I look around and discover I am on a busy street in broad daylight, and it smells awful.  How can this be?  I look back and see I just came out of a run-down building that looked nothing like the mansion I was just at.  Where am I?  I look around and see street vendors selling fruit, fish and other wares and dirty people in rags everywhere.  Am I in another country?  These people don't look American!  I yell to a passerby and ask "Where am I?"  They frown at me, and say something in a language I don't understand.  So I walk down the street, hoping to find someone that speaks English.

I spot a sign written in English that says "Coffee."  A coffeeshop!  Perfect!  Someone surely speaks English there!  I walk through the door...

And I step into snow.  Snow?

I look around, and I'm on a mountaintop!  What in the world?  This doesn't make any sense.  I look back and see a hut behind me, with the door wide open.  Inside I see a bed and a stove and it looks inviting, but it doesn't make sense.  Where is the street market I just came from?  A blast of cold wind hits me and I don't see any other buildings in sight, so I go back inside the hut for shelter...

Except inside was not a hut, but a construction yard!  Men in hard hats are all around me working on a huge skyscraper.  Cranes moving huge beams over my head and welding sparks raining down from high up above.

"Hey, you!  What are you doing here??"  A man in a white hard-hat comes running up, still yelling.  At least he spoke English!  "What are you doing here?  Where is your hard-hat?"

"Um, I'm lost," I reply.

"This is a restricted area!  Didn't you see the signs?"

"No... sorry.  I just came out of..." I look back and see the door to the foreman's trailer behind me.  The door!  Before the man can say another word, I turn around and run through the door.

Suddenly, I'm overwhelmed with loud music.  So loud, I can feel my bones rattling to the beat.  It appears I am now in a dark club filled with dancing people silhouetted by strobe lights and laser beams.  It smells of sweat and alcohol.  I look behind me, and see the entrance to the club with a line of people at the door getting checked by the bouncers.  At least the music was good!

I walk up to the bar and go to order a beer, but realize I don't have my wallet.. nor my cellphone... nor any keys!  The three things I always carry on me.  I was really in a bind.  So, instead of a beer I ask for a glass of water and watch the people on the dance floor.

"Do you want to dance?"

I look over and see a tall beautiful brunette batting her big brown eyes at me.

"Why yes!  A dance would be great.  I've had a such horrible night."

She grabs my hand and drags me out onto the dance floor.  "I'll make it better."

What luck!  And what a dancer she was!  I lurch around awkwardly in what I consider dancing, while she sways and floats around like a swan princess on a cloud of air.  I pull her closer, her body continuing to wiggle against mine as we dance together.  She's sexy, curvy and smells sweet like candy... completely overwhelming my senses.  She begins grinding against me and kissing my ear, and then she whispers, "Want to come home with me?"   I nod excitedly, and she leads me towards the exit.  Arm in arm we walk out of the club.

And I find myself standing alone on a beach in broad daylight again.  Looking around, I see that I am on a small island with nothing on it except a small lean-to made of drift wood and a single palm tree.  The sun is hot and the water is endless.  I must be somewhere in the Pacific Ocean!

I decide to sit down and rest a bit, still trying to process what was going on.  I remembered being chased, running to the house and through the door that said "Do not enter."  Ever since then, I have no idea what is going on.  At least I am someplace nice, now.  The sun feels good, the sand feels soft and I really didn't sleep much last night... and I drift off to sleep.

I dreamed of travelling, beautiful women and sunny beaches.  I dreamed of places I had never been to, and people that I had never met.  But then my dreams turned darker, and I dreamed of running in the dark, cold and wet.  Rain beat down and lightning flashed overhead, and I could not find shelter.  What a horrible dream!  I ran and ran, but could find no escape from the rain...

And then I woke up to the sound of thunder.

The waves were crashing against the beach violently, and it really WAS raining.  I look up at the palm tree and see it swaying in the wind.  This tree wouldn't provide any cover.

I get up, wipe the sand off myself the best I can and walk towards the lean-to... but it was gone!  The wind must have blown it away!  I look around and see boards scattered across the beach, and some floating in the water.  There truly was no place to hide from the storm!!

I decide to huddle up against the tree as best as I can, and I tuck my head inside of my shirt to hide from the wind and the rain, and at the same time warm myself with my breath.  I was freezing!

And then it dawned on me... I'm trapped!  There weren't any doors on this island!  And most of the driftwood from the lean-to was gone so I couldn't build a door.  I'm trapped on a deserted island.  Well, I thought, there are worst places to be!

Adventures in Hitchhiking (Part 3)

This is the 3rd and final chapter of my hitchhiking adventures.  If you haven't read the previous chapters, you'll want to catch up before reading the finale.

Part 1, see:  http://liveforeverdietoday.blogspot.com/2013/08/adventures-in-hitchhiking-part-1.html

Part 2, see:  http://liveforeverdietoday.blogspot.com/2013/08/adventures-in-hitchhiking-part-2.html

It was shortly after midnight when the Goo Goo Dolls dropped us off at the gas station.  Steve, Sam and I continued laughing about giving them such a hard time.  Figures the first time I meet someone famous I would put my foot in my mouth.

"What should we do now?" I say.  "It's a little late to hitchhike and we can't camp in the city."

Steve says, "Let's see if we can catch a ride to this Valley City and use the hotel vouched the guy in Minot gave us.  It can't be THAT far away."

So we start asking gas station customers if they're headed East, but with no luck.  We are in the middle of the city in the middle of the night, so there are few people on the highway.  Some college kids come in on a "beer run" and ask if we want to join their party.  Hoping we could get an actual hotel room tonight, we turned down the offer and continued our hunt for a ride.

About an hour later, the college kids came back.  "Everyone passed out, but we're sober and wide awake.  Where did you need a ride to?"  "Valley City!"  "Hmm... I think that's a long ways away, but let's do it.  The party was boring and I want some excitement."

Valley City turned out to be 135 miles away.  Our kind valets had sacrificed a 4 hour round-trip, but we made it to Valley City!  This is not a city at all... it is barely a village whose main attractions were 2 gas stations and a rustic motel.  The Wagon Wheel Inn.

The Wagon Wheel Inn in Valley City, ND

We arrived around 3am, and the clerk insisted our voucher was only for 1 night, so checkout would be 11am.  We had 8 hours to sleep!  Inside is all polished pine wood reminiscent of the Old West with hunting trophies, cowboy boots and wagon wheels decor.  We got a nice big room and slept like babies.  We woke up shortly before 11am, got a continental breakfast... and low and behold, there was a Greyhound Bus!

Oh look!  A Grehound!

Steve pulls us close and says "I have an idea!  Remember our friend in Havre who told us about hitching a ride in the bottom of a Grehound bus?  I bet we can pull that off."  Sam and I looked at each other nervously, "I don't know, man.  Seems risky.  Why don't we just hitch-hike."  Steve thinks for a bit, and then walks over to a shaggy haired kid smoking by the bus.  "Where is this bus headed?"  "Fargo/Moorhead, and then North to Grand Forks."  Steve comes back over... "Alright, if we can hop this bus we can make it all the way to the Minnesota border!  C'mon!  We can do it!"

We walk around behind the bus, and Steve tries the cargo door latch.  It pops open!  He dives in, and yells for us to follow.  We all crawl in and Steve starts to shut the door.  "No, wait!! What if we can't open the doors from the inside???  We'll be stuck here til we reach the bus station.  We have to get out before that!" Steve nods and we agree to take turns holding the door to keep it from latching.

It's dark, noisy and smelled a bit like diesel fumes, but we were comfy resting on top of bags of clothes.  Our only light was the crack in the door, as we watched the highway race by.  The bus keeps stopping, and each time we peek out to see if we are in a city.  The longer we rode along, the more antsy we became.

Suddenly, Sam yells out "We're here!  We're here!  I see cars, a Subway and big buildings."  I try to peek out, but all I see is traffic.  "Okay, let's do it."  We jump out of the bus and grab our bags.  We immediately realize that we are NOT in Fargo.

Gas stations outside Casselton, ND

Far from it!  We were at the edge of a tiny town where the gas stations cluster around the freeway!  Steve goes to open the cargo door when we hear someone yelling from the gas station.  We look over and see the bus drive running out, yelling "Hey!  I need to talk to you!"  We look at each other nervously, Steve closes the cargo door and we wait.  The bus driver catches up and gives us a funny look, "Is this where you want to get off?"  I nervously reply "Yes!"  He looks around at the desolation, "Are you sure?"  We nod our heads emphatically.  He shrugs and says "Okay, I just need to check your tickets and your baggage claims."
We stare at him in horror.  I say, "We don't have them."

He frowns.  "Well I need your baggage claim stubs or I can't let you take that luggage."

We stare at each other in silence.  He says "Look, I'm already running late!  I need those tickets!"

My heart is beating rapidly and images of police and prison-time run through my head.  And there was nowhere to run.  The pressure builds as we stare at each other, and I suddenly blurt out "Look!  This is my bag... it has my name on it... SEE??  We don't have tickets!  We hitched a ride in the bottom of the bus.  We're sorry.  Please don't call the police!"
He looks at us completely bewildered.  He grabs his radio and keys the mic and we prepare to run.  He sighs and puts the radio back on his belt, shakes his head and climbs back in the bus.  We all let out a huge sigh of relief!  That was close!

We walk up to the freeway ramp and stick out our thumbs.  Within an hour, a sherrif pulls up and tells us we cannot hitch-hike on the freeway.  So we are stuck at the gas station again.  We take turns begging for a ride, but everyone is headed AWAY from Fargo.  Finally, a big jolly man agrees to let us ride in the back of his pick-up... which was being hauled on a trailer!

So we climb in, lie down and once again we are on our way!  Turns out we were only 10 miles from Fargo, and the trucks stops.  The driver asks us if we want breakfast.  We frown and say "We don't have any money."  He smiles and says he'll give each of us $4.  Over a big plate of eggs, hashbrowns and bacon we share our story, and learn that the driver is a used-car salesman from Forrest Lake, Minnesota.  Turns out he had just picked up the truck in Great Falls, Montana which is fairly close to where we started.  If only we had traveled South instead of East!

4 hours later we arrived in Forrest Lake.  We waved goodbye and danced down the street.  We made it!!  Technically this was part of the Twin Cities metropolis... so we should be able to walk downtown from here.  Or so we thought.  It's actually 30 miles north of Minneapolis.  And it was late.  The buses stopped running hours before and we were penniless.  So we walked over to THE "Forrest Lake," took a swim, relaxed and discussed our options for the night.  Now that we're in the "big city," we are all a bit freaked out about sleeping outdoors.

Steve spies a small round building near the beach... which turns out to be a changing room... with locking doors!!  So we locked the door and settled in for the night.  It's not easy sleeping on wood benches.

In the morning we set out walking towards Minneapolis.  We walked... and we walked... and yet were still so far away.  Steve continued fishing for a ride with his trusty thumb, and once again his luck caught us a break.  An older gentleman was on his way to work in Blaine.  Once in Blaine, we realize we are STILL a long ways away.  So we walk a few more hours from Blaine thru Fridley to Brooklyn Center.  The sun is setting ad we STILL haven't made it to Minneapolis!  We stop to rest in front of a big church, and Steve yells out "I have an idea!"  He jumps up and runs into the church.  A few minutes later he comes out with an older man who tells us he will give us a ride to Salvation Army in downtown Minneapolis.  He was the minister of the church and Steve had told him our story and begged for a ride.

30 minutes later we arrive at the Salvation Army.  There was a long line of seedy looking homeless people waiting for dinner service.  Suddenly we felt like country-bumpkins, and I was certain we would get mugged any minute now.  So we quickly walked towards the big sky-scrapers of downtown.

Wide-eyed like newborn babies we were completely awestruck with the size of the buildings and how busy the city was!  We walked into nearly every store giddy as school children.  Indian Bazaar with all it's weird brass trinkets and pushy salesmen, Bob Marley shoes with they're $70 shoes, Sachs 5th Ave with their $200 jeans.  They don't have that in Montana!  Someone suggests that we should go to the Uptown Neighborhood, which was about an hour walk away.

We walked to the intersection of Lake and Hennepin and were amazed at the stores and the culture!  Trendy rich art students, teenage misfits and gutterpunks galore.  It was total culture-shock as we suddenly discover we are just ants in a giant anthill... and after being in the spotlight as rural outcasts, it felt wonderful!

We found a public phone and called our only friend in Minneapolis who offered to let us stay in his living room for a week.  Soon we found jobs and places to live.  I began working as a cook at the Uptown Perkins and the next chapter of my life began!

Hitch-hiking Adventure of 1996 - Havre, Montana to Minneapolis, Minnesota

This is the end of the hitch-hiking adventures.  We travelled 900 miles of desolate landscape in 1 week aided by the kindness of many strangers, and I continue to pay-it-forward and help those in need whenever I can.  I didn't have a camera back then, so all of these pictures were borrowed from Google.  This was my one and only hitch-hiking trip... but there are many more stories to come!