Rave or not to Rave

“Whatever you do, DO NOT tell my mom!” “What side was the gas tank on, again?”

“Dang, how far is Brooklyn?”

“Yo, girl, just don’t tell your brother I took you with me, He’d kill me, dude.”

The other boys in the back lauged in agreement.

“Ok so maybe it wasn’t the best idea”, Leslie thought to herself.

It wasn’t the fact that she was the only girl in the car, full of boys, that made her nervous. It was when the highway seemed to multiply in width and traffic, and those darn trucks ride your bumper like fools.

It was not her car! If her mother knew she was on her way to a “RAVE” with a bunch of her brother’s friend’s, oh boy! Brooklyn was about 90 minutes away. “It’ll be fun, she thought!”

Rowdy boys, loud music, and a lot of “herbal smoke, ya know!? Wink wink, nudge nudge. What could possibly go wrong?

“How on earth does the pressure of water not collapse the Lincoln tunnel?” Leslie questioned to herself. She would watch those little trickles of water on the ceiling, and think… “that really can’t be good.”

Focus, Leslie, focus, you're almost there.

“Why are there so many one way streets, Oh my God!”

Finally, they made it. Piling out of the car like a bunch of clowns...too many, for such a small ride! Those teenage legs were definitely cramping halfway there.

Leslie wore a cute pink shirt and jeans, sneakers, a modest amount of makeup. Jimmy looked at her and said, “Hey...I brought this for you, a little somethin’”

The boys were a bit older than Leslie, she considered them like her extended brothers and she thought they’d have her back, she’d be safe!

She took a little “somethin’ somethin” and didn’t look back. One way street from here.

Walking down the parking ramp deep into the unknown, she could hear the base starting to vibrate the walls. She could smell that strange fake fog kind of smell, musky and unnatural. Smelled kind of like a chemical dragon breathing heavily. As they approached, the lights started to reach around the angles of the walls and it was quite a spectacle.

Girls with their faces painted or thick makeup, dancing like serpents and fairies and robots. Tribal sounding base wringing out their cells into things they were not, but wanted to become, just for a flash. Leslie was mesmerized. Everyone seemed to have glow sticks and neon paint, radiating in the black lights. The boys were lost in the sea of confusion. She had no idea what became of them. She could only dance.

She danced away her concern and disorientation. She danced away her rational mind for a moment as her body became lighter and the colors around her seemed to bleed into each other like a Monet painting.

Leslie lost track of time, space, and orientation all together. After what seemed like hours, insatiably thirsty and starting to get concerned, Jimmy comes out of nowhere.

“Where have you been?” Leslie exclaimed. Jimmy casually responded… “I don’t know, right here. I think.”

He said, “Leslie, where did you get those clothes you're wearing?”

She looked down, and she was wearing an adidas t-shirt, “what the heck!?”, luckily the same pants! She thought, “Oh wow, we better be getting outta here! How long have we been here?” Jimmy said, “yeah, dude, I’m starving, let’s go find the other “lost boys” and jet.”

He handed Leslie a bottle of water, and she drank it. It was the best thing in the entire spans of the Universe. Then she said, “Jimmy, where’d you get that?” He said, “ I have no idea!”

“Oh great! That’s super comforting ”she thought.

Barely remembering finding the others, they scrambled back to the car, all famished!

“Leslie, your driving.” They all unanimously agreed.

“What the hell, guys, I don’t even have my license.” “Someone else has got to drive home!” she pleaded.

Nope. Apparently the decision had been made.

She looked at herself in the rear view mirror making sure she didn’t actually look like a clown, or turn into a shaman or some shit. She thought “ok. ok . I could do this.” she repeated in her mind.

(Remember this was way before all those amazing GPS devices!)

She prayed as she buckled her seatbelt.

Thinking, “I honestly don’t even know what I took. I don’t know where I’m going!”

“Ok boys, you know your way outta here?” “Yeah, yeah, we’ll tell you how to go, no worries.” They were so nonchalant, but didn’t want to drive themselves, so her doubt was bigger than her confidence.

“Again, why so many damn one way streets!” …. Turning… she went the WRONG way down a one way street! Holy Shiiiii….a MAC truck heading right towards them! She quickly turned down another alley street! Thank God, they didn’t have a head on collision! Whew, that was close.

After a handful of near crashes that would possibly lead to their death, they made it out of the city, ALIVE.

Leslie had to pull over and gather her nerves a little, after the rollercoaster ride through the city. She took some deep breaths. Tim said he was feeling more grounded now, and since he had a license, he would take them the rest of the way home.

“Ok ok. Everything would be ok.” She repeated again in her head.

The rest of the way was luckily (relatively) uneventful. Leslie could remember thinking, I am just so happy to be home, even getting in trouble seemed a welcome experience.

She made her way up the three flights of steps to the top apartment. Whew… opening the door… her beautiful mom was there, a questioning expression on her face…

“Les-lie”, even though there were only a few letters in her name, her mom had a way of drawing it out. “Where have you been? Are you ok?” her mom said, concerned.

Leslie fell to her knees and kissed her mom’s feet. “I am ok, and so happy to be here!”

Her mom, looking very confused and a bit annoyed, must have had to get very comfortable living in the mystery, because none of the details were expressed. It was understood, however, whatever happened in the last 24 hours was nothing short of an unforgettable adventure, nothing to Rave about though, wink wink.