Seligman

When Cameron first saw my car, he mentioned going to Seligman, AZ and, “seeing what my car can do.” Seligman was a 120 miles away, and I had three-hundred miles. I also had ten-dollars for gas money.

I called up Cameron and he answered rather quickly. “What’s up, homie?”
“Yo dude, I have a full tank of gas. You wanna go to Seligman?”
“Tempting. Come over and I’ll give you a dab, and then I’ll think about it.” He said.

I headed over to Cameron’s house, who lived on Payte’s property. It was basically a plot of land out in the sticks with a cottage that they all lived in.

When I arrived, I saw Cameron and Shelly sitting in lawn-chairs, basking in the sun. Even in winter, Arizona was pretty warm. All you had to do was wear a hoodie, and you’d be good.

Trash was scattered about, and the remains of an old car stretched out against the land. Dogs played in the dirt, and ran about.

“Hey, dude.” I said.

Cameron turned to me, “Oh hey! I want you to take this dab, and then we’ll go.”

His dab-rig was this model of Toothless from How To Train Your Dragon. You sucked the smoke from the concentrate out of Toothless’s head, and grabbed his feet while you did it. In the cottage, they had five or six different bongs and rigs.

While Cameron prepared the dab, I smoked a rollie that Payte made. They were re-hash’s. A cigarette formed from the remains of a bunch of other cigarettes. Most of the time, they hit fucking hard. You’d put the rollie out on the ground, and your blood would feel thin, and your stomach would be sick. The perfect smoke.

Payte showed me the setup he had for D&D that night. He found a grow-light used for growing weed, and intended to use that. It was red, white, and blue—just like the American flag. Payte also showed me this burner he had for fire. It had a pot-leaf laser-cut into it, and would warm the house with flame. It was made from the remains of a propane tank.

Cameron handed me Toothless, and I waited for the dab. He slowly lowered the nail into it, and told me to inhale as soon as smoke appeared. I sucked with all my might, and until my lungs felt weak.

And just as I began to exhale, I coughed madly. I felt like puking, and my vision went black. I really thought I was about to pass out.

Once I had recovered, Cameron got up, and rushed to my car. I was surprised at how fast he made it.

As we got on the highway, I proposed a game of truth or dare to Cameron.

“Truth or dare? Really?” He said. The guy had just turned twenty-one, I couldn’t fault him for that.

“Yes. Truth or dare.”
“Oookay. Truth.”

“What do you think of Payte?”

Cameron went quiet, and focused on the road. We passed a gas-station, and finally exited town. “Okay, Afro-Payte, we’re gonna do a zero-to-sixty test. Pull out the stopwatch app on your phone.”

“Wait—what about—“

“Zero-to-Sixty test!” He reminded me.

I sighed, and pulled out my phone. I pressed start on the stopwatch, and watched Cameron slam on the gas pedal. We accelerated along, but I was way too stoned to pay attention, so I ended up stopping it at thirty-five seconds.

“How much was it?” Cameron asked.

“Uh… twenty-three seconds.”

Cameron stretched his hand out, and shook it side to side. “Not bad, could be better. Now we’re gonna go a hundred-twenty.”

“WHAT?”
Cameron slammed on the gas pedal, and I was launched forward in my seat. We sped down the highway, and passed a green truck. Before us, the desert landscape appeared. There was this huge rocky mountain that stretched out. A field of desert shrubs and rock surrounded it, and the evening sun shone high in the sky.

“Okay! Okay! You can stop now!” I shouted.

Cameron pressed on the brake and smiled. “What?” He said in a mocking tone. “Did I scare you? Well, I’m about to show you something crazy.”
I took a sip of my monster, and slid down in my seat. Cameron slowed down to ninety-miles-per-hour and the road turned to the right. Cameron followed.

“Did you see how smooth that was?” Cameron shouted. “That was the fuckin’ G-force, man. It made everything completely smooth. Now we’re at straight part, and we’re gonna go faster.”
I gripped the Oh-Shit bar as Cameron accelerated again. A hundred. A hundred-ten. A hundred-twenty. A hundred-thirty. A hundred-thirty-five. All in the car that was technically owned by my dad.

Suddenly, the music stopped, and Cameron’s phone rang. He let out this long and exasperated groan, and reached for his phone.

“Yo, Cameron! I’m here with Elliott.” It was Josiah on the other end.

“Yeah?” Cameron said, annoyed.

“You’re going all the way to Seligman, why didn’t you invite us, dude?”
“It was spontaneous thought. Didn’t think about it.” He said, and then hung up.

He placed his phone back on the dash, and slid back in his seat.

It was here that I got the craving for a smoke. I looked in the cup holder and then my pockets. And finally, the horrible realization dawned on me: I had forgotten cigarettes.

“You forgot cigarettes, didn’t you?” Cameron said.

“Yeah…”
“That’s alright, I knew you did. You can take hits of my vape, just know one of the coils is burnt.”

“Oh, thank you so much!” I said, and instantly reached for the box-mod.

Cameron always kept his box mod at a hundred-ninety-five watts. This made it difficult, and painful, to take long hits. And with a burnt coil? You’re fucked. I took a hit, and it completely burned my throat. As I exhaled, I began to cough.

We fell into a silence as My Chemical Romance played on Cameron’s phone. He had this shitty android so he couldn’t use the aux on my car. He might’ve been able to bluetooth it, but that had broken in my car long ago.

The both of us simply passed the box-mod back and forth, as we drove. The sun began to set, and the sky was cloudy with this brilliant orange hue. We passed through a canyon, and saw a completely beautiful desert landscape. Mountains covered in fawn shrubs stretched out before us, with the sun shining down on them. And in the back, gray clouds gathered.

“Hey, can you get me a monster?” Cameron asked suddenly.

“Sure.” I said, digging into the box.

“I need something to calm the head high so I don’t fuck up, you know?”

“What?”
“The head high from the dab, is making me mess up while driving. If I have something to balance it, like caffeine, I won’t fuck up while driving.”

“How fast are we going?”

“A hundred-eighteen.”

I didn’t know what to say. I just kinda sat there in stunned silence. “How long have we been going this fast?”

“Pretty much the entire way.” Cameron said. “Oh, and by the way, we’re here at my childhood house.”

He slowed down, and we came onto the road. Cameron pointed out each individual detail about his childhood house. It was so in-depth, I had no idea what was going on. Though, beneath it all, it was charming. It was great to see him in such a good mood.

We drove around Seligman for a while, and I always waited in the car while Cameron talked to his childhood friends. The entire time, he had this wide smile on his face. It was like he had finally relaxed in a long-fucking-time.