Fear and Loathing

Fear and Loathing
Originally uploaded by Jaqaroo.

We were somewhere around Barstow on the edge of the desert when the drugs began to take hold. I remember saying something like "I feel a bit lightheaded; maybe you should drive...." And suddenly there was a terrible roar all around us and the sky was full of what looked like huge bats, all swooping and screeching and diving around the car, which was going about a hundred miles an hour with the top down to Las Vegas. And a voice was screaming "Holy Jesus! What are these goddamn animals?"

Then it was quiet again. My attorney had taken his shirt off and was pouring beer on his chest, to facilitate the tanning process. "What the hell are you yelling about?" he muttered, staring up at the sun with his eyes closed and covered with wraparound Spanish sunglasses. "Never mind," I said. "It's your turn to drive." I hit the brakes and aimed the Great Red Shark toward the shoulder of the highway. No point mentioning those bats, I thought. The poor bastard will see them soon enough.

So long Hunter, thanks for all the books. I read you a lot when I was 18 but not these days. Funnily enough I was thinking about you just last week; checking you out on the Net and in the secondhand book shop (they had FLLV by the way and I was planning to buy it, but if I buy it now it'll look like I'm just buying it because you just blew out your brains...). On one of those Net articles (most of which were praising you, especially the old stuff) one guy said that you did all you best stuff years ago and you hadn't done anything good for a long time, and that there was nothing sadder than an old man still doing drugs... well, I guess you read that too...