The day after the riot 3500 people angered at the obvious brutality used against the protesters (not to mention the thousands of gallons of water that had damaged the building) showed up to protest the HUAC hearings. Del was already thinking about moving to New York.
His friends were headed to Chicago, but Del wanted to try his hand at standup. And hunting rats.
Del arrived in NYC and found a source for speed, perfectly acceptable in those days and prescribed like aspirin. Need to lose weight? Take speed. Need to study? Take speed. In World War 2 our pilots were given speed to keep them awake. In Germany, the pilots were given crystal meth. Hitler himself got 7 to 9 shots of crystal meth a day from 1941 on. Speed was like the messenger of the Gods Mercury, you could rant for hours. Hugh Hefner used speed while writing his philosophy. Police wouldn't even arrest you for taking it. They were on it too! Soldiers were on it, too. Elvis was given it to stay awake for guard duty. It would lead to a life of drugs for him. All LEGAL.
Del was pleased to see there was a manhole cover in front of his building. In those days from Chicago to NYC to LA you bought already rolled joints from the local newsstand.
So Del laid his joints on the table. He put the syringe on the table. His spoon and his speed. He took out his gun and made sure it was loaded. On the floor was his roller skates. ROLLER SKATES. He had a helmet with a flashlight held on by duct tape. Before Velcro there was duct tape. Always worth having around the house.
He was wearing shorts and a short sleeved shirt. His battle gear.
The needle sucked in the speed from the spoon and he stuck it in his vein andbegantorepeatgonnaget'emgonnaget'emgonnaget'em like a mantra put a pack of cigs in his shirt pocket along with his joints put on his roller skates gonnaget'emgonnaget'emgonnaget'em put the helmet on gonnaget'emgonnaget'em a rush hit him with that feeling of falling you sometimes get when you're asleep the goosebumps rising gonnaget'emgonnaget'em stick the gun in his pants gonnaget'em put on goggles over the glasses READY!
Carefully walk down the stairs to the sidewalk gonnaget'em open the door gonnaget'em passersby ignore him (hey, it's New York) gonnaget'em lifts up the manhole cover, sets it aside and begins to carefully walk down the ladder. Gonnaget'em pausing to pull the cover back over the hole and it was dark like going into a cave and he switched on his flashlight.
He touched bottom and took a joint from his pocket lighting it. He took a long drag, left the joint dangling from his mouth. He began to skate. gonnaget'emgonnaget'em and he pulled his gun out.
There they were.
The rats.
Big huge fat rats.
They ignored him.
Big mistake.
He began to skate and took aim, BAM and a rat with its guts on display stuck to the wall.
Holy shit the rats must have thought as they started to run away, what th- BAM this one flies in the air and roller skating towards them was something they knew they had to run from the way people run from Godzilla when he comes near DO NOT PANIC GODZILLA IS APPROACHING well then- when are you supposed to panic? I think Godzilla approaching is precisely when you need to panic. Rats don't have time to ask what's wrong as humans do, they are already in flight.
Del skates through their ranks blasting away TIME TO RELOAD shit that fat one is getting away gonnaget'emgonnaget'em the joint is done.
Time for another one.
This was Del Close. This would be my partner.