Page 29 of Road Refugees

Passwater shrugged. “Sure. As long as you find the right grain for spawn.”

Wolf crinkled one side of his face. “Eh?”

“Rye berries are best. And you’ll need the proper containers. I can go over all that with you later.”

It looked as though I might be working with the goofy Wolf Glaser as well. That was all right. Hell, I’d worked with the goofy Slappy Lomax for grueling month after tortuous month in Syria, and we remained on good terms. Passwater continued teaching us about autoclaving the substrate in a pressure cooker, which different strains to grow, and colonizing. The greenhouse would be called the “fruiting chamber,” and we would grow them in clear totes purchased at Michael’s. This is where we’d mix it with Wolf’s soil and layer it with vermiculite to insulate the spores, preventing “contams.” He taught us about humidity and hydration. It only took a week or two to fruit, another week to harvest, so we could grow many different yields during the year.

Afterward, everyone other than me drank beer and went outdoors to gaze upon the vast grow houses containing Leaves of Grass’ famous hybrids, Young Man Blue chief among them. Lytton’s wife June was out there watering, emerging to give us some weed samples from last season. Linus played with Monstro and Beetle. Wolf had been given the giant, fluffy dog by patch holder Tanner, who used to fly rescued dogs around. Now he was in med school, giving me a vague hope that I could somehow help Heaven, if she still had the same lust to become a lawyer. Aside from thinking she was banging hot, I had a sincere interest in her welfare. I’d helped myself and Linus. Now we could help others.

Wolf fired up a waterpipe he must’ve had on his tool belt, and I took Lytton aside to thank him for the cabin and ask if he knew Byron Riddlesberger from the Flagstaff Friends of Distinction.

“Unfortunately, I know that cheesebag. The Friends used to be our brother club out of Vegas, going on runs with us. Then some went rogue and started a new chapter down here. Fucking meaner and more heartless than the original Friends. I heard you had some trouble with them in Flag.”

“Yeah, they were trying to blow a hole through that girl Heaven, the Morbot I brought to P and E.”

“Yeah. Sock Monkey’s sister.”

“Right. Have you ever seen them slouching around P and E? I really feel like I need to offer her more protection.”

“Nah. They know this is our power base. Never seen them slinking around.”

I said, “I’m just worried he might consider her his property and come after her, since he’s the one who picked her up from the middle of the highway.”

“Middle of the highway?”

I nodded. “Yeah. Apparently she was ODing on some chloral hydrate her husband had fed her like twelve hours earlier. She passed out, and Riddlesberger happened by to save her.”

“Hmph. Chloral hydrate doesn’t last that long.” I’d forgotten Lytton had a Ph.D. in chemistry. “Some other condition of hers could’ve done that, though. Diabetes. My mother had that. Contributed to her death on the Rez. That, and alcohol.” Yes, the half-brothers Ford and Lytton were also half-Apache, Tomahonkeys with different mothers.

“I’ll ask her about diabetes. But somehow I get the feeling seeing the doctor wasn’t encouraged in her compound.” I had to ask the awkward question. “Uh, do you know where she’s staying?”

Lytton frowned, thinking. Then, to my mortification, he bellowed at a greenhouse. “June! Do you know where that new girl Heaven is staying? Sock Monkey’s sister?”

Everyone turned to stare at us as June emerged from a greenhouse. “We’re working on getting her a cage. Then she can stay at Smoky Mountain High.” That was the bud and breakfast where I currently stayed.

Pippa added, “Right now she’s in town with my sister Sally. But it’s a small apartment.”

I was thinking more of moving her to the log cabin that I hadn’t even viewed yet. I took a few steps toward Crybaby, who was toking on the pipe now, as Wolf bellowed,

“Hey, what’re we gonna do about the shipments from Bogotá? That didn’t go over too well when those anusbrains tried to stuff powder into those coffee beans.”

Lytton said, “Yeah, we’ve got a new idea. Someone needs to go there and rent some shipping containers. I wanted to put Bobo Segrist on the detail to make his bones, but he went down to the Mexican border to detain migrants in the desert.”

“Oh, man!” It sounded from his whining as though Wolf felt he’d missed out on all the fun, being part of a vigilante justice group of civilians. “Well, I patched in before Bobo. Send me to Bogotá.”

Lytton said, “You’ll be here working with Town on the shrooms, from the sounds of it.”

I said, “Don’t call them shrooms.”

“I’ll personally escort the product back up here,” insisted Wolf. “You know I can do it, jefe.”

“You’re not as adept as Bobo at Spanish.”

“Sure I am! I know all those persona loca and demente. Those cabróns are desquiciado, oftentimes.”

Tobiah sauntered over, confident he could regain his rep. “Listen to this gillipolas. I’ll bet he doesn’t even know that bobo means fool in Spanish.”

Wolf turned on him. “Who cares, you dillweed? Not like you’d ever be brave enough to fly to Colombia.”