# Throw Away Girl Hits the Road



## JackieBlue (Nov 27, 2011)

After Throw Away Girl left the Goat Man's farm; she and Soul Starer got a tent. They went back out to the state forest, where there were several other people camped out along Big River. They found a spot right next to the river, between two redwood trees. The two trees were about the same girth and height. The floodline mark on the trees was about eight or nine feet above the ground. There was just enough room between the trees so that the base of their tent touched each tree.

When you walked around the tree closest to the river, the bank sloped down to a narrow pebbly beach which was shaded by a bay laurel, that had been bent over by the flood waters. When you stepped into the river, you had to duck under the tree. Once past the tree there was a narrow, two foot deep channel and on the other side was a long narrow riverstone and pebble island. The island stretched about 30 feet upriver to a bend that had a deep spring fed pool, where a rope swing had been strung up.

Throw Away Girl and Soul Starer settled into their tent with their dog Yuppy. Soul Starer got some day labor/ carpentry work and started a garden, and Throw Away Girl found a temp job in an office, and on occasion would pick up a painting or gardening project here or there. Most days though, she spent on her island. In the morning after getting up and having some tea, she would grab a book and a blanket, strip all her clothes off, basked naked in the sun, and enjoyed the feeling of Starchild growing inside her. It was a peaceful time for them. They spent many a night with the ear buds from a walkman strung up in their tent; listening to the Grateful Dead Hour, amongst other things.

Throw Away Girl and Soul Starer would get up some mornings and hike the eight miles over the ridge and into Mendocino. Sometimes they would hitch a ride. Other times their hikes led them off into the woods for long periods of time, where they foraged for mushrooms and ate berries. They decided that they would start picking blackberries and raspberries to sell to some of the local restaraunts. It turned out to be quite a lucrative business for them as a flat of berries sold for 20 bucks, and they could pick five flats in 4 hours. They would get up in the morning pick some flats and head into town. They made anywhere from 100 to 180 dollars a day usually. So they built up a little nest egg so that they could buy a car.

Soul Starer showed Throw Away Girl the car he wanted. The car belonged to Mike who worked at the Juice Joint. Juice Joint Mike, of course, kept telling Soul Starer that he wouldn't sell, but Soul Starer persisted. The car was a 1960 Ford Falcon. It had come from Arizona when Juice Joint Mike and his girlfriend had moved from there. It had a brand new Mexican interior and the original engine. It had a "three on the tree" transmission, and an AM radio. The paint was just flat white and gray primer making it look kind of like a big puffy cloud. All of the chrome was in the trunk waiting for the new paint job. Juice Joint Mike would always chuckle when Soul Starer asked about the car and eventually Soul Starer gave up.

A week or two after Soul Starer showed Throw Away Girl the car, they met a girl named Silent Sarah. Now Silent Sarah was a one of a kind girl. She drove a 1969 Dodge Van and travelled with two hybrid wolf puppies who were almost a year old. Silent Sarah was from Orange County and had come to Mendocino to hook up with on of Soul Starer's friends, Mize. So Silent Sarah was definitely a silent person, and even when she did talk, it was very quietly. All of her clothes were hand made, she was a complete vegan, fed her dogs completely vegan as well, and refused name her dogs, because she felt that it would "trap" their spirits, and she wanted them to be "free spirits." Not only did Sarah not name them, but she would not leash them either, and they frequently ran away. Silent Sarah got more than one ticket for a dog or two at large. The folks around town had tried to catch them for her before but never with any luck. Especially without knowing their names. The townies began to joke and call the dogs "Salad" because that's what they ate. Sarah never made to go after them them, but would sit and wait, because she knew that they would come back to her if "it was meant to be."

Eventually Mize got irritated about the situation, and gave Silent Sarah an ultimatum...... leash and name the dogs, or let them stay at the pound. This caused a huge argument and ended with Silent Sarah yelling at Mize (I say yelling but she really was at a conversational level, it was just her kind of yelling.) Sarah and Mize broke up for a week or two until Sarah gave in to Mize's requests. Yet a few weeks later the dogs end up at the pound again. This time they stay.

A few weeks go by and Soul Starer notices when they are in Fort Bragg, that the Falcon hasn't moved from it's spot in front of Juice Joint Mike's house. One day they decided to drop by and see what was up. When they got there Mike wasn't home, and his gorlfriend told us we could find him at work. On the way out, they notice that the front passenger quarter panel is mashed in on the headlight. So they headed back into Mendocino and catch up with Mike at the Juice Joint. When they got there they saw one of the "Salads" tied to the bench on the deck. Yuppy ran over and said hello, and Soul Starer and Throw Away Girl follow. They went into the Juice Joint and Soul Starer asked Mike what was up. Mike asked "Did you see my new dog?" Soul Starer started laughing really hard and asks Mike if Salad was his new dog. Mike looked at him funny, and so Soul Starer went on to tell Mike aobut the dogs history. Mike was mortified and couldn't wait to tell his girlfriend Shelly what was up. Shelly was a vet tech and Mike was worried that Salad might need some extra care, especially considering how skinny the dog was.

Mike proceeds to tell them that the day he went to get the dog, he took the Falcon to pick him up. The animal shelter was out on highway 20. On the way home the dog was jumping around in the backseat. Mike turned to grab him and make him sit. When he turned away from the road he crashed into the back of a tractor that was driving in the breakdown lane. The impact had crushed the one headlight and pushed the radiator back onto the fan. Mike said he wasn't sure what he was going to do with it, but that he didn't have the heart to try to fix it.

So Soul Starer asked him what he wanted for it. Juice Joint Mike hesitated and they talked back and forth for a week or two, until they came to an agreement two parts liquid sunshine and two hundred dollars. Throw Away Girl and Soul Starer paid him the same afternoon that they cemented the deal.

The next day they went to Mike and Shelly's with their mechanic friend, Hans, and checked the car out. They decided that they would use a come along to pull the radiator out away from the fan. The crushed headlight still worked so they decided that could wait. The fan didn't seem to have any damage, but the radiator was another story. Thankfully they were right across the road from a garage. They took the radiator across the street and the mechanic there crimped some of the coils and used some solder in some of the smaller holes. He didn't charge them a dime. They took the radiator back across the road and put it back in the Falcon. They filled it with water and there were just a few pinhole type leaks; so they dumped a bunch of pepper into the water. The leak stopped, so Throw Away Girl got behind the wheel and turned the key. It started right up, and so they were on the road........


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## Travelerkid93 (May 20, 2019)

Great Story.


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## RoadFlower33 (May 30, 2019)

Is this a series of mini stories? Totally should be. I like your style in writing. Keep sharing.


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