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Show RTVER tools gone from around this place, I'm gonna come find you and blow you away!" We pushed on as soon as we could, crossing into Nebraska just as the sun was going down. We'd not driven far into the flatness when the twilight began to pulsate red. A state trooper pulled us over. The trooper wore a Smokey-the-Bear hat tight on an his bullet-head. His eyes were small and blue, his starched uniform was spotless and trimmed with thick black leather. He hassled us about draft cards and runaways until his partner showed up, and then the troopers escorted us into Sidney, one car ahead and one car behind the van. They took us to the state police headquarters, a graveled compound with a cinder-block jailhouse surrounded by a tall chain link fence. They hauled us into a dreary room the color of old newspaper and read us our rights. They called me into the chief's office and read me the contents of a "Permission to Search Form." Then they pushed it across the table for me to sign. "Uh," I said. "If I don't sign this, you'll just keep us around till you get a search warrant, right?" "The paper says I can't make no threats, kid," said the chief. "Well, how about if I sign it, maybe you'll let us go pretty soon?" "The paper says I can't make no promises." We'd eaten what little reefer we had on the ride in, so I signed the form. The troopers gleefully attacked the van. They were determined to bust us and even our array of weird junk didn't deter them. They dug through it all. I couldn't understand why total strangers wanted to put a nice guy like me in jail, but they went at it like beavers. -54- |