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Show RTVER the boat store, but she was hysterical and cried that she wanted to die. The Dupuis pulled the woman around to the end of the barge and showed her the dark flood of the real river, vast and menacing in the night. He told her that unless she got off the boat store tres rapide he was going to throw her into the river. The woman screamed and fled, running off the boat and up to town, crying murder all the way. It took me years to realize it, but what happened to that poor lost old lady that night was exactly what had happened to me. At midnight I went out and walked through the empty streets of Baton Rouge. It was Saturday night, but now the streets were deserted except for an occasional cab or cop. I came to a department store window and got horny just looking at the mannequins. It was awful. I started thinking about my future, wondering especially how long it would take to get laid. I wanted to get a job on a towboat, but this horniness was more than I could endure for thirty days. I decided to go to New Orleans in the morning and see what I could do. Lane let me sleep on the floor of his apartment. The next morning, sure enough, I met a beautiful blonde from Arkansas. We went to New Orleans and drank a lot and walked out on the levee and made out. But she would not sleep with me. "I've known sailors before," she said. It about drove me nuts. I started thinking hard about going back to California. Monday morning I talked to the personnel officer at Chotin. He said he'd guarantee me a job if I hung around for a week, but I gave in to loneliness and lust-and yes, fear too, for I was now properly scared of the river-and caught a ride to the New Orleans airport where I spent most of my money on a plane ticket to California. I told myself I was going back to Lonestar to write the true tale of my adventures, but for the next three years I hardly picked up a pen. In -220- |