If I can start over: A new world

V. Learn to hit. Part 1

Thursday, February 7, 12:42 in the morning. Residence parking.

The moans of the wind could be heard throughout the parking lot. Breaking sighs. Beseeching tremors. Benjamin, Ramcés, Alexandra, Tomas, and Noely walked out of the residence. The novice snow crunching under their soles. Teeth grinding, pushing against each other for relief. With the trees whispering secrets from the cold. They stopped at a corner. Far enough not to be seen, close enough to return in an emergency.

"Yeah, Benjamin, you tried the cigar already, huh bro?" Tomas pulled a zip-lock plastic bag from his right jacket pocket. The content: a few greenish medicinal and hallucinogenic leaves.

"Yes, a couple of times," Benjamin answered.

"Yeah, look..." Ramcés intervened. "You're going to drown like that, ugly, worse than with cigarettes, but don't be scared, because if you get scared, the pot increases that state and makes you crazy, well brother, and heck, I don't want dead people."

"Okay, I'll try not to freak out." They all smiled at the wit.

"Is this the first time you're gonna try it?" Alexandra asked.

"Yes," Benjamin answered. "The first. You do not want?"

"No thanks, I'll be stupid..." and she leaned back, took a few steps back, and stretched out his right palm just as Tomas was about to offer him the little lining he had just made.

"That's it," he said suddenly. "Benja, be the first so bro."

Benjamin soaked in a couple of shallow puffs and let them settle into his system for a moment. He coughed, cleared his throat less than he expected, and blew out all the smoke he carried inside.

"Did it shock you?" Asked Ramcés.

"No, nothing," Benjamin answered. "My face hurts a bit, but nothing out of the ordinary."

"It's that you're not smoking well," he chided. "Bring."

The whistle that Ramcés gave was much deeper than Benjamin's. This, somewhat experienced in that kind of thing, held the smoke longer before letting it escape through his nostrils.

Suddenly, Benjamin began to stagger, stumble until he fell on top of a mound of snow. He sank at least four inches, before complaining and realizing what was happening. The rest were laughing, amused to witness their friend's behavior.

"Are you okay?" Noely approached. "Help him up, hey," she said, without finishing smiling.

" Bro, what happened?" Tomas and Ramcés approached Benjamin and both offered their hands to carry him and help him get off.

"Everything okay, man?" Ramcés asked once he was up and at Benjamin's side.

"I knew this was a hallucinogen, but I didn't know how strong it could get." Benjamin rubbed his head, and kept his eyes down, fixed on the ground.

"But you haven't smoked much," Ramcés demanded. "How did so much shock you with so little?

"I don't know. But I've seen something strange." Benjamin raised his eyes to the ceiling, dark and cold, stared at nothing, gone. "I have had like... as if this had already lived."

"What do you mean?" Alexandra asked, the smile on her face fading, replacing it with both furrowed brows and wide eyes.

"The sirens. I've seen and heard sirens."

"Those of the sea?" What the f**k, bro?" Tomas laughed.

"The police, you i***t," Ramcés replied. "But what was it? Why would they come... for us?"

"The ambulance..." Benjamin corrected them. "They'll say it was an accident, but it's not true." Benjamin squatted down, with both hands covering his face.

The wind began to blow stronger. He picked up a slight pinch of snow and swirled it in the middle of the group. They all looked at each other, confused. Alexandra, the only one without a hat, was pulling her black curlers to the nape of her neck when she saw out of the corner of her eye the red and blue lights shining and twinkling the moons of her glasses.

"s**t, the police," Alexandra moaned.

"Save everything, now!" Ramcés encouraged Tomas, while the latter took out a small airtight plastic bag from the right pocket of his coat, and packed the rest of the dough, made with crushed leaves, hastily.

"They won't come this way." Benjamin was already standing a few meters from them, almost halfway down the track. "They have more important things to worry about."

"When did this i***t get up?" Alexandra said, nervous, scared.

"Hey, I didn't realize it. How did you get there?" Noely commented, backing away from Benjamin. The rest held their position.

"Benja, are you okay?" Ramcés was the only one who tried to get closer. "I think it shocked him bad..."

"They won't come." Ben raised an arm and pointed at the officers. "But he does. We should go, we are not safe here."