A Nation of Mystics by Pamela Johnson

Author:Pamela Johnson [Johnson, Pamela]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Stone Harbour Press

Kathy’s first weeks in the Haight were markedly different from Marcie’s. While Marcie worked to get as close to Richard as she could, making a home, a comfortable place for people to hang out and eventually to do business, Kathy moved away from any relationship that looked like it might lead to commitment. On the street, she laughed and skipped and made friends, open with everyone, friendly, gracious, having a special quality that put people immediately at ease. But instead of choosing a partner, she wandered, searching, not really sure for what.

Part of her searching was a symptom of her romantic side. She was reading a lot of Ginsberg and Kerouac and Burroughs and believed that thoughtful, artistic people felt pain more intensely, their awareness honed by the experience of breaking taboos. Sleeping with Jim had broken a taboo and had caused pain. But she had learned something from her months with him. To grow, to create something valuable, to know herself further, she needed more experience. Isn’t that what Jim had suggested?

For the first time in her life, she was truly free, to come, to go, to do anything she wanted, to test the limits, no longer bound by an all-girl Catholic high school, by parents, by a university, by cultural mores, by traditions of right and wrong. Everyone around her was experimenting with new lifestyles and ways of living with others. As Felix had explained, in the Haight, there were no rules.

Realizing that there were but a few weeks of summer left before returning to school, she looked to every new happening as a path to knowledge, a way to continue to define herself. Her sexual affairs were several, and she was grateful that her loose liaisons made no demands. Refusing to discriminate, she believed each man could teach her something, and in the process, gained some skill and lost many of her inhibitions.

An unexpected aspect of Kathy’s easy manner in meeting people was her unintentional involvement in Richard’s business. Without knowing it, her talents had made her a valuable silent partner. In the weeks that followed, she introduced Richard and Alex to David, much to Kevin’s chagrin, because David could sell them the same high quality pot and hash. When she introduced Richard to Raphael, who could produce truckloads of good kilos, Richard began selling weed to both Kevin and David. And if Kevin was out of acid, Kathy only needed to hitch the Bay Bridge to Berkeley to pick it up from someone else.

She would meet people on the street or in the park or at someone’s apartment and with disarming, open intimacy, teach them about the Haight, share the ideas of this new world, exchange travel tales, and learn exactly what they wanted to cop. She began setting up meetings for them with Richard, and after a sale, they’d return for more product, often becoming regular customers. She laughed at Richard’s suggestion that he pay her a percentage for her contacts and was unaware that he had decided to put the money aside for her.

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