Blown for Good - Marc Morgan Headley [6]
“You know this gentleman, ma’am?” he asks back.
“Oh, yeah, he works at Golden Era Productions,” Muriel says, connecting the dots to his puzzle in one single sentence. The PR person irrevocably messes up the PR. Wouldn’t you know it. Here I am, keeping this totally out of the realm of “Bad PR” for Golden Era Productions, and in one short sentence, Muriel sinks that ship without even coming to a complete stop in her vehicle!
“Nothing is wrong, ma’am, just a routine traffic stop. Move along,” he says to her as he motions her to get back on the road. I can see his whole demeanor change right then as he processes this new information.
He watches as she drives off, turns to me and says in the matter of fact “no more crap” voice, “Where you trying to get to, dude?”
“U-Haul in town,” I reply, knowing that he thinks something is up and I might as well just do what I need to do to get out of here.
“Another squad car is on the way; we will escort you and make sure you get there okay.”
“Cool,” I say as I go for my helmet. I put it on as if we are done with the conversation part of the traffic stop, assuming that I am not going to get a ticket. Correct in that assumption, he heads back to the shelter of his car. A light sprinkle is still falling, and as soon as I put the helmet back on, the visor fogs right back up. I lift the visor just in time to see the second car coming down the road towards us.
He pulls up behind the first car and they both get out and talk for a second.
They get back into their cars and the first cop rolls in front of me while the second one pulls up behind me. I start up the bike, bump it into gear and we are off.
I think, is this good? It could be good. It could be really bad. Are the guys at the base going to flip out when they find out from Muriel that the cops are escorting me into town?
So much for a quick, quiet escape. I had never heard of anyone using the local police to get away. Seems like that works rather well.
It is January 5th, 2005. It is now about noon. My life has just restarted. It is at this exact moment I realize I am blown for good.
Chapter Two – Lie To Me
My parents moved to Los Angeles in the winter of 1979.
We had been living in Kansas City, Missouri. My father was working at the Kansas City Municipal Bus company as a mechanic. My mother was working at a restaurant. I was 6 years old and in first grade. My sister, Stephanie, had just turned 5.
One of my father’s college band buddies, Steve Smuck, had moved out to Los Angeles and was trying to get the band back together so that they could make it “big” in LA.
So we packed up all our stuff into a large moving truck and made the drive. We had a VW Beetle that we towed behind the truck. I remember the trip like it was yesterday. My uncle, who was also my dad’s good friend, made the trip with us. My younger sister and I would switch off riding in his car while the other would ride in the truck cab with mom and dad.
There was a stretch in the Colorado Rockies where we were separated and I really thought I would never see my parents again. After several hours of being separated, Uncle Chris decided to park at a gas station rest stop and let them catch up with us. Sure enough, a few hours later they came around the bend and we were reunited! I remember the feeling. It was one of those moments when the elation is immeasurable, but the exact feeling, the view of the truck coming down the road; everything is burned into your memory forever.
When we arrived in LA, it was culture shock for us. Here we were, a small family from Kansas City, and the cost of everything in LA was at least double what we were used to paying back home. We had spent pretty much all of our money on gas for the truck on the way over. We were broke. I was only 6 years old, but I knew it.
When we were living in Kansas City, we had a house. We did not own it, but we lived in a house. We had a front yard, a back yard, we even had a garden. We would play in the street with other kids on the block. It was a good time.
When we got to Los Angeles, we stayed