MINDLESS MUSINGS

Plenty of alcohol and pot had been consumed that night. Danny, Tommy, Neil, Susan, Lindy and I where all out in Neil’s granny flat getting wasted on a Saturday evening. I don’t know where the trips (LSD) had come from but we had all popped one and they where well and truly messing with our brains by this point.

We were all laughing and goofing off; just enjoying the mind bending effects of the acid. I don’t know exactly how it started, but I can recall Danny standing in front of me as I sat on the couch. I think we were exchanging friendly insults and Danny decided to get physical. He shoved me and I fell back into the chair. I then watched as Neil, who was seated on the other couch behind Danny, leaned over and grabbed Danny by the ankles. In one swift movement he pulled Danny’s legs out from under him. Danny fell forward onto me and a wrestling match then ensued.

Tommy decided to join in and he began grappling with Neil. It seemed to be unofficially Neil and me versus Danny and Tommy. I remember that we were all laughing our heads off as this was taking place. The alcohol, pot and acid had combined to make this whole scenario seem totally surreal. There was no malice in our actions we were genuinely enjoying ourselves.

The girls on the other hand were not happy and they were calling for us to stop. There was no way that was going to happen in the near future; we were having too much fun.

At one stage I ended up behind Danny and I applied a Full Nelson hold. This meant I had his arms wrapped up behind his head. This move is very difficult to escape from using strength alone. Danny was in no mood to surrender so he planted his feet and pushed off backwards. We both fell fast onto one of the couches and my head slammed into the wall.

The Full Nelson had been broken and Danny climbed off of me. We were both laughing heartily at this point. As Danny turned to look at me he quickly stopped laughing. Neil and Tommy ceased their tussle and both stood staring at me with mouths agape. Susan and Lindy quickly joined the gawking group.

I was lying back on the couch still giggling my head off. As the shock in everyone’s faces began to sink in my laughter stopped. I realised they were looking just a little behind me rather than directly at me. I felt as if I was in real danger, so I moved very slowly. I cautiously got up off the couch and turned to look at what was holding everyone’s focus.

There was a small hole in the wall where my head had slammed into the Gyprock. That wasn’t the shocking part. Just millimetres above the hole, a power socket jutted out of the wall; a rectangular cube protruding out of the wall ready to split any melon that slammed into it. My head had smashed into the wall missing the corner of that power socket by the width of a bee’s dick! My head would have been cracked right open had I landed that tiny bit more up or to the left.

I don’t know how long we stared at the evidence of miraculous luck, but it seemed like a while. Acid has a way of distorting time along with your other senses.

This is another time where my memory seems to freeze. I don’t remember what happened after that moment. It is as if the video tape goes black after the incident is played out. I do remember that later in the night Danny Tommy, Susan and Lindy went out to the Cross. Neil and I didn’t have any IDs and we were too young looking (I was 17 and Neil was 15) to attempt getting into a club without one.

So it seems that we eventually recovered from our shock and continued on our merry way of brain cell destruction for a few hours more.

Thinking back I still feel immensely fortunate to have missed the skull smashing power socket. It is humbling to think how lives can be changed by the matter of a mere millimetre or two.