Shawn talked more than he looked at the road, the whole journey.
"Hey, yous wanna find the butt of a joint I left in the car door," he said as we pulled out of Natalie's the first time round. It wasn't unexpected.
"Sure, you want me to light it?"
"Yer, sure, I always like to smoke when I'm driving." He looked at me uncertainly, worried i might judge him. "It's the only way to drive such long distances."

"So everyone says.. everyone smokes and drives round here. Its pretty much tradition."
The longest Californian wave everyone rides, I thought.
Charlie had grabbed the back seat first so she wouldn't have to deal with the conversation making. I took a toke and thought about putting on some good music and settling into a long dazy gaze out the window. I wanted to pass out, but it was soon clear he wanted to talk,

"So this is your first time to the burn?"

"Yeah..."

"I can tell... you don't need all this stuff."

"I know but I've had to carry everything around with me this summer, because I don't have a place at the moment"

"Ok, well, seriously you don't need anything for this trip except drugs and a bed!"

"Is that what's in the brief case."

"yer."he looked at me defensively like I might try and thieve them. Or maybe it was paranoia. "Thats my contribution to the camp. My friends will provide everything else and I'll supply the drugs. Thats how burning man works." He looked at me triumphantly, whilst we sped down the 88 past cop cars and fellow burner mobiles.

"So whats in there exactly?"

"Oh a concoction of things. Name something and it will most likely be in there."

I didn't need to.

"Where do you get it all from?"

"I don't do it often. Its just this is my week to go crazy. For one week every year. Other than that I'm a well-behaved working dad."

"You're a dad!"

"Yeah you wanna see a picture of the little 'un"

"Wow she looks pretty grown up now."

"Yeah she's seven years old."

"Let me have a look," Charlie grabs the picture from me, "Wow she's beautiful. She's going to be trouble when she's older."

"Yeah I know" he sighed

"How old are you?"

"Twenty-seven."

"Wow you were pretty young to have a kid."

"Yeah I was but I didn't have much of a choice. I came over here like you did to study and got a girl pregnant." he attempted a laugh but he looked strung out.

"Shit man!" Charlie's unfailing tact.

"I know. She wanted to keep the baby so i thought i should come back out and be there for the young'un."

"Thats so good of you. Most men wouldn't bother." I say.

"So what happened, hole in the condom?"

"Nah, nah she was on the smarties..you know the pill but I don't know it must'nt have worked. But I'm happy I'm out here, yer know. I've started up my own business. I'm living in the sun, by the ocean in a cool city. Its alright fer me. I get to see my daughter half the week, the rest I have to myself."

"SO you split with this girl?"

"Well we were never really together, we dated but i was only meant to be there fer a year. I was actually with another girl back in Ireland at the time and I had to call her to say I had met someone else. That was hard to do on the other side of the world. I remember calling her, trying to explain why it wasn't going to work while this american chick was with me in bed. So that was broken off luckily before the other girl was aware she was pregnant. I found out when I got back and we weren't anything that serious. My brother had just got out of prison so it was a good time to get home. Yer that was tough and all, fuckin eedjit. The flaming gobshite is always in truble, breaking the law. Its like me when i was younger. I tried so hard to be a good'un but I feel into a bad crowd when I was like sixteen and ended up dropping out of school, because they caught me dealing."

"Really?! what were you dealing?"

"Ah back then I was into acid a lot but I hardly ever do it now. I think I was just bored like. But yer know how it is when yer young. Anyway now its all good. I started my own private painting business a couple of years ago. Got a few men working fer me."

"Nice."

"Yer, I told them all to have a week off because i can't trust them to get the job done properly when I'm not there. A couple of weeks ago I hire this one young irish kid who was getting mixed up in some dark business in san fran and he only went and got arrested. So I had to bail him out but now he's done a runner. he's only 19."

"Yeah there's loads of you irish in san fran. Did you all get married or what?"

"Na most of them are illegal. They set up bars and small businesses like me. San francisco is good and liberal like that."

"Yeah I would love to live there one day. We had the craziest weekend last month, partying with drag queens, hanging out in long beach, i love it there so much. There are so many freaks but its so expensive.

"Yer, i hardly go out. Some weekends I go out, pop a few, but rarely."

"How much have you got with you by the way?"

"Enough. i take up to 9 some nights. i don't stop. ey young wan, kipping in the back there can you grab me a little sashet of charlie, charlie." He turns his head right round to face her

"You want some."

"Right now.!?"

"Course, i need it to keep me driving, otherwise i'm going to crash"

"Have you even slept Shawn."

"Nah, its alright though. i feel good but when we to get supplies i don't want to be too long. i know what you's young wans are like" he pours out a tiny half line in the hollow of the back of his hand between thumb and finger, and expertisely snorts it up his nose, with one eye on the road, one hand on the steering wheel and...

"Are you sure you don't want some...?"

~

Many lines later we are on the road into the expansive landscape which makes us feel like we've morphed in to the insect world of size relativity, in our little bug mobile we are but a speck on the desert floor, spinning a trail of dust clouds behind us, arguing over which music would best suit this beautiful moment. A sunset, an open road and then cops...behind us accelerating theyloom in the rear view mirror, Shawn is oblivious jabbering more incessantly than ever at us with barely a grip on the road except our reminders. We had got to know him now, so we could shout at him.

"Shawn there's cops behind us>"

"yer I know they are everywhere, its ok. So I'm meant to be meeting this girl their from last year but I don't know..."

"The cops pulled out as they got closer and zoomed past us, with flashing lights. I was too tired to get scared. I was more scared about running off the road at 60 miles and hr. This guy was a lunatic.

"I'm not always like this yer...its just my one holiday, so i go all out for fucks sake a man needs a break. You want to drop a pill with me when we get their."

"Maybe"

"Go on, they are good. i'll give you both one each for free."

"I kind of want to take it easy on my first night."

He didn't understand. "you gals have no idea about what you are about to experience! i sometimes take up to 9 pills a night. As the saying goes, if their ain;t any spuds on the plate, then its only a snack."

"You may be lying in the gutter but at least you are looking up at the stars."

We arrive at the best time, in a desert dusk haze of settling dust with the twilight spreading from the east to meet the euphoric pink remnants of the sinking sun in the west.

Theme of the american dream cool but not so cool quotes

will yer,

fuckin eedjit da, gobshite, flaming, for fucks sake, Jaysus, fella, gimme, mingin, muggins , nah, shit the bed! piss artist. plastered. pikey thicko

Young wan..