Chapter 25: New York

I was working for my dad painting houses five days a week. It was a steady paycheck but truth be told I hated it. I saved up enough money to buy a ticket and bring spending money for a trip to New York to visit Jason.

We planned my visit right around his next harvest. I flew out to New York and my mom arranged for one of her friends who lived there to pick me up from the airport and drop me off at Jason’s house.

I remember it being really cold standing outside at the airport waiting for my mom’s friend. Nothing like the California weather I was used to. My mom’s friend offered to treat me to dinner while I was in town before dropping me off on Jason’s street. He was standing outside waiting for me.

We hung out for a week at Daniel's apartment in New York. Jason showed me the sights. He taught me how to trim weed and then allowed me to help trim his latest harvest.

Jason had told me I would not need weed the entire trip, that he would take care of it all. I still insisted upon buying some. Daniel and the two of us paid a visit to their dealer "The Jew". He sold me a quarter of "California" Chem Dawg for $150. It would have cost $70 in Los Angeles. I will admit though it did seem like genuine Chem Dawg.

Jason gave me his personal tour of New York from the subway. I was impressed with his knowledge. Majority of the time I had no idea where we were going and just depended on Jason to lead the way.

We went to the typical tourist locations like Times Square and Central Park. I bought a hat at the Element Skateboards store.

Jason showed me the grow shop he hung out in and introduced me to the employees he knew. I wanted to help his grow project, so I bought him some nutrients he had been wanting to try.

Jason took me to this block in New York that was lined with smoke shops, sex shops, and bars. I bought a bong at one of the shops as a souvenir.

We went to the best Pizza places. He knew the ones that were still open at 2am. Essentially Jason never adjusted to the time difference between Los Angeles and the East Coast.

Every day he got up late and went to bed late. Since he had no formal job or school to go to there was nothing to stop him from living this way. In New York there were places open very late and it accommodated Jason’s lifestyle.

Jason’s sister had moved to Philadelphia to attend college. She had an apartment in an area near the school that was designated a college party area. She invited Jason and I to come stay with her.

We took the greyhound bus down to Philadelphia for a few days. We saw Benjamin Franklin’s house and the art museum steps where Rocky Balboa did his thing. We raced up the steps, but Jason beat me by a mile. Jason has legs like stilts. Don’t forget he is 6’4. I am 6’0. He climbed those stairs in three steps with his long ass legs.

We stayed in Philadelphia for several days. I had authentic Philly Cheese Steak sandwiches every day. At night we went to a few college parties. At every party we would start smoking. We would pass around a joint or give out free bong rips of Jason's weed.

We ended up with a group of new friends. It did not hurt that we had some really good weed. People at the parties kept asking where we got such good weed. There was not anything this good at any of the colleges. I told them all Jason grows it.

Jason was my boy. He did not have any friends on the East Coast beyond Daniel. I acted like his hype man at all the parties. I told everyone he was a weed growing genius. He had one-of-a-kind genetics from Northern California. The college kids ate that shit up. All these people started asking him to bring weed down to sell them next time he was in Philadelphia. I like to think I laid the ground floor for his next endeavors.

I went home to Los Angeles after staying on the East Coast for two weeks. I saved up money again and the following year I went back to New York. This time I intended to stay longer.

A lot changed in a years' time. Jason had convinced Daniel to convert an entire bedroom to growing weed. Now they had about thirty plants at a time. Jason would take the weed they grew and travel down to Philadelphia and sell it at college parties.

He was making so much money he started renting his own apartment in Philadelphia and spent his time going back and forth between New York and Philadelphia regularly. Daniel would take care of the plants while Jason was in Philadelphia.

When I came out to New York the second time, it was Jason’s birthday. Jason’s sister hosted a birthday party for Jason. The two of us traveled down to Philadelphia for the party. Jason was no longer taking the Greyhound bus. He said it was starting to attract attention with all the trips he made.

Jason found a bus for Chinese tourists that left from Chinatown and traveled all the way to Philadelphia. It was half the price of the Greyhound you just had to deal with a bus full of Chinese tourists for two and half hours.

We mostly watched movies on my laptop with headphones. Overall, the bus was actually nicer quality than the Greyhound.

Jason showed me his apartment before we met up with his sister for the party. It was a room at the top floor in an old three-bedroom house. The building was run down; there was even a hole in the floor on the 2nd floor. He had two roommates who mostly kept to themselves.

They did not even know how old Jason was. After dropping off my stuff we went over to Jason’s sister’s apartment in the college district to get ready for the party.

Jason’s sister’s apartment had two bathrooms. We filled the bathtub in the master bathroom with ice and placed a keg and several bottles of alcohol in the tub. Jason and his sister had seen this done at another party before and thought it looked cool.

We put a sign on the door alerting everyone to use the other bathroom if they needed to go to the bathroom. This bathroom was for drinks. Jason even took the door off. His sister put caution tape over the toilet itself.

The party was pretty fun despite the fact I only knew two people. I got to meet all the people Jason had met on the East Coast.

All these ambitious college kids who bought weed from Jason. One guy was even a music producer that worked for Jermaine Dupree.

I met a number of crazy characters at the party as well. None stranger or more worthy of mention than a college student nick named “Kenya”.

Kenya was from Kenya obviously. His father was supposedly some kind of royalty. He was the real-life version of that movie "Coming to America" with Eddie Murphy. He would get drunk and tell everyone outlandish tales about Kenya. He would start every story with the phrase “In Kenya you would not believe…” His version of once upon a time.

"In Kenya you would not believe, one day I was walking outside my home, and a hungry cheetah was waiting outside. It was several strides to my father's second home, but I had to pass the cheetah. I decided to run past him and when I did the cheetah tried to chase me. As you can see, I was too quick for the kitty, eh?"

Some of his stories included him out running cheetahs, climbing trees with monkeys and facing off with other wild animals like he was Tarzan.

He claimed to have a pet monkey he taught to roll joints. He also swore up and down that vodka was made of dog milk.

I think he thought Americans were stupid and gullible. People would crowd around and listen to him when he talked. No one really believed his stories. We thought they were entertaining because they were so fake.

At the party Kenya went into the bathroom we had setup for drinks and pulled the caution tape off the toilet to take a shit. As people walked in to grab a drink he continued to try and tell people his stories while he was shitting.

Throughout the night Jason’s friends and customers kept bringing him drinks, weed, pills. Later in the night I lost track of him for an hour. When I finally found him, he revealed to me he was so fucked up he forgot I was there and had got halfway back to his apartment before he remembered.

I stayed on the East Coast longer this time. I was actually considering living there permanently.

Jason made money growing weed and going to college parties. It was a lot more fun than painting houses.

When the recession hit the US, my dad’s business started to suffer. He had to lay off all his workers, and he was doing the few jobs he was able to scrape together by himself.

I had to help my family make ends meet and pay bills, so I immediately came home and my focus shifted. I was no longer saving up money to pay for the next New York trip; I was helping pay the rent and bills.

Jason and I still talked on the phone regularly. I was kept up on the latest news about the plants and Daniel.

Chapter 26: The Reunion