Chapter 42: Leo

While hanging out at Safehaven I was actually unfolding my own adventure. During events we would often sneak out to smoke weed in Sara's car. Then we would have the mission of sneaking back into the club without being detected. The head of security Leo was very quiet and dressed like a cop. He was a clean-cut Mexican man in his 50s that looked a little like Jimmy Smits. He even had a gun and a bullet proof vest.

For the first few months we went to events we tried to avoid Leo as much as possible. We were not sure if he was actually a cop or not.

Finally, one day as I am walking in the door and he's standing next to it, he takes a deep inhale as I walk by.

I definitely did not imagine it.

I panicked for the remainder of the event thinking I was going to be in trouble.

Then as the event is ending and everyone is walking out Leo says goodbye to me, gives me a high five and hands me something. I unfold a piece of paper to find a small bag of weed.

The following week I brought Leo some of my finest weed. The weed Leo had given me was ok, not the best but nice as a free gift. I wanted to show him I smoked the best. For the next month or so we kept secretly exchanging nugs at the end of each event.

Leo remained ever watchful at his post, and I kept up my duties supporting Sara. We never talked the entire event it was like our secret game. Sara even thought I was making it up at one point because she had never actually seen Leo give me the weed or talk to me.

Then one night as Sara and I were smoking in Sara's car during an event, Leo came up to the window and asked to get in. He jumped in the backseat, and we packed him a bowl in a bong we had stashed in the car. Leo took a long hit like a pro, coughed out a cloud and then said he had to get back before Mistress Azule noticed him.

Before he could even turn around Karen the dungeon's older handy woman was sniffing at the window. Leo hurried back to his post at the door.

Karen gave us a dirty look and mumbled something under her breath about stoners.

We pretended we were getting something from the car before heading back in smelling like cologne and perfume.

Later that night Leo approached me inside. He sat next to me and said:

“In all the time I have been working at the dungeon, I have given a few people weed before. You are the first person to give me weed back.”

"I own a weed grow operation not too far from here, you should come check it out sometime."

Leo and I exchanged phone numbers. A week or so later, Leo invited me over to his grow op. Sara was angry at me for some reason and refused to give me a ride over there. I ended up riding my bike two miles to the bus station at our local mall.

I had never taken a bus alone before. I did not even know what bus to take. Like an inexperienced idiot, I just asked every bus driver that stopped if they went near Leo’s cross streets.

Eventually I found a bus that went there. Unfortunately, I did not realize you need exact change for the bus. I asked the bus driver if they had change for a $10. At this point he was already sick of me and just told me to get on for free.

I got off the bus on Hawthorne and Manchester in an area that was not considered one the nicest at the time. You may have heard of Inglewood.

I rode my bike another three miles from the bus stop. I knew I was in a shitty neighborhood and in the back of my mind I was nervous and ever vigilante. Eventually I found the address. It was a warehouse in an industrial section of the city.

I called up Leo outside what I assumed was the building and he let me in.

I had helped out Jason with his plants. That was about the size of a bedroom. I had seen little plants over at Carson’s house and pictures he had taken of the farm. John and I had that plant in his backyard.

Leo’s grow op was like nothing I had ever seen before. Leo gave me the full tour. He seemed genuinely excited and interested in all my reactions and feedback.

The grow op was dry walled off and separated into several different grow rooms. There was also an office with a desk and several chairs including a lazy boy. Obviously that was Leo’s chair.

Leo explained to me that the larger rooms were dedicated to the vegetation stage. Those rooms were on a different light timer. There were plants of different sizes and “ages” filling the rooms.

Vegetation stage was basically used for growing plants to their full needed height and age before changing the light cycle and triggering the flowering stage in the other rooms.

The medium sized rooms were used for the flowering stage.

This was the room that really took my breath away. There was one over powering smell.

Leo showed me a spot of one of the stems of a random plant and told me to squeeze it carefully between my fingers. I followed his instructions. Then he told me to smell my fingers. My fingers smelled like dank weed.

A third smaller room was used for drying plants.

Leo casually bragged at last count they had over 700 plants in veg and flower combined. Leo even had people who worked there including Mistress Azule's slacker son.

That’s how he found out about the dungeon and got the job as security. The dungeon needed help and Leo was an ex marine with a gun license so he offered his services.

One of Leo’s biggest customers was someone he met at the dungeon. A world renowned rope bondage expert named Charlie B. Charlie had been fighting cancer for close to a decade. The only thing he claimed was keeping him alive was Butane Hash Oil he made from Leo’s weed.

Leo gave him a good deal on the weed he used to make the Butane Hash Oil and he always gave Leo a little of his oil for free. Looking back now in the present we would call this poop soup nowadays. Lower grade concentrates. It was black like pen ink.

It looked ugly but it got you higher than regular weed. We called it oil. Leo always joked that he thought the fumes had gotten to Charlie’s brain or that he was going to blow himself up making it.

The first time I came over to Leo’s grow op, he gave me a few hits of the oil. It was sketchy as fuck and reminded me of someone hitting a crack pipe. The high was like smoking weed again for the first time.

I soon became a regular hanging out there and attempting to help out in my free time. I always came over with the intention to volunteer or do work. I really wanted to learn.

Leo always had me just come and hang out and talk about weed in his office. We would split a six pack of beer and smoke an eighth of weed between us. We would talk about the latest popular strains I had seen in dispensaries and online. Ideas for new products and edibles.

Everyone who worked at the grow op hated on me and called me lazy, but I swear I came to work.

I was constantly asking him to show me things and let me help the others.

Leo just wanted me to be his friend and then gave me free weed to take home after every visit as if I had worked.

At the time I failed to realize my knowledge in the culture was worth more to Leo than labor.

I had spent years exploring different dispensaries in Los Angeles and I knew all the most popular strains. Leo started growing the strains I suggested, and his bud sold more often and for more money. Some of his usual clients even doubled their orders.

Leo was literally the same age as my dad. I like to think of him as one of my weed mentors. We started hanging out at all the events and I was often thought of as the backup security at the dungeon.

By now Sara had an entourage of followers and there was always someone else who wanted the "privilege" of cleaning and watching her toys.

Despite Leo giving me free weed from time to time, I was still regularly buying weed from this trendy dispensary in Downtown Los Angeles now and again.

It was at this shop that I got my first proper dab. As I was waiting in line for my usual flower I noticed people over to the side at what resembled a bar.

There were bongs and torches and a bud tender was giving out hits similar to the oil hits Leo gave me.

Except the oil they were smoking was golden and beautiful not black. It was not even really the consistency of oil either. It was more like ear wax.

I had to try it. As I was checking out and paying I asked how much it cost to get a hit of the oil. The bud tender told me the hits were free with any purchase.

I eagerly lined up and then took my hit. The whole process was different than Leo’s way of doing it.

They had a special metal bowl piece they heated up with what looked like a welder’s torch.

They gently placed the concentrate into the metal bowl and then placed a glass dome over it. At this point you hit it.

I thought Leo’s oil was good. This was way better. The taste was good. The high was good. I went home and told Leo about it.

On my next visit to the dispensary I purchased some of their wax and the special bowl equipment you needed. I brought it all over to the grow op and Leo and I figured it out for ourselves.

I gave Leo half a jar of the wax I had bought from the dispensary and said “This is what we need to be making!”

Chapter 42: Bondcon