Farewell, Young Men

They endured four months of dusty, monotonous walks from the one-story adobe library, past the elementary school, police station and playground up the steps to the gazebo in the plaza. The sun hanging lower in the sky, the air crisper and nippier with each passing day. The Mountain, Wheeler Peak, always in the background, beckoning. The dark, wiry young men unpacked their cardboard guitar cases, attached their tuners and capos and strummed Brazilian and Hot Jazz chords. Unexpected music for this northern New Mexico town. Surprising songs for the start of winter.

They had stopped being friends weeks ago. Too many nights of close quarters, annoying habits and a lack of viable employment caused tensions to rise. But, they could not deny their musical chemistry. This is what carried them two-thousand miles, along hot hazy blue highways, in the hopes of finding fame and fortune. Taos is a harsh town. Quaint and quirky to the uninitiated, its underbelly of desperate spiritualism, relentless sunshine and massive joblessness belies the initial promise. They say that The Mountain" calls you in and The Mountain spits you out. It is no wonder that friendships crumble in this transitional place. The time had come for them to be spat out.

Their plan was to gather enough money to hop a Greyhound bus back to Florida,a complicated scheme that involved hitching a ride 3 hours to Albuquerque, traveling three days and being left off five hundred miles from home, but a few days before departure they met The Goddess. Nineteen year-old cheekbones that could cut glass sat high, just below her green glowing eyes. Wheat colored hair traveled down her thrift store sweater. They asked her to sing along and she did so, with gusto. The crowd couldn't wait for her to stop but to the young men, she sounded like a nightingale.

After they'd invited her back to the crash pad and shared some weed and day-old chili, she insisted they join her in a midnight swim at the hot springs. She insisted they remove all of their clothes, as she did. She insisted that sharing everything and everyone made for better friends. The young men did not argue. They became closer than they had ever been.

The next morning, The Goddess decided to drive them back to Florida. They could not refuse her offer.