Seventeen miles up the coast around the bend overlooking the great Pacific Ocean… nestled in between the Brussels sprouts and artichoke fields lay Mother Beck’s compound. Mother Beck wore her thick grey hair in a long braid down her back. She was a former nurse who had planned well for her family’s future. When three ramshackle houses a little too far out of town for most folks came up for sale, she bought them all.
Mother lived in the first house with her fourteen year old son, Micah, who was a long haired stoner with no prospects except for what his mother would leave him… which might be sooner than later as Mother had just been diagnosed with cancer.
Micah had access to as much pot as he could smoke and was always in trouble at school for being truant, tardy, or too stoned to work. Home schooling seemed to be the only option, but Mother Beck just didn’t have the energy to enforce restrictions on her change of life baby – The result of an aging hippie fling with a younger vigorous Native American man with a tongue like honey and a body the gods would envy.
Mother Beck’s middle son, Bill, lived appropriately in the middle house. Bill was a quiet red faced over weight man in his early twenties. He had a calm manner unless you got him mad. Depending on the situation he might sulk, fight, work, or shoot old tin cans off of a stump out back.
Bill loved working on machines, bikes, cars… anything with motion and moving parts. He was a hard worker who reserved his drug use – beer and marijuana – for after work. He kept the yards mowed and fixed anything that was broken on the property. He loved his weapons and was an expert shot with a cross bow, a hand gun, or a twenty-two. He liked his target practice and was even pretty good at a fast draw, but he rarely actually killed anything. He wouldn’t hesitate to dispatch a troublesome varmint, but it gave him no pleasure to take a life.
Bill lived with his girl friend, Staci, who was a dainty beauty with long light brown hair, green eyes with the most amazingly long eyelashes, a great taut little body, and a sparkly personality.. She was a” Pisces with Gemini rising” as she was fond of saying. She loved keeping house for Billy. She worked during the harvest season at the Brussels sprouts processing plant in town. It was a terrible job really, but the pay was OK and it gave her a lot of time off in the summer.
Their house was always tidy, dishes done, beds made, house plants galore… It was fun to visit them because she was such a gracious hostess offering up drinks, snacks, smoke, music, and chatter. Bill never said much – just nodded his head as she chattered on and on….
Hank’s house was another story. Hank was the eldest son and he had the largest family, so he got the largest house and the best house of the three… the one with the view out of the large bay window – the view of 186 Degrees of the Pacific Ocean. But his house was a mess!
Hank married young – too young, to a cute, hard working, dedicated, horny Asian girl who was quickly disowned by her family when she married Hank. They had five beautifully mixed children in less than eight years. They had things worked out. Hank stayed home and took care of the kids while Suki worked – anything to get out of that house. It was a disaster!
It had been the nicest house of the three. It sat higher on the hill and had the best view of the ocean in the distance. A large stand of trees grew on the north side, Brussels sprouts fields went on for acres to the south and west, and a large dairy farm was to the east across the highway. It was a spectacular location! Worth millions in today’s market.
The hardwood floors were covered with old worn carpets. Dust balls roamed every corner. The couches and chairs were covered with stains and spills and dried up messes. The kitchen and bathroom were veritable health hazards. Nothing was ever dusted or wiped down or vacuumed. In fact they didn’t even own a vacuum.
Mold and stink and piles of dirty clothes. Dirty dishes with crusts of dried casseroles, dried egg, pans with congealed hamburger grease… and flies, thousands of flies just felt right at home flitting from one rotten mess to another since there was no effort at all to keep them out. Five or six cats lived willy nilly in the wood pile outside or on the piles of dirty laundry in the bedrooms.
The poor little brown mini poodle named “Butchie” was a disgusting mat of dreds, eye gunk, and dried poo hanging from his butt. Shoving aside the dirty dishes, Suki bathed him in the kitchen sink. The poor beastie shivering with cold and fear as she alternately washed him and clipped off chunks of his nasty hair.
Hank was a serious pot farmer. If he wasn’t tending his green house enclosed pot garden – some of the best chronic on the north coast, he could be seen on most days in his extensive vegetable and flower garden – no clothes, balls dangling- just boots and a hat.
Suki would come running in with some bags of groceries at about six o’clock every night attempting to get a meal on the table. Hank harvested the daily salad and veggies from his garden. The kids – dirty faces, grubby hands and all – gorgeous creatures of laughter and jubilance… sat down at the chaotic kitchen table to eat. The fare was simple: hamburgers, spaghetti, burritos, or chicken. Lunches were free at school for the five of them – one less thing to worry about. Breakfast was oatmeal or cold cereal, eggs from their own chickens and toast.
Somehow everyone got taken care of. Clothes were washed – dirty pile/ clean pile – never folded. Baths and showers were taken. Kids and adults alike piled into unmade beds with just a sleeping bag and a pillow. Summers at the beach. Never enough money – even with the pot farm. They were all happy until it changed.
Mother Beck’s health worsened. Within a year she had gone from a vibrant middle aged woman to a balding weak skeleton. Micah and Grandmother who was in her seventies took turns taking care of her – forget home school, he was caring for his mother. It was doctors’ appointments, chemo, bedpan, wheelchair… the end in this fashion is not pretty, and a fourteen year old boy still needs his mother.
When she finally passed, no one was surprised and everyone was thankful. It had been a hard year for them all. At the funeral all of her extended hippie family was there. They put Mother Beck’s ashes in an attractive urn in the center of the table, lit candles and incense. Everyone said something about her if they wanted to. Micah just cried and cried. Someone brought a bouquet of wild flowers, another person read some poetry. It was a lovely remembrance.
During the funeral some one was ripping Hank off. It had to be someone they knew. Someone who knew that they were all at the funeral and no one would be guarding the crop. Not even the dogs barked. All the plants just short of maturity had been pulled up by the roots. Hank began sleeping outside with his pot and a gun.
Grandma died shortly after burying her daughter which left Micah alone in the first house. They decided to rent the house out and have Micah move in with Bill and Staci. Bill started to fall apart. He began drinking heavily and talking to himself nonsensically. Sometimes no one could get him out of his alcohol induced trance.
Staci started going into town on her own hanging out trying to meet other guys. When she even screwed Micah, Bill kicked her out. He was totally broken. Mother dead, taking care of Micah, Staci cheating on him… . He just never got over it. Six months later Bill’s body was found on the railroad tracks that ran through the Brussels sprouts fields. His boots were carefully laid out next to the tracks. It was like he just went to sleep out there.
Suki and Hank got into another habit – sex with strangers, three ways and swapping. Anything to keep their marriage together. Suki didn’t really like this set up. She preferred to go out hunting on her own. She didn’t want Hank in the mix. His favorite thing to do was bring in another guy and watch him fuck his wife while he buggered the guy. It was just weird and frankly, Suki was finished with it. She wanted a normal life in a clean house with one dependable man.
She met a man at work who promised to make her life better. She moved out with four of the younger children leaving the oldest boy who was the same age as Micah. The younger two boys liked to visit with their father, but the girls lost interest in the rustic life as they entered their teens.
The town had a problem and it wasn’t vampires… it was drugs, hard drugs: heroin and cocaine. The girls were doing fine in school and had adapted to town life. But the boys were running around late at night and Suki felt that she had lost control. So, she decided to have them go live with Hank hoping that being out in the country away from all the town’s temptation would be better for them
Hank was now alone raising four teenage boys – his brother and his three sons. Something had to change. He decided to sell the first house and save the middle house for the two older boys who were actually ready now to be on their own. He set the greenhouse on fire, got a haircut, and a job at the Brussels sprouts plant where he drove a forklift moving giant crates of sprouts from one side of the plant to the other.
The following summer with things somewhat in control, Hank had second thoughts about his pot garden. He started growing again. Just a few plants at first for personal use. But he was a good farmer and friends who he had supplied for so many years were looking for the pure homegrown he could provide them with. Besides it was a way to help provide for the family. So, they set up a new green house along with a sleeping shed for whoever was on guard. They got several good dogs and some more firearms and set up business determined to save Mother Beck’s investment.
The five men living and working together did alright for themselves. They took shifts in the garden. Micah turned out to really have a knack for breeding the best varieties. When the laws for medical use began, they were some of the first to be offered a license to grow. Maybe you’ve heard of Mother Beck’s Purple Princess?
(First published 8/16/11)
