Bus Drivin' Devil

"Oh hey... I just got an idea. We're gonna trip at the cabin tonight... want to come? We have enough mushrooms for one more.”
“Ummmm... yeah,” I said, with sarcastic emphasis on the “ummmm”. This was to be my first time tripping with my brother (Jose, the Porcupine). Well... I had tripped around him, and he had tripped around me, but never both of us at once.
So I went to the cabin, and The Devil had five piles of mushrooms that were each approximately an eight of an ounce. “We’ll eat the fist half now, and the second half when we’re feeling them nice and good. I’ll be the bus driver.”
The Devil had this game going where one person would sort of take control of the trip. Frito, K-Dawg, and my brother were all for it. After all, The Devil was one suave mother who apparently knew his drugs. I (The Dolphin), on the other hand, wasn’t convinced. Bus driver? What the hell. I usually go into my own world anyway when I trip and if I don’t, then I just like to talk to people. Not play games. But he supplied the mushrooms, and it didn’t really matter to me, so I didn’t object.
We each at half of an eight.
About 15 minutes later, I produced a bomber. I mean, a very large joint. “The Caterpillar,” I had named it. I was into such things at the time. We went outside and smoked it. Outside of the log cabin. We smoked it. And it had the desired effect. We watched the wood grains on the outside shift. The Devil took two cigarettes and did a rave-type dance with them. Despite my general stupid prejudice against raves, bus drivers, and that sort of stuff, I did appreciate the dance. Then, I put some Phish on. I was big into Phish at the time. Nobody else was. Maybe that’s why everything proceeded to get so fucked up?
Well, I think I was sitting on the couch listening to the music or thinking about something, but generally just going with the flow and not having the Fear at all when suddenly I noticed my brother sitting next to me. He looked agitated. “What’s up bro?” I said.
“I don’t know what to do. This is so fucked up.”
“Ah, just relax. Go with the flow.”

“You don’t know what happened, do you?”
“Tell me.”
“The Devil... he’s hurt.”
“What?! What happened?”
“We were standing outside and he passed out and hit his head on the table. He came to and he was bleeding. He went off into the woods and said he’d be fine, but I’m worried.”
I could tell that he WAS worried. I was also slightly concerned.
The Devil came back in. “How ya doing Devil?”
“Mentally, I’m fine. But I just need some place to crash.”
With that, the devil proceeded to call his girlfriend and convince her to drive out and get him. Some bus driver. But I guess I couldn’t blame him. But, as Hunter S. Thompson says, “Kill the head and the body will die,” (at least I think that’s what he says.)
At this point, my brother got completely looped. Apparently, the others were used to it because it had happened to him on acid. I was not. And he was my brother. It made me a little uneasy. More than a little uneasy.
He would pace around the room nervously. The Devil’s girlfriend finally came and picked him up.
Now the scene was this: Frito was on the bed staring at the wall, saying, “Do you guys see what I see?” once every ten minutes or so; K-Dawg was on the couch not saying anything but looking a little shaken; Jose the Porcupine was having a very rough time; the Dolphin, that is me, was wondering what he should do. Then, the phone rang.
My brother was horrified. He ran into the other room. I picked it up, hoping that it wasn’t our parents: “Hello?”
“Dolphin.”
“Devil! How are you doing?”
“I’m alright. How’s your brother.”
“Completely looped.”
“It’s his anal retentive side taking over. I’m putting you in charge of the situation.” (Some bus driver.)
“Okay... what do I do?”
“Keep talking to him. Bring him back to reality.”
“Alright. No problem. ‘Night.”
“I’m trusting you... good night.”
So I was in charge of the situation, eh? Keep talking to him? Bring him back to reality?
“Jose... what’s wrong?” (He was pacing around running his hands through his hair making strange sounds.) No answer.
“Jose... what’s wrong?”
“I’m dying... oh my god... shit... ohhh... ugg... unnn...”
“You’re not dying. You just ate some mushrooms, remember?”
He walked over to the water faucet and tried to drink water by cupping his hands and then drinking out of his hands. “You want water? Good. Water’s good.” I filled a cup up with water for him and handed it to him.
“Do you guys see what I see?” said Frito.
“No,” I said.
Jose took the water and, without drinking it, walked to the other room and set it down. I followed.
“What’s wrong Jose?”
“Unnnggg...”
“You ate mushrooms, remember?”
He walked over to the faucet again. We repeated this process four or five more times before I started to realize that we could get caught in this loop forever.
“Fuck it,” I thought. And I turned on the TV. K-Dawg and I sat watching the Home Shopping Network. Frito came to and put on Dave Matthews. The three of us started talking about the night and sometimes laughing. Well, Frito had had this wide grin on his face all night.
Finally, my brother came out of his room. He was back to normal. He said he just needed to hear the TV and the voices and the music.
The rest of the night, I just stared at the faces in the wood floor.
So... the point to all of this is this: if you’re dealing with someone who is completely looped, try talking to them. But if that doesn’t work right away, LEAVE THEM ALONE. I think I probably only made it worse for my brother. I know that it only made it worse for myself.