Please do not republish. This post on Peakd is the only official copy. Published 4/14/22. This is a work of fiction and all names from any real events have been changed. Some parts of this e-book are made up and others based on real stories/events. Overall it should be considered a work of Fiction NOT an autobiography/historical work. The target audience for this book is adults +21. Any votes or re-blogs are highly appreciated.

Chapter 1: https://peakd.com/hive-199275/@taco-pizza/morning-glory-and-the-chai-shop-chapter-1
Chapter 2: https://peakd.com/hive-199275/@taco-pizza/morning-glory-and-the-chai-shop-chapter-2
Chapter 3: https://peakd.com/@taco-pizza/morning-glory-and-the-chai-shop-chapter-3
Chapter 4: https://peakd.com/hive-199275/@taco-pizza/morning-glory-and-the-chai-shop-chapter-4
Chapters 5-6: https://peakd.com/hive-199275/@taco-pizza/morning-glory-and-the-chai-shop-chapters-5-6
chapters 7-8: https://peakd.com/scholarandscribe/@taco-pizza/morning-glory-and-the-chai-shop-chapter-7-8
Chapters 9-10: https://peakd.com/hive-199275/@taco-pizza/morning-glory-and-the-chai-shop-chapters-9-10
Chapters 11-13: https://peakd.com/scholarandscribe/@taco-pizza/morning-glory-and-the-chai-shop-chapters-11-13

Chapter 14

The summer turned to fall. I felt depressed after the death of Laptop Bob and the days stretched on. The Chai Shop became a dreary place to hang out, so I started spending time in the Metaphysical Library, a strange place where I read rare occult books and hid away from the rainy, late November weather. My friend Jacob volunteered at the library. It was located right on Ballard Avenue; there was a staircase going down to the library that you would miss if you blinked.

The owner of the Metaphysical Library was a strange man. He had long hair that was balding severely in the front. He always had a paranoid and disturbed look. I don't think I had one conversation with him because he basically just mumbled. One day, I saw him crossing the street by the library while sitting in his swivel chair like he was in a wheelchair! We used to make jokes that he had read the wrong book accidentally and never recovered.

I spent a lot of time at the Ballard Bowl, the park across the street from the Metaphysical Library back entrance. We would take turns stealing food from the Qchef Grocery Story across the street. Bags of shrimp, baguettes, Salt and Vinegar Chips, sandwiches, mangoes, fancy salads, expensive Brazilian nuts, fried chicken strips and jalapeno poppers. We ate like Kings, until Ryan's girlfriend Ellie got caught with a roll of sushi stuffed into her purse.

Daniel and I made a pact to quit The Funktastics together. Jim Fantastic was slowly losing his mind, talking how we would be doing a European tour soon. He was becoming a toxic girlfriend that we were afraid to break up with. It didn't smell like he was showering. He was making lots of alien artwork, his wall covered in badly framed "drawings". He was smoking more and more cigarettes. We could feel the funktastic bubble about to burst.

Daniel and I would sit in the park and play Mystic: The Gatherer trading cards. He made some practice swords out of cardboard and duct tape and taught me the art of Kendo. We would have intense, fencing style battles where the one who got smacked in the face with a fake sword was the loser. Daniel had a set of nunchucks that he used to carry around as a homeless person. He could strike with an amazing speed and power that was almost unbelievable. Daniel would strike tree branch after tree branch, breaking each one in half.

In an attempt to end my depression, I picked up a bunch of mushroom from Sargent and invited everyone on a big trip. We all met up at Everybody's House. Owen and Mr. President were there. Dana showed up with his baseball glove. The Chai shop barista named Luke and his brother Ben were there. A younger man named Montana who lived by the park came with us as well. We started off the trip by going into the basement and playing Steve Miller Band's debut album: Children of the Future. "The beauty of time is that it's snowing," I said. Owen looked over at me, his eyes severely dilated. He looked like an owl. "I know exactly what you mean," he said. We were downstairs where the band practices happened. There were keyboards, guitars and a large drum set. We were burning several sticks of incense. It looked like a scene from That 70s show. After a while, we felt the desire as a group to go outside.

There was a strange park near Everybody's house that children never played at. Instead of a playground, there was a large concrete statue of a couch and end table with a [concrete] lamp. We sat in the grass together, huddled in a circle. Everyone fell silent after a while. I stared out across the grass lawn, which slowly started to slither back and forth like a snake. The color of the lawn started to slowly change hue; first blue and then yellow etc. A strange figure was limping towards us in the background. He got closer and closer, he was heading right for us. This was no hallucination.

"Derek, is that you?!"

Chapter 15

Derek explained to us that he had developed a bit of a cocaine habit. In order to take the heat off some of the money he was spending he ordered a front on some extra cannabis to sell. He ended up owing this dealer tons of money that he couldn't pay back. None of this would have really mattered in the long run except Derek's dealer was found brutally murdered and stuffed into a garbage dumpster. The police went into the dealers apartment and found a piece of paper on his desk that simply said: "Derek owes me 4 grand".

Derek was arrested on suspicion of murder. "Why didn't you call someone to bail you out", I said, "That doesn't sound like real evidence." Derek laughed to himself and looked at the ground. "None of my friends could afford the bail." Derek took a long drag from his cigarette and closed his eyes. "Anyways like I was saying ... The police checked on another suspect a few days ago. The guy was still getting rid of evidence. Not the brightest murderer. He was still bleaching his house down and painting over blood stains. The police arrested him with a bottle of bleach in his hands."

Derek took me aside from the group to talk to me. "I know you are having a nice pow wow with your friends here, but we need to get over to those plants. We should have harvested them a week ago." Derek looked down at his watch. "Are you sober enough to chop down some plants right now?" I said goodbye to my friends and walked over to Derek's old ford van. The world still had a magical glow to it, like you would see in a movie about fairies. When I slammed the van door shut, the sound echoed: Slam ... slam .. slam ... slam.

We stopped over at my friend Steve's house, where Ryan was renting a room. The one who collected opium flowers with me. He lived in the middle of the living room, with tapestries hanging down from the ceiling as a makeshift wall. On the inside, it looked like a giant blanket for that a child would make. There was a couch with a few blankets on it. The whole "room" reeked of cigarettes. Steve worked at his parents bakery, he offered us savory pastries with ham and cheese to eat while we waited. Ryan offered us American Soul cigarettes.

Steve had a white dog that I loved named Penny. We would sit in the backyard smoking cigarettes. Penny the dog would run around in circles, she had created a track in the overgrown grass that wound around the backyard. There was a giant, clay ashtray in the shape of a mans face with his mouth open that Steve had created. He was one of the best artists that hung out at The Chai Shop. Steve didn't "believe" in selling his artwork, so it cluttered the house like he was a hoarder.

Derek hired Steve and Ryan to harvest the plants at Recovery Park with us. We each had a backpack full of garbage bags. We walked down towards the beach and hung out until sunset; skipping rocks and dipping our feet into the water. It was much too cold to swim during the evening. After the sun had set, we started to hike up the pathway that led to the cliffside. Our "secret entrance" in the blackberry bushes was completely overgrown. We had to find a different entrance by winding around the blackberries and then dropping downwards towards the garden. When we reached the flat area where the garden was, we were shocked to see that the plants were completely gone.

The End.