09.14.69

We grabbed Fred and Daphne as we entered downtown, they were pasting flyers to a telephone pole.  We found Velma at home.  All of us got in Fred's van to go back to the scene.  It has become our team's major mode of transportation at this point.  Fred painted the van with a wavy design and orange flowers.  Apparently some skinhead spray painted a swastika on the side of it while Fred was at the supermarket last week.  He covered it up with a paint job of his own, so now it says "The Mystery Machine" on the side.

We get back to the pick-up, still there and untouched.  Fred ponders why a knight's armor is left out here alone in the middle of the night.  Shaggy cracks jokes and Daphne and Velma investigate the front seat.  We find a delivery slip that says with the name Jameson Hyde White: Prof. of Archaeology, London, England.  The address is the County Museum.  We all look at Velma.  She doesn't know who it is but it's obvious what our next step should be.

It's 2am by this point.  The museum doesn't open until 9.  I can already tell it's going to be a long day.  Shaggy and I look at each other, it's obvious what our next step should be.  We ask Fred to drop us off at a Carl's Jr.

I learned a lot from Shaggy.  Aside from being my best friend, we had a lot in common. We were hungry all the time and we never had any money.  We walked into the place and got a small salad plate.  They had a deal where you can fill your plate, but you don't get to go back for seconds.  I followed Shaggy's lead.  He put the plate on the tray and proceeded to stack a sandwich.  Double stack.  Triple stack.  And then more.  And more.  It was a tower of food.  It was a monument of cleverness, balance, and "Fuck you" to the restaurant chain.  I followed suit.  The manager saw us and he didn't like it, but he wasn't going to do shit about it.  All of our food technically fit on the small salad plate, and we were too fucked up looking anyway.  Forget about it, not worth it.  I learned that you can get away with a lot  of shit if you do it like it's second nature to you.

Shaggy told me about times he was living on the street and eating dog food out of cans and white bread.  He said you balled it up and ate it as fast as you could, swallowing it before too much of it hit your tongue.  I guess there are some things we don't have in common.  I would have used wheat bread, and I would have savored that shit.