La nuit vous entoure comme la mer vous fascine
Et la mort aux yeux monte avec l'écume.
Jean-Baptiste TATI-LOUTARD


Day 48

am

pm (85F)

Rides = nil
Arrival = Los Angeles / Costa Mesa / Laguna Beach
KM travelled = 175
$ spent = $6.00 (Cigarettes, a book about Columbia)
Time passed on the road = nil
km walked = 7



Jeffrey took me to Costa Mesa and then to Laguna Beach. The beach was huge and crowded, it looked like a ant hill. We were the ants in bathing suits. The air was filled with suntan lotion.

I was like a social butterfly, going from one group to another. I met some guys from Québec, one of them was giving out Gitanes. I had not smoked any French cigarettes for a while, and it tasted very good. We spoke of all and nothing, where we were going, where we came from, that kind of stuff. A bit later Jeffrey introduced me to one of his best friends, Manzi. When Manzi and Jeffrey saw me talking to that group they got quite nervous. Jeffrey said: "Let's walk a bit." Manzi explained that her mother was murdered just a month ago and the suspected murderer was connected with that group from Québec. She said that they broke into her mother's place and started to rob her. The police thought that she confronted them and that a struggle ensued. Manzi described her mother as a tough woman who was not afraid of anything. Anyhow, one of the gang members hit her on the head and left the scene. She was dead before the ambulance arrived. Manzi said that she knows the suspect and that after the murder he flew to Mexico.

Manzi was still in shock about the whole affair. She would cry like a baby and then suddenly she would start to laugh. And that laugh was one of the most bizarre things I ever saw and heard. First she would swing / rotate her head from left to right and front to back as if her neck was a big coil. Basically she looked like a Jack in the Box bouncing all over the place. There would be no sound to begin with, just the head movement. Then, the laugh would come up as an uninterrupted string of heehaws, tiny at first but monstrous after few seconds. It was rather disquieting. I was looking at Jeffrey for cues on how to react. Anyway, it was nice meeting her and I sure hope that the police caught up with that guy.

Just before we left the beach, I met another group of French people. They just came back from Disneyland and said that it was the most fabulous thing they ever saw. They said that I should go.

- Daniel



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