Park Days

In the spring of 1988, Daniel Park was a freshman at Wesleyan University, a private liberal arts college in Middletown, Connecticut. His roommate, Ramsey Olson, was a close friend and fellow voyager. “Dude, you've slept enough. The away game starts in thirty minutes!” Daniel rolled over in bed, lifted up his pillow, and buried his head underneath it. Ramsey snatched Daniel's pillow. “She'll wait for us,” Daniel groaned. Nineteen years old, he was handsome, slender, and passionate about three things, philosophy (his chosen field of study), sleeping, and psychedelic drugs. Ramsey threw Daniel's pillow at him. “Get up!” After being assigned the same dorm room at WestCo --short for West College --Daniel and Ramsey became fast friends. They split their time unevenly between intensive episodes of study and recreational drug use, or “voyaging” as they referred to it. WestCo was well known for its vibrant social atmosphere. So it was the preferred dorm for incoming students looking for an engaged, dynamic community space. The far less social dorms, Hewitt and Nicolson, were north and northwest of WestCo, respectively. To the east of WestCo was Clark Hall. Of all the Wesleyan dorms, few were ridiculed as often as Clark Hall. Nicknamed the “Children's Hospital” on account of its antiseptic looking white walls and white tiled floors, Clark Hall residents were predominantly characterized as anti-social and dull --though more truthfully, the residents were everything but. Upon his arrival at Wesleyan, Daniel heard about one resident of Clark Hall in particular, named Juliet. Born in Berkeley, California, she was rumored to have access to pharmaceutical grade psychedelics, most of which were extremely difficult to come by. Whenever Juliet flew home for a visit, she'd return to school with a different psychedelic in hand. Far from a casual drug user, she used the psychedelics as focal points for intentional gatherings she called “away games.” The sole purpose of the games was to expose herself and others to the effects of cutting edge psychedelics in a safe and controlled setting. Only her closest friends and confidants were invited. Away games in the past had involved samplings of high grade LSD and a brominated phenethylamine referred to as 2C-B. But the away game Daniel and Ramsey were heading to centered around the sampling of a rarely synthesized methoxylated tryptamine known as 5-MeO-DIPT, referred to by Juliet as “Foxy.” Daniel had only recently stumbled across a description of 5-MeO-DIPT while searching for, and reading over, old articles by Alexander "Sasha" Shulgin --a pioneering chemist and drug developer. Shulgin and his then-partner, Michael F. Carter, first described the synthesis and pharmacology of the compound in a 1980 Communications in Psychopharmacology article. How exactly Juliet got a hold of 5-MeO-DIPT was for the most part a mystery, but Daniel theorized she had connections to Shulgin himself. While Daniel and Ramsey were on their way to Clark Hall, Ramsey turned and looked at Daniel. “How did we get invited to this again?” “I told you already. I helped Juliet solve a problem.” “I got that part. But what problem exactly did you solve?” “The resident advisors from Juliet's floor got wind of the away games and were preparing to report her. So I stepped in and negotiated a settlement.” “Negotiated a settlement?” “I handed over 250 bucks to each RA.” “Are you fucking nuts?” Daniel paused outside the front entrance to Clark Hall. “Are you serious about doing this or not?” Ramsey's eyes widened. “Yes, I'm serious.” “Well then, don't call me nuts for showing a little commitment. This is more than just a night out on the town for me. This girl's for real. I followed up on the stuff she brought in before and --” Daniel stopped talking and stepped aside as a female student walked out of Clark Hall. As she walked by, she smiled at him and he smiled back. “If it wasn't for Juliet,” Daniel continued in a whisper, “we'd be chomping mushrooms, dropping dirty acid, and smoking nothing but dope for the next four years. I want more than that. I want to voyage. Go places!” Ramsey raised the palms of his hands in a feigned defensive posture. “Alright, alright. Understood.” Daniel pulled the front door open and stepped aside. “After you Mr. Huxley. Her room's on the fourth floor." Ramsey walked in. “Mr. Huxley?” “Aldous Huxley," Daniel said as he followed Ramsey into Clark Hall. "The author of Brave New World, The Doors of Perception --” “Never heard of the guy.” Daniel shook his head. “How the hell did you get into this school?” A few minutes later Daniel was knocking on Juliet's door. A gangly, flat-chested girl with long, stringy, blond hair greeted them. “Daniel,” she said enthusiastically as she stepped aside and gestured for he and Ramsey to enter. “We're just about to get started.” Daniel walked into the dorm room. Ramsey waved. “Name's Ramsey. I'm Daniel's roommate.” The girl sheepishly tucked her hair back behind her ears with the tips of her fingers. “I'm Juliet,” she said with a smile. “It's nice to meet you.” As Juliet shut the door behind Ramsey, she switched off the lights. After a few seconds of near darkness, she plugged in a string of Christmas lights that encircled the ceiling of the room, providing soft amber illumination. Juliet's dorm room, like most Wesleyan dorm rooms, was essentially a small rectangular box with identical beds, desks, and dressers lined up on either side. From the look of the dorm décor, it appeared Juliet and her roommate had dissimilar tastes in music --the giveaway being a poster of a screaming Henry Rollins facing off with a poster of Morrissey from the Smiths. On the floor space between two empty dorm beds were a guy and a girl sitting on a quilted blanket. Daniel and Ramsey took a seat on the bed facing Henry Rollins, while Juliet sat down on the bed facing Morrissey --apparently her side of the room. “Well alright,” Juliet said as she crossed her legs and sat up straight. “It's almost six o'clock. If we start the game now, we should be on schedule to wrap up some time after midnight. For those who aren't aware, other people live on this floor. Although most are gone for the night, including my roommate, it's their choice to return whenever they choose. So please, be respectful of our neighbors and walk quietly to and from the bathroom, should you need to use it.” She held up a Ziploc bag. Inside were six small cylindrical vials, each partially filled with a white crystalline powder. “Tonight we're experiencing 5-MeO-DIPT, a synthetic tryptamine. Or as I like to call it, Foxy." She winked. "Its synthesis was first described eight years ago by Sasha Shulgin, and its production is extremely rare. So feel special. You're about to join an elite group of voyagers who can say they've experienced Foxy first hand. On account of its newness, personal reactions to the compound are relatively unknown. However those who've tried it thus far have reported the experience to be everything from compelling, sexy, and joyful, to nauseating, irritating, and unpleasant.” Ramsey raised a hand. “What exactly do you mean by `nauseating, irritating, and unpleasant'?” “Have you used Acid?” “Yes.” “Have you had shrooms?” “Yes” Juliet smiled. “You'll be fine.” Daniel shot Ramsey a look. “What?” Ramsey whispered. Daniel huffed. “Any more questions?” Juliet asked. The room was silent. “Good. Then let's get started.” Juliet began handing out vials. Once everyone had a vial in hand, she took a jug of orange juice from her nightstand and filled a Dixie cup. Then she opened a vial, dropped the contents into the cup, and swigged the juice down like it was a shot of whiskey. "And we're off!" she said as she started filling cups of juice for others.