Treachery

I first met Rick in San Diego. He was neighbor to my friend Ty whom I was visiting. Rick was a blond, muscular surfer and though I wasn’t attracted to him and didn’t even really like him I couldn’t quite resist his attempts at charming me. He gave me a gift, a crystal egg with a Scorpio engraved in the bottom and though I didn’t want it, it is not easy to say no to a gift. It’s costliness impressed me and I guess I was flattered that this tough little hustler had fallen for my charms. So, I thought he was my friend, but I should have made note of Rick’s other ‘gift’ giving. He made a picture from some scraps he had asked me for and showed it to Ty on his birthday in such a way that Ty assumed it was a gift. Later Rick corrected Ty’s false assumption and went off with his picture.
Rick came later to visit me at Vajrapani in the company of a charming boy, a friend of Ty that I had also met in San Diego. I was growing some plants in pots and I just needed a hand moving them up in the forest to a sunny spot where they could mature, and the boys kindly helped me carrying them.

Next time I saw Rick was in the autumn. This time he came alone to my cabin late in the afternoon, saying he couldn’t stay long because his ride was waiting at the bottom of the hill. I was pleased because I was not in the mood to entertain him, but shortly after he left he was back again. His ride had left! I was stuck with him and all I could think of was to get rid of him, so I agreed to drive him to town so he could catch a bus. On the way back from town I suddenly realized that he had set me up. I rushed up to the secret spot and my suspicion was confirmed: the plants were gone.

I called Ty and he said he would try to get the plants back.
Ty’s sister had a boy friend, Tom, who was a kind of superman, incredibly strong. We had all camped out together in the summer and he had exhausted us all with his enormous energy. He came to Vajrapani and we took a walk while he told me his story.
When he heard from Ty how Rick had stolen my plants he decided to take revenge. He kidnapped Rick and took him to his parents’ house to try and get the plants back. The parents were there but Tom had a knife on Rick’s throat and when the father tried to get at the phone Tom tore it out of the wall and then fled by jumping from the cliff into the ocean.

When we came back to my cabin the cops were there, but Tom turned around and fled as soon as he saw them. They took me down to their car and at one point I was handcuffed sitting in the back of the car, but they thought better of it and let me go with a message for Tom to give himself up. When it got dark I decided to put a note on Tom’s car not to leave without seeing me but as I approached the car in the dark a shot rang out. The cops were convinced he was a dangerous criminal and they were waiting for him. Now they thought he was in my cabin and that I was scouting for him but I told them they could come and check the cabin out.
When Tom finally came back to the cabin we talked it through and he agreed to give himself up. In the end the charges against him were dropped after Rick had tried extortion and the judge realized who the real criminal was.