When I opened up my e-mail account I saw a letter from the bosses. My first thought before opening it was that they had finally gotten some customers to book the place and were letting me know, I couldn’t have been more wrong. The letter said that they were giving up on the villa and had talked with the owner about it. It went on to say that he had agreed to terminate the lease as long as they paid a penalty. They had decided to do that and I had to be out in a week. I sat in disbelief for what seemed like forever, what was I gonna do now? I wasn’t entirely convinced that they were telling the truth with the last time they tried to get rid of me it did not go so well. But why now? We had not talked since then and I had thought things had simmered down by now. Of course at this point I still did not know of Adam’s letter, which would have explained it all. Not knowing whether they were on the level or not, I decided I had better not fight it and get out before they or the owner showed up. Stu, Brian, and Gez came over to help me sort it out. Stu said he would help me try to find a new place and started calling around. Within an hour he had replies from a couple different folks that had apartments for rent. The next day we were out checking them out. Disappointment grew with each stop as even with whole buildings standing empty, they were still very dogmatic about me having an I.D. to put on a lease. Even though I had enough money to pay for 6 months, they would not rent to me without an I.D. It was a bit discouraging but as it was only the first day, I still had hope that something would materialize. When the next couple of days passed with no new opportunities, my hope started to fade. On the 4th day, Brian came over and told me that he has a friend with an apartment attached to his house for rent and did not require an I.D. It was in the middle of nowhere but was a very nice place. The guy wanted 300 a month for it which was well worth it but I did not see anyway to make money from there. I asked him if it would be okay to set up my tents in the apartment and since he had a wife and 2 small children, the answer was an emphatic no. He would not risk it and I couldn’t blame him, I thanked him and left with very few options and only a few days remaining.
I had about 1200 euros of my own and another 800 from the business which I decided that I would keep. My thought was that when I left Amsterdam, we had agreed on an 11 month contract with an extension if things went well. Since they were pulling the plug early, I felt that they owed me for the remainder of the contract. Predictably, they did not see it that way as they wanted all of the money back. The feelings of betrayal were still lingering and this brought them right back up to the surface. I felt that I was giving them a great deal as if they would have paid the entire contract then they would have owed me 2500 euros, my taking 800 should have been welcomed. The ironic thing is that they had offered to drive me back to Amsterdam, an offer that would have cost them 1500 euros. They saw it as the servant class taking matters into his own hands and didn’t like it one bit, unfortunately for them, they could do nothing about it. When I saw that I was not going to be able to find a solution that would allow me to bring my current grow, I tried to give the plants away. I had 50 of the best strains money could buy and was shocked when no one wanted them for fear of getting caught. In the end I was able to get Brian and Gez to take 5 plants each and the rest I had to destroy. I am someone who tries to make sure nothing goes to waste and throwing out my plants was a bitter experience. The day before I had to be out I was still without a viable solution when Gez tells me that I can stay at his place until I do. This was great news and we made a plan for me to move in the next day. I spent the final day cleaning the place to make it look better than it had when I arrived. Stu stopped by in the afternoon for his usual bag of weed and told me that he could get me 10.000 euros if I would let a friend of his come over and clean out the place before my bosses got there. He tried to convince me by saying that they would never find me and they didn’t even know my real name, also that I could take the money and get a proper fake I.D., something that would add a nice layer of security to my world. It all sounded good but for one fact, I am not a thief. I felt proud to hold my head up high in life knowing that I had never wronged anybody to become a fugitive and I was not going to change that now. I told him, quite emphatically I might add, that I would not do that and he let it go. That night I moved all my stuff along with Miss Kitty, 4 doors down to Gez’s condo, I wanted to get out before they got there the next morning as I didn’t want to see Duke. The rage I felt towards their betrayal, and his in particular, made me think I might end up beating him mercilessly and I didn’t want that to happen so I avoided the situation all together.
The next morning I got a call from Duke saying that they ( him and Lena ) were at the airport and would see me soon. I told him that I had moved out the night before and that they would find the place in tip-top condition. I also told him that I was taking the remaining money that I had. He instantly started screaming into the phone about how I was not going to take it. When I finished laughing at his tantrum I calmly told him that it was already done and that his only real option was to move on. He ranted incoherently for a bit and then said that he would find me. I told him if he valued his health then he had better hope that he didn’t. With that I hung up the phone and never talked to or saw Duke again. Knowing his stubbornness ( much like my own ), I’m sure he spent many hours trying to figure out how to find me and the best thing about it is that I was only 4 doors away for the next few weeks. Initially I thought that maybe I could find something that would allow me to stay in the area but slowly it dawned on me that I had been living well above my station and without being able to find a legitimate job, I was fooling myself to think I could remain here. One day towards the end of the first week at Gez’s place I had a memory pop in my mind like a flashbulb. What about the hippie camp that Jeff ( the guy who screwed me back in ’06 with the squat ) had moved down to? I did some research online and while it wasn’t easy as this place did not exactly advertise, I did find some info on it. It was called Benificio and it was only about 100 miles from where I was. I found a forum that had some folks chatting about it and said that I would like to come visit to check it out. One guy responded with an offer to come stay at his house which was just up the hill from Benificio. I accepted and the next day I was on a bus to Orgiva, the closest I could get to Benificio, about 4 miles down the hill. The guys name was Paxti and he sent a friend to pick me up at the bus stop. His friend showed up and didn’t speak a word of english but somehow figured out that I was the guy he was looking for and off we went. He took me to a place that looked like a drunk had built. It was a one room dwelling with an outhouse and two horses tied up behind it. It was built on a hill that had been tiered off with orang trees everywhere. It was very beautiful except for the dodgy looking shack, I could only hope that this was not where he had offered to let me stay.
A Continuing Story About Life On The Run