The tourists were back and the money was better than ever. I had become good friends with a Polish girl who worked with us named Elvira and she started writing down the walk-ins for me with no expectation of any split, so my free money was tripled and I was now making over 1000 guilders a week. The money was starting to pile up and with no banking options available, I turned to my friend Frans from the Nes. I started giving him my excess dough and within a couple of months he had over 10,000 guilders of mine. It was a great feeling to know I could buy anything I wanted but with no solid place to keep anything, I wasn’t in much of a hurry to spend it. Working was a breeze as the place would fill itself up on most days, it was not uncommon to get woken up at ten by Jamie telling me that I didn’t have to come in as the place was full and that I had made a couple hundred guilders in the process. The job was easy enough as it was but this was just silly! Handing out flyers was an illegal act as well as telling people about hotels but the cops were very tolerant of the practice. Most days there would be a big group of us sitting outside of Central Station waiting for tourists and taking turns to go talk to them right in front of the cops, and they would say or do nothing. We could even ride our bikes down the tourists paths and even through the station, it was as if they didn’t care at all and we forgot they were even there. After work we would all meet up at the Hill for happy hour and talk about how lucrative the day had been. It was one of the best summers I had ever lived and I wish it had never ended.
With everything that was great in the summer of 2000, there was still the issue with my living condition. I was still in the moldy room when October came around and it had gone far beyond tolerable. It had been about 6 months since I had moved out of the boat and I had heard nothing from the landlady in that time. I was beginning to think that the dream of my own houseboat was slipping away when one night while having a beer at the Hill, I was talking to Matt, one of the guys that I had lived with in the tiny dorm room. He was very excited about a new place that he and his girlfriend had found and couldn’t wait to tell me about it. His girlfriend was friends with a girl who was leaving and had said that they could have her place. When I inquired as to where it was he told me it was a houseboat over in the Harlemmerstraat neighborhood. When he said that a little voice inside said ‘that’s funny, you’re waiting for a houseboat over in that area too’. I asked a few more questions and with each answer my anxiety grew until I could no longer deny the reality I was hearing… the houseboat I had been waiting for had been given away without even as much as a call. I was furious! I kept my anger within and finished my beer rapidly, I had to get out of there before I blew a gasket. Once outside I found my mind was racing in a thousand different directions and I felt paralyzed, I finally decided that I had to go and confront the landlady to see why she had forsaken me. On the walk over there I was lost in competing feelings of anger, desperation and a glimmer of hope that maybe she had lost my number. When I neared her boat I saw her standing on the deck outside and made eye contact with her as I passed by. When I got to her door I lost my nerve and kept walking right by, I was unsure of what to say to her so I decided to walk around the block and give it some more thought. About half way around the block my phone rings and it’s the landlady, she must have recognized me when we locked eyes. She told me that the boat was now available and that I could come over the following day to see it and decide if i wanted it. We made the appointment and when I hung up the phone the smile on my face was as big as I had ever known.
The next day I was on cloud nine from the moment I woke, work was a breeze and my anticipation was on high when I went over to the boat for our meeting. When I arrived the landlady was not there but the girl who was moving out was and she had her friend Karen (Matt’s girlfriend) with her. I had known Karen even longer than Matt as she had been a barmaid at the Hill since I had arrived. She said hello but had the most confused look on her face as she wondered what the hell I was doing there? She had no idea that the landlady had promised the boat to me and thought she was there to take over from her friend. Before she could ask me why I was there the landlady walked in. She explained to Karen that she had promised it to me over 6 months ago and that I would have the first option on it. She then turned to me and asked if I wanted it? Without a second’s hesitation I enthusiastically said yes I do! I felt bad for Karen as I watched her expression turn to sorrow as she realized that her dream for a houseboat had just been crushed, but I figured better her than me and proceeded to talk terms with the landlady. The boat was a small one-bedroom and it was kinda beat up but the location was primo and it was fully furnished. The price was going to be 1500 guilders a month which was pretty steep but I had a nice bankroll saved and she told me I could have a room-mate to off-set the cost. When I told Frank about it, he was packing his bags before we got off the phone. he loved the idea of living on a boat again as much as I did and the next day we moved into the coolest place either of us had ever lived. I took the bedroom and Frank took one of the big leather couches in the living room. There was a T.V. in each room along with a cheap stereo system, a microwave and stove along with a complete set of pots, pans, dishes and utensils, we had everything we needed to start living the good life.
I once again starting thinking about the guardian angel that had been with me since my journey began and why had I been so fortunate? I couldn’t help but smile when I thought about the delicious irony of me being a weed fugitive and getting to live in the weed capital of the world. Life was certainly treating me kind and I was very appreciative of that fact, I just didn’t know to who or what I was grateful. Frank had recently slowed down on his party ways and gotten back into religion. He was a devout Christian and had even once been in a seminary. When I would ponder on why I was having such good fortune he would not hesitate to tell me the reason was Jesus and that I should be thanking him. I felt dubious about that as I had rejected religion in my youth and was not looking to go backwards in my ways of thinking. He was very persistent and since he had one sitting around and I had never read it, I decided to take up the task of reading the bible. I didn’t expect any kind of spiritual epiphany but at the very least I would have the fuel for a counter argument when it came to religion. Frank also joined a Christian group called YWAM ( Youth With A Mission) and introduced me to the head honcho Tim. Tim was a cool guy and when he saw that I was reading the bible and was fairly open-minded about it, he thought I was cool as well. I think he saw me as a potential new recruit but I enjoyed discussing and even debating religion with him and besides that we shared another passion…pool. He loved the game almost as much as I did and we would get together often to play and discuss the meaning of life. I felt my thirst for knowledge start to grow stronger and stronger in those days, something I hadn’t felt since it had been squashed by the government indoctrination centers ( public schools) in my youth.
A Continuing Story About Life On The Run