Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas   ::   Thompson Hunter S.

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She was staring at me like I was something that would have to be rendered helpless before life could get back to whatever she considered normal.

My attorney idled over and put his arm around her shoulders. “Mister Duke is my friend,” he said gently. “He lovesartists. Let’s show him your paintings.”

For the first time, I noticed that the room was full of artwork - maybe forty or fifty portraits, some in oil, some charcoal, all more or less the same size and all the same face.

They were propped up on every flat surface. The face was vaguely familiar, but I couldn’t get a fix on it. It was a girl with a mouth, a big nose and extremely glittering eyes - a demonically sensual face; the kind of overstated, embarrassingly dramatic renderings that you find in the bedrooms of young female art students who get hung up on horses.

‘Lucy paints portraits of Barbra Streisand,” my attorney explained. “She’s an artist up in Montana…“ He turned to the girl.

“What’s that town where you live?”

She stared at him, then at me, then back at my attorney again. Then

finally she said, “Kalispel. Way up north. I drew these from TV.”

My attorney nodded eagerly. “Fantastic,” he said. “She came all the way down here just to give all these

portraits to Barbra. We’re going over to the Americana Hotel tonight, and meet her backstage.”

Lucy smiled bashfully. There was no more hostility in her. I dropped the Mace can and stood up. We obviously had a serious case on our hands. I hadn’t counted on this:

Finding my attorney whacked on acid and locked into some kind of preternatural courtship.

“Well,” I said, “I guess they’ve brought the car around by now. Let’s get the stuff out of the trunk.”

He nodded eagerly. “Absolutely, let’s get the stuff.” Hesmiled at Lucy. “We’ll be right back. Don’t answer the phone if it rings.”

She grinned and made the one - finger Jesus freak sign. “God bless,” she said.

My attorney pulled on a pair of elephant - leg pants and a glaze - black shirt, then we hurried out of the room. I could see he was having trouble getting oriented, but I refused to humor him.

“Well…“ I said. “What are your plans?”

“Plans?”

We were waiting for the elevator.

“Lucy,” I said.

He shook his head, struggling to focus on the question.

“Shit,” he said finally. “I met her on the plane and I had all that acid.” He shrugged.

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