I’ve got nothing. I have started a few sentences, backed up,
and started over again several times. Normally when this happens, the result is
a very well received post that came from somewhere I can’t figure out yet how
to consistently access. So, I will ramble on until something clicks, and I can
move forward one paragraph at a time.
And here we go: The Vincident.
Many years ago, when I had just been dragged out of the meth
world for the first time and moved my few belongings to the small town of
Fountain, MN, I had a particularly busy night. I was taken out for a night of
drinking in the town of Lanesboro with a few people I had just met, and that I
needed to impress with my inability to control my behavior while drinking.
Flash forward, after a substantial buzz had been applied
directly to my brain, it was time to go. I was under the impression that I was
leaving with the people that I had come with. I was wrong. One of them did look like one person I had arrived
with, but that was the extent of it. I was ready to keep drinking, so when we
pulled into a place that was described as a learning center, I was confused.
It was dark all around save for a few lights on in
buildings. They looked like cabins, and probably were. We all walked toward one
well-lit cabin and entered. This is when I was brought to what I might call a
dayroom, and told I could sleep there. No, no. This did not compute. “No, I
want to keep drinking!” I thought we were there to party. My suggestion was
dismissed, and off everybody went to sleep. Shitty.
I sat for a while. There was no T.V., or any other form pf
modern entertainment for me to use, so I decided to go for a walk. Now, here’s
where I start telling the story from the point of view of what society would
call the “victims.” I went to a laundry room and promptly dumped out all the
detergent I could find. They said that it looked like I spun around letting it
fly all over the walls. Next, (the actual chain of events remains a mystery as
there is no footage on tape, or in my mind.) I found a defibrillator which I
may or may not have used to discover electricity, and which may have been found
deep in the woods years later.
Next, and I vaguely remember bits of this part but maybe
only because I have heard the story so many times, I found a classroom that was
full of beautiful, shiny instruments, and I took several of them outside and
lined them up for reasons unknown. I think there was a plan going in my head,
but nothing clicks now.
I walked around the campus of Eagle Bluff Environmental Learning Center for about an hour causing general
destruction and chaos. For a while I was going room-to-room, possibly looking
for the people I had come with to see if maybe they had some more booze that
they were hiding. Eventually, I had tried opening one door for the third time,
and somebody became suspicious and came out to confront me. He summoned another who came out of his room
with a stick. This is when I “woke up.” Although the memories aren’t clear, I
recall making up a story about how some people had driven me here and abandoned
me, which was along the lines of truth. We were in a building where there was
no visible eVIdeNCE of my destruction, so they bought it, but they still called
the cops.
When the officer arrived, I explained again my story of how
people tricked me into coming here and then left. The officer and the gentlemen
all agreed that it seemed like some sort of prank, and we all decided no harm
had been done, and I was given a ride back to fountain by the officer. Finally,
I slept.
Early the next morning I received a call from the cop who
had kindly driven me home the night before, and asked if he could come ask me a
few questions. I said okay, and shortly after, three cruisers pulled into the
driveway. Uh-oh. He asked strange things like, “Where’s the defibrillator, and
what were you going to do with thousands of dollars of musical equipment, and
did I make a mess in a laundry room.” Of course, I played dumb, because when
you do that, you don’t incriminate yourself.
There was nothing the officer could do at that point but
walk out of the house and tell the other guys that my lips were sealed. There
was no evidence that I was the one who perpetrated the crime, and no further
visits from law enforcement occurred. But for many in the Fillmore County area,
the event will forever be referred to as The Vincident.
