20

I'm sitting on the bed, watching TV. Captain Kangaroo is reading Bernie the Bee that Bumbles. Bernie is learning the best you can do is the best you can do, and he's doing the best that he can.

The phone rings. The person checking my mail for me reports "There's an official looking package marked from a court. Should I open it?" "Open it! Open it! Read it to me!" Its good news. I start jumping up and down on the bed. Then I went out to share the good news.

I'm staying in a casino in Laughlin, Nevada, with 3 other people. Camelot is being staged as a musical, and the casino owner offered us lodging to come and provide Renaissance Festival atmosphere. He didn't realize outside the festival walls, the fact we're hippies in funnier-than-usual clothes becomes apparent. Our dusty clothes of the Renaissance Festival look out of place against the shiny backdrop of the casino. We're almost hungry enough to stop being vegetarians long enough to eat the $1.99 Steak Meal. Vegetables are expensive in Nevada, and we don't have enough coin of their realm.

The only respite from the too-shiny casino is a small hotel room. In the six weeks that the four of have shared a motel room, we've experienced every known crisis. I was in the midst of a quiet divorce; everything each of us had on our persons was our own, and I had my name back. I was the lucky one. Jeff was often on the phone to his once-and-former girlfriend. He broke up with her, she went bulemic and then to the hospital. Sue's mom was visiting a mental hospital too, which is an improvement; she is usually homeless, but had found shelter. Vince wanted a baby, and thought he found a willing partner. Once pregnant, she remembered that she was a man-hating lesbian and had an abortion. Last week. Long tearful phone calls, followed by long tearful exchanges amongst the four us. Mourning in a free hotel room in Laughlin, Nevada.

Now I have the first good news we've had to share in six weeks. My divorce is final! I'm a free woman! Riding the escalator up to the theater area where the musical was staged, the security guard asked why I was so uncharacteristically cheerful. My divorce is final! He high fived me and bought me a drink. Thanks! He knew I was 20, a year too young to buy my own.