◆ SpookStack

= his happened pronianenialy, We dint plan any of it. It was al spontaneous. Then, all of a sudden, we heard an old man and an old woman coming al of the house. at are you people doing?" they yelled. And they went on lik — blah, blah, blah. ° that ; The old woman began screeching: "My houseman belongs to the sher- iff's reserve, and I'm going to have him report this. What are you doing?" Tex just looked at the old man and old woman. He just looked at them and smiled, and then he said, cool as you please—wow—-so cool: "We're just getting a drink of water. Sorry we disturbed you.” We watched the newscast, and it really helped me to know that the people were as important as they were. It blew my mind. The old man said, "Is that your car | oe ng street there?" "No. We're walking," — ute cool, man, i. = ee e said real low to us, "Okay, girls get in the car," and w “fast walk eae e double-fast e old man and woman ke walking behind us, and when a et in, the old woman still was jabber- ing away. "Take down their license number." | But the old man said he didn't have anything to write it down with. Tex got in the car and started it, and the man came up and reached in to take the keys, evidently knowing something suspicious was going on. Tex flooded the motor, but then got it going, put it in low and took off. Practically broke the old man's hand, from what I could tell. I just flashed, wow, that was a strange house to pick, out of all the houses—and then we drove down the road and made a couple of turns and stopped at a gas station. The purpose was—we were almost a of each e bought some gas, and the three atusgiz)s took turns goin _pathroom, checking for Dlogd_snats “Syd treking sure we were clean, Te did the same. : But as we drove off, and all the’: way out to the ranch, I noticed there: was blood on the car, and I hoped nobody had seen it. When we got back to the ranch, I went in the kitchen of our hangout (an abandoned western movie set), and got a rag and proceeded to wipe down the whole car for blood. I didn't know where it was, really, but I knew if there was any, like I thought I'd seen, it would be on the steering wheel, and on the door handles as well. Then Charlie came up, and said: "What are you doing home so early?" We girls went down to what we call the bunkhouse and went in, and there was Brenda (Nancy Pittman). Pretty soon, along came Charlie and Tex, and we all sat back. I almost passed out. It was like I wasn't there. It was like a seance. I was sitting there, trying to pay attention to what Charlie was say- ing, and I just couldn't handle it. I laid back on the floor. And I felt as though I was being killed. And Charlie and Tex told me that I would he killed if I betrayed their trust. Charlie, he told me many times: "Sadie, you've been with me two years now. For a long time. If you ever decide to leave, I'll take you and hang you upside down, and slit your throat and use you as an example for everybody else." All of Us Were One But it made no difference to me. Charlie was me, and I was Charlie, and all of us were one at the ranch. And when we got back from Sharon's that night, he just acted as though it never happened. Charlie is the type that lives for each second, and pays no mind to what may happen two seconds later. That's how much he is with it. So Charlie said nothing about what happened at Sharon's, and I went in and slept for a while, but first I think I made love with Clem (Gary Tufts). I'm not sure who I made love with—or if I even made love that night. ‘And when I woke up, it just hit me. I wanted to go and look at the television news reports because I knew it would be in the news. I went into what I call the trailer, an area located next to the Spahn ho there was this little TV in there. , Fyne thine teat ie ws and that was I went wild, and, qu e, out and got Katie and told he aye come watch television with ms, 9 | was on the news.'I called Linda in and I called Tex in and I called Clem in, because Clem knew about it—he had been in the bunkhouse when we got back. Charlie wasn't awake. tched the newscast, and i Hind oft really helped mateknaw at the people were’ as important as they were. It blew my mind. Andvall of us watching made a few comments, like — well, Soul (Charlie) really picked a good one this time. Just happened to have been Sharon Tate, a movie actress, and it happened to have made nationwide and worldwide news which we had no knowledge that that's what it would do. There was a comment made by one of us that what had happened had served its purpose. That was to instill fear in man himself, man, the establishment. That's what it was done for. To instill fear—to cause paranoia. To also show the black man how to go about taking over white man. Then I just put what had hap- pened out of my mind, the best I could. But I couldn't. I just had nothing but pictures and flashes. It was so vivid I just accepted it and sat and watched the pictures in my mind. I tried to appear normal, and did my work on the ranch. But I would look at Katie, and Katie would look “Don't panic the people this time. Let them think it’s going to be OK—so they'll at least go in peace.” at me, and we both knew that was the utmost thing in our minds, that we couldn't put it out of our minds —it was right there. And I'd look at Charlie, and he'd wink at me and give me reassurance that everything was OK, was going to be all right. Not that he said it aloud, He didn't have to say it—I just felt it. That's the way Charlie ‘ was. He didn't need to speak, he just cameurr? Be * ant