They Let Her Go

"They Let Me Go"
After checking the jail website and seeing Karrie listed as "released," I left the library and started heading back, through the rain, to the campsite.
Not a half mile up the road there was a figure trundling along the sidewalk towards the path leading to the camp. A ghostlike apparition in black, it turned out to be none other than Karrie. "They let me go," she said of her 11 charges. They were apparently "so minor" that they gave her a courtdate and told her to appear on her 11 charges of "failure to appear."
I did 75 days on my 3 charges.
I think there are things unknown to me about Karrie. Perhaps she is running from an abusive situation in Georgia and is under the umbrella of police protection here. Perhaps the same female judge who gave me 75 days is a champion of females...who knows?
She had been out of jail for about an hour. She had a liter of rum. She had panhandled 8 bucks at the CVS, using the rainstorm as an ally.
The rain let up long enough for a fire to be built and food to be heated up. Burritos were made and eaten. Then, into the tent, where Karrie was as "clingy" as ever. She must have been happy to be out of jail after her 4 hour ordeal. She grabbed my arms and positioned them just so, one under her neck; one over her waist and then bent my legs to conform to her chosen sleeping position- nothing less than Barbie would do for Ken, I suppose. At one point in the night, there was a mosquito buzzing around my ear and I was pinned down and had to extricate myself from her in order to slap it.
Then yesterday, it rained. It REALLY rained. It was raining when I left the library and I gave up on the idea of playing my spot. Back at camp, we built a fire under the tarp and sat by it, drying out. Karrie got sleepy and went into the tent. She gave me her last $1.70 and told me to come back with a 4 pack of beer. I went to the market and was offering to sell some of my cigarettes to people before one guy, who had turned down the offer because he didn't smoke, gave me 5 bucks a few minutes later. I bought the 4 pack and returned to find Karrie asleep and not wanting a beer. The rain continued all night. At one point, the water had pooled into one of the tarps which sags, causing the strings to break and it came crashing down. A cold bath missed us by a few feet.
We Meet Leo
At daybreak, Karrie was up and drinking the 4 pack. Thus inspired, she left to go get (panhandle) a fire log. The rain was just stopping. While she was gone, a new guy in the area named Leo showed up and asked me for a light. He had a whole pack of cigarettes but no lighter. He was carrying a gallon jug of rum, of which three quarters had been removed. He said that he had been drinking all night. He recognized me as "guitar man," and went on profusely about how his house was right next door to the guys from Lynyrd Skynyrd, (below)
After talking for a while, he said that if we went to the store, he would buy us a fire log, as well as an 18 pack of beer, and we would still have the rest of the rum.
I hoped it wasn't presumptuous of me telling him that Karrie wouldn't mind his company.
We built a fire using plastic, which I only use in emergencies. The flames consumed the plastic crates and the clothes and bedding's began to dry out. Karrie consumed a lot of the rum and dried out in only one sense of the word. Leo's company didn't seem to be an imposition upon the dear girl, at least.
Soon Leo fell down. It was good in a way that he fell down because, in his attempts to remain upright he had knocked several other things down, like the spice rack. We helped him up so that he could fall down on a different spot, where we left him. Karrie eventually went into the tent and wrapped up in one of the recently dried sleeping bags. That was how I left them when I came here to the library.
Karrie Attacked By Machete Wielding Madman
Karrie was just here moments ago, riding a bike, which she claimed was abandoned and given to her. She said that Leo had woken up and attacked her with a machete, after claiming that she had stolen his wallet. He slashed the tent a little bit, according to her, but, she ran into the trees and escaped him. "His cigarettes are still there," she said. I guess in his blood lust he forgot his smokes.
Karrie goes through life one attack after the next, it seems.
She said that she called the police and was subsequently "banned" from the campsite, for her own protection, perhaps.
I don't know whether or not to believe her about the machete, the bike, the police, or a lot of things...
It could be that she woke up alone and, since she hates that, concocted the whole story. She had her backpack stuffed with a blanket and an extra jacket, which lent credence to the story, though.