He walked into the bathroom to take a long leak. “I hope they don’t ask me for a cup of this,” he told himself with a chuckle. Then he flushed it away.

He clapped his hands in the mirror and said, “I made it back down to earth,” as if the weed had taken him on a journey to outer space. “Now I just need a shower, some eyedrops, brush my teeth, get some breakfast, and I’m off for work as usual.”

AT TWENTY MINUTES TO EIGHT, Ivan walked out of his apartment in a white office shirt, royal blue tie, and dark brown slacks and shoes, while carrying his black leather briefcase.

When he passed Julio’s apartment three doors down, he could hear the kids up and about, playing inside. He then looked down in the parking lot and saw that Julio’s pickup truck was gone.

That guy is up and out like clockwork, he thought. And so am I. The world keeps going no matter what.

Back out on the highway, Ivan took Interstate 8 toward the Beaches of west San Diego before connecting to Interstate 5 North for the offices of Hutch & Mitchell Accounting in North Clairemont. He needed silence again, while thinking about the ideas he had floating around in his mind before, during, and after the high.

So how do I promote parties? I haven’t even thrown a party before, he mused as he drove. I got the perfect company name for it, though. I.D. Promotions. I got E.A. to thank for that. My initials sound as good as his do. And since I’ll be throwing parties with drinking involved, you’ll need an I.D. to get in.

“You can’t beat that.” He grinned from behind the wheel. I.D. Promotions was a solid brand name. “There’s a ton of different ways I can spin that.”

But first I gotta make sure the name is available online this morning.

Then he wondered about Lucina Gallo again.

“That’s a bad ass girl,” he stated. “And the party don’t start until she gets there, hunh?”

I’m gonna have to invite her and her friends out to my parties, then. But would she even come…? I’m still a nobody.

He had to deliberate on that for a minute. As he thought it over, his eyes swayed to the houses on the hills that overlooked Interstate 5. Ivan had to drive past the hilltop houses every day to and from work. The mountainside houses had a clear view of the highway traffic, the downtown skyline, the airport, SeaWorld, Mission Bay Park, the Beaches, and the Pacific Ocean. And although Ivan remained curious about them, he had never even priced them before.

You’re talking about a million dollars for the basic ones, he assumed. But maybe I need to ask somebody.