The friends said thank you for the information and hiked back on to the path towards Chinatown.

“Didn’t we just see this woman like 20 minutes ago?” Nathan pointed to the woman who was walking her dog and heading towards them.

“Yeah, I think so. How did she come back around like that?” Sarin wondered

“It’s a glitch in the system. You know what they say about déjà vu’s?”

“In the Alchemists, déjà vu’s are supposed to be signs that mean you are where you’re suppose to be at the time and place. But does anyone know what the word means?” Lory asked.

The foursome spotted hidden entryways on the side, little alleys and fence ways that had been hidden by the overgrown greenery.  Who knows how many they’ve passed by unnoticed just like the river. So many Freeways structures and bridges run and jump across the concrete river people in cars tend to forget. Of course we’re going to have an empty river if no one pays attention to it. It will shrivel up like anything else that’s breathing.

“Hey look at that,” Sarin pointed to a crude cave-man-esque mural of obvious objects and symbols.

“It’s the Story of the Indians,” said Lory. And literally it was, down to the figure of a man on a horse with a cowboy hat. Very unimaginative for a mural. But it was the first, and there was still river and therefore hope that there was some still some great artwork to be seen, to discover.

They were explorers of the river. Charting its course and documenting strange new creatures and creations. Signs of life culture.  They came to a slight plateau where they walked among the short columns of a surface street with cars whizzing just above them. The ground they were walking on was covered with empty spray cans. The brand: The Great American. Graffiti tags over graffiti tags over stenciled figures.

It was a cave, what they found. And that’s what they called it. The cave. They walked through timidly, trying not to disturb anything that might belong to a hobo. They found two cars, trashed and totaled and discussed how these cars could have possible gotten there, under the highway.

The path out of the cave lead them straight to train tracks. They had to head back and look for another way. Roaming around the cave some more, they found a passageway.

“Can we fit through there?” Sarin asked.

Nathan went to check it out. He hunched over a bit and popped his head out. “Come over you guys.” They all followed suit, and when they emerged they found themselves on a surface street.

“Whaaaatt dah-?” a biker cried passing by as they all popped out from under the street.

“We’re like Freeway rats.” Lory said.

They ran across the road to the sidewalk on the other side, close to the river. They followed the curve and crossed the street and took the stairs to the railed walkway on one of the freeways. As they were walking a young kid was strutting the walkway like it was the runway, like it was his runway. Taking each step towards them with sexy stride.  As they passed each other, he glanced at them politely and with his cute elfin green eyes he said, “hi.”

It took all of them by surprise.  There was only one word to describe and Lory said it best, “Fierce.”
And as they passed him they came across a bush of native Los Angeles sunflowers. Thought to be an engendered flora of the city. It must have been planted there to beautify part of the freeway. But the plants and blossoms weren’t tended well and grew erratic and looked up kept.

Lory looked back at the young male, he couldn’t have been more than 17. His dark skin was just glistening in the early afternoon sun. “I wonder where he’s going,” she asked aloud. Loud enough for all to hear among the traffic of speeding cars all going in the same way with no real destination in mind.