Shangri La!

"I bought us tickets to Hippie Fest," my best friend told me with excitement over the phone.

"To what?" I replied with confusion.

"Hippie Fest... you know... Shangri La!"

I was confused by this, and wondered why I had been her person of choice for this adventure.

We had been best friends since Junior High. We had experienced all of life's highs and lows together from our preteen years through our early thirties. We had gone through some breaks in our friendship, but always found our way back to each other, and our comfortable friendship.

She had always been the wild one, and seemingly carefree. There was always some new adventure around the corner. Myself, well lets just say she had to pull me out of my "Nerd Shell" as she called it. I was raised very conservatively, and was considerably more naive than her. She had taken me under her wing in the 7th grade, and made it her mission to show me the ways of the world.

My best friend had recently been diagnosed with Cancer, though her Doctor had advised her it was in remission. For the time being, she was reacting well to her current treatment. She explained to me that she wanted to go, but didn't feel like her Mom, or her boyfriend was the right companion for this adventure. It had to be me. It had to be our epic adventure. I wasn't expected to do anything other than attend. She had already paid for the tickets, and she would drive as well.

"Just pack some food, and a tent. I will take care of the rest," she told me.

I was unfamiliar with the event. I went online and researched the bands involved, and the festival environment itself. It looked to be exactly what she had called it. A Hippie Festival. The music appeared to be a lot of Folksy looking bands that did not appeal to me. Though we were best friends, our taste in music was very different. The whole thing looked to be much more within her comfort zone than in my own.

I thought about it, and thought about my best friend's questionable health. I decided to go along with her since she was so excited.

A couple of weeks later, I had food, bedding, and a tent, packed along with what I hoped was suitable clothing for the event. I also brought plenty of alcohol, figuring if nothing else, inebriation would help if the music was too unbearable. I wore a pair of pleather pants, a bucket hat, and a tie dyed shirt with long flowing sleeves that I hoped looked hippie enough for her liking.

She pulled up in her SUV, and I greeted her with a smile.

"Is this outfit OK?" I asked with concern.

"I'm just happy you aren't wearing your cowboy hat." She replied with a chuckle.

We loaded our supplies and headed out for our adventure. The drive was around four hours from our home. As we drove, she was silent. I found this odd, as she usually had something to say, or more so, something to question me about regarding my own life. I was recently divorced, had moved in with a new boyfriend, and was dealing with the complications of my work place closing. I tried not to burden her with these details as I knew that her health struggles alone were enough of a burden.

Finally, I broke the silence. "You're awfully quiet." I probed.

Her face dropped, knowing that I had caught on to her game.

"The doctor called me yesterday. He said he had some results for me, but he didn't want to talk about them over the phone." As she spoke, she placed her hand on the cooler next to her which contained the experimental drugs she was taking to keep her cancer in check.

Now I understood.

I took note of her appearance. Cancer had already taken its toll on her. Her long, thick, blonde hair had darkened. It was now very short, and thin, though she still managed to make it look good. Her eyebrows and eyelashes had grown back, though they were also darker, and much thinner than they had been before. She had always been thinner than I was, but now, looking at her face cancer had effect there as well. Her high cheekbones were very prominent, and her blue eyes appeared to have sunken into her face. I took note of her clothing. Though well dressed, the t-shirt she wore was baggy, especially around her thin arms, and her pants were held up by a belt. It appeared they no longer fit her thinning figure. I knew she had been avoiding buying different clothing in hopes that she would recover.

We didn't speak it, but I knew that we both assumed the worst. Her cancer was back. There was no further discussion on the topic. I kept my thoughts to myself, instead changing the subject to talk about the festival.

"So what do we do when we get there?" I asked.

"We call my friend. He and a group of other friends will be there to meet us and help get our stuff to where they are camped. They saved us a spot." Her face lit up as she spoke.

The rest of the ride we chatted away, and I pretended to be excited about attending the festival. I let her talk about her favorite band who also happened to be putting on the yearly festival. She was excited to see all of the bands, eat some fair food, and hang out with her friends, but mostly to see that band.

It was cold and had recently rained when we arrived. A man pointed us to where we should park, and explained that the festival area and camping were quite a ways away.

I was grateful that we had both brought wagons to tote our gear to where we would be staying for the next two days. I was also grateful that I had the foresight to bring warm, and cold weather clothing. What I had not thought of was rain. Luckily, my best friend had. She packed along disposable rain coats for both of us, as well as umbrellas.

She called her friend and he showed up at the gate to help us get to our spot. I was amazed at the never ending sea of tents in the camping area. I was sure I had never seen anything like it before. There was very little room between the tents, and most of the grass was covered. It appeared that any available real estate in the campground had been taken by tents, grouped into small villages of friends. It was very clear that these people took this festival seriously. There were painted cardboard signs amongst the small groups of tents, bearing the names that the groups of people had bestowed upon themselves. Some had strings of lights hanging from nearby trees. Some had stuffed animals holding their signs. One group even placed a kayak in the large mud puddle near their tent village. Groups of people sat near their tents, some playing tambourines and singing, some enjoying the smoke and warmth of a campfire. Some even wore costumes.

To my surprise, I could hear a Hip Hop beat coming from one of the stages near us. I was hoping that boded well for my ears.

As we set up, I began to feel at ease with the group of easy going friends she had mentioned we would find at the festival. I soon discovered that there was no reason for me to feel uncomfortable with these people. They were welcoming, and happy to share whatever they had with me, though I had never met any of them.

Her pale face seemed to gain a bit more color, the longer we were at the festival. It seemed to breathe the life back into her. I loosened up, and allowed myself to be open to this new environment. After all, if it was good for her, that was all that mattered.

It rained more throughout the weekend, and we trudged through mud to get to each of the shows, some indoors, some outdoors on large makeshift stages. We did not let the weather bother us. We enjoyed the music, the antics of the people around us, cooking over a campfire, and honestly, I even began to enjoy the music. Each day was an adventure, and at night we took sleep as we could get it due to the continual party that surrounded us.

On our last day at the festival, it was finally time for my best friend's favorite band to play.

I let her lead the way to the front of the large group of people to watch them on the main stage. There were acrobats, pyrotechnics, and instruments I had never seen before as the band performed. People in the audience bounced beach balls around throughout the crowd, and cheered with joy. It was truly an electric environment.

Then, finally it was time for her favorite song. I watched my best friend sing, jump up and down, and dance with energy that I hadn't seen since before her ailment started. I followed suit as best I could, trying to match her enthusiasm.

We stayed for a couple more songs, but then all of the excitement caught up with her.

"I'm tired. I think I need go back to camp and lay down." she said.

I looked at her flushed face and quickly agreed. We got back to our tents, and she went in without any further word. I did not see her the rest of the night.

The next day we packed up and went home. She helped me unload my gear from her vehicle, then left, a hand waving out her window as she pulled out of my drive. I could not be sure, but I thought I saw a small tear escape her eye as she was leaving.

It was not long after our epic adventure that she found out her cancer was definitively back. Things moved quickly from there. There were more surgeries, and trips to the hospital. Eventually it was determined that there was nothing else they could do. She went into hospice care, and was gone less than a month later.

It turned out that the music festival that I did not know if I wanted to attend was our last great adventure together, and attending it was the best decision I ever made.