I first met Chase when she took my order at Burger King. I had come up from Pepperdine to have lunch with Morgan who worked in the neighboring city of Westlake Village. We were in Agoura which is where you land when you get to the top of Malibu Canyon - otherwise known as Las Virgenes Road.

Chase was very cute! She had short platinum blond hair and a diamond in her nose. Her eyes were an amber color like a cats. When I flirted with her at the counter she decided to take her break. She met Morgan and I outside with our lunch - and hers. She didn't ask before sitting down to join us. We didn't mind!

She told us that, although she had to tone down her make-up for work, she was "High Priestess" of a fairly large - hmmm... What do we call it? A gang? A coven? A gaggle? hehee... Uh... group (?) of punk rockers that spanned most of the area from Agoura up to Thousand Oaks. Under her Burger King hat she hid a 6" mohawk.

I liked Chase instantly and even though we never did more than 'make out' a lot, sexually, I believe her part in my story is worth telling. She is truly a unique individual.

The second time I ran into her, Chase was working at the Mobil station at the top of Las Virgenes. This time her hair was bright blue! Definitely a first for me - blue hair and blonde eyes! How interesting...

I was pleased to find that she recognized me too and we started chatting about my Porsche. How fast it was... How it cornered. How fast did I think i could drive the whole length of the canyon? Now THAT was an interesting question...

I proposed we find out!

She told me to come to her house that evening around 7pm. Funny thing... Chase didn't tell me her mom was also a lesbian!

I arrived at her house and went to the door. I was greeted by about 20 lesbians - all in their late 30's and early 40's - having their own little soiree! I was 19! These women were OLD! AAAAAAGGHHH!

As you can imagine, this was loads of fun for them!

(If you imagine, try this... Has your mom ever done something like yelled your name across several aisles of a grocery store asking you to remind her what type if tampons you wanted? Or gone bra shopping with you and held one up from across the store to ask if you liked that one? You get the idea, right? Now... Did you get the feeling she did it cuz she enjoyed embarassing you? There ya go!)

They grabbed me by my leather jacketed arm and pulled me in the door. Chase's mom introduced herself and said that she was sooo sorry but Chase had called from work and was running a little late. I had caught them during a little party but that they had promised Chase to take good care of me until she got there! OMG! They were mussing up my hair and looking me over. Making comments about me as if I wasn't in the room regarding Chase's taste in women and whether I seemed like a good catch or not... Clearly playing it up and having entirely too much fun.

Thankfully, Chase walked in the door after the longest few minutes in my short young life and we were safe in her room a moment later. (Whew!)

While I watched her do her homework, she told me about herself. She was 17 and a senior at Agoura High. She was a fan of Siouxsie and the Banshees and the Violent Femmes but liked the Go-Go's and B-52's too. (Okay, nothing too horrible!) She usually wore gothic makeup to school, and wore monkey boots with fishnet stockings under her brightly colored sun dresses. What made her truly different though was that she was a role model for all her punk rock little friends! She was Valedictorian! She didn't drink or do drugs! And she spoke fluent French and fluent Spanish!

She and her mom were both gay but had only recently found out about each other! (Who says genetics aren't a factor?) So it was still a novelty, I guess. I recall kissing Chase (call it making out) while sitting on the floor of her bedroom and opening my eyes to see both her mom and her moms girlfriend peeking around the corner in the hall, giggling like a pair of school girls. Chase jumped up so fast she almost knocked my block off!

It was getting late so we got down to the business at hand. We made our plans for the next day and I said goodnight as she walked me out amidst the cat calls and whistles from her mom and all her mom's friends.

The next day I picked her up from school and we went back down to Malibu. Pepperdyne was at the corner of Pacific Coast Hwy and Malibu Canyon. Cellphones were still a few years off so we had to use a payphone that was about 1/4 mile south of the roads' beginning on PCH. So, getting our stop watches out, we timed how long it took to get from the phone to the road. We did it several times to be as accurate as possible deciding we should count from the word "bye" (just before i hung up and ran to the car) to the moment I turned onto the canyon road. There were no traffic lights to get in our way and none throughout the canyon. There was only one stop sign at Mulholland. Cross traffic there was minimal since Mullholland was rarely used as a means to get somewhere unless you were a tourist and since it wasn't the weekend, the concern was negligible. We got our results, and planned to do it the next day. She would be working at the Mobile and be waiting for my call with her stop watch in hand at 3pm. I would be out of school, she would be there and most people would still be at work so traffic would be fairly light.

The distance thru the canyon was exactly 9 miles from the traffic light at Pepperdyne to the Mobil station. According to google maps that drive takes 13 minutes. (Of course, google was not around back then.)

I think I may have cheated death that day. Thank you to my guardian angel. I made it to the top in 6 minutes and 27 seconds!

My car was totaled on the same canyon road just a few months later. If you're wondering if I'd do it again ... No! A person can only be so lucky, after all! Why push it?