YOU SAW IT HERE FIRST!
Thrasher Ramp Plans Revamped for the 90's
Tommy Guerrero
RAMPS
Ground-to-Grind Goldlines for
Constructing Site Structures
PLANS INCLUDE
HALFPIPE MINI RAMP BOWL WILD
TIMES STREET STRUCTURES ACCESSORIES
LEGALITY LIABILITY WOOD & TOOL LISTS
Send Check or
Money Order
(U.S. funds only):
Name (please print)
Address
City
THRASHER
MAGAZINE
TILL ONLY
$4.25
Post Office Box
884570 S.F. CA
94188-4570
Date of Birth
State
Zip
Amt. Encl
(Chack or Money Order)
A.R-6
VOODOO QUEEN "Come dance forever with us." She
(From page 43) into the darkness, a
warm wind rushing past his face,
blowing out his long hair.
Now it was so black that Vance
couldn't see. He could only sense.
A curve here. A curve to the left there.
Another curve to the left. Up ahead
light, the color of deBrassier's teeth.
surrounded by dreadlock darkness.
As he swung into the light, Vance
saw them in the glow of torches, the
garage filled with men and women
with white kerchiefs around their
foreheads. Half were whites, half
blacks. They danced to drums and
banjos round fires and passed a
snake above their heads, each
chanting "Voodoo Magnian" as the
snake touched their feverish fingers.
In their center was a tall banana-
colored woman in a blue dress that
reached to her ankles. She, too, wore
a white kerchief, with seven knots
that stuck out straight. Gold hoop
earrings glittered from the fires. Gold
bracelets dangled from her arms.
Vance knew her face from the T-
shirt-Marie Laveaul She looked at
him, with the same smile as she did
before, then turned to the dancers
and threw out her hands, chanting:
Houm! Dance Calinda!/ Voodoo!
Magnian!/Aie! Ale! / Dance Calindal
Swirling, the men and women
clapped to the beat of Laveau's voice
and the drums. And they sang:
Eh, Ye, Ye Mamzelle / Ya, yé, yes i
konin tou, gri-gri/Li,ti, kowri, avec
vieux kikordi / Oh, ouai, yé Mamzelle
Marie/Le konin bien & Grand Zombi
On the word "Zombi," Sukki
appeared in front of Vance. Where
his skin had been, there was now
bone. Where his eyes had been,
Vance saw a reflection of himself sur
rounded by skeletons.
"You've wanted to win, mon
cheri," Sukki said, his voice very low
and distant, blending in with the
drums and chanting "Well, you
have. Now you will replace me and
wander the world until someone as
arrogant as yourself challenges you."
Head bowed, Sukki turned toward
Marie Laveau and the dancers. "I
give you my death. You've earned it."
He pointed to the floor of the garage.
It swelled and buckled. From out of
the broken concrete rose the dead
who had been buried there two hun-
dred years ago during one of the
plagues and fires. They danced
among the others, their faces still
purple with pustules or swollen black
from burns.
"You were told to stay away from
cemeteries Sukki said. "Were you
not, mon cher?" Then he laughed
a skeleton laugh with his golden
teeth. "But how were you to know
that over one of the forgotten graves
they built this thing, this Superdome?
Where you play games. Where you
picked a president."
"Come, my child," Marie Laveau
called from the center of the circle.
held a giant red fish over her head.
Her kerchief had been torn off, long
black hair swelled round her now
naked shoulders.
The same force that guided Vance
down the ramp now pulled him
toward Marie Laveau.
"No," Vance screamed. He was
not the boy who ripped down the
ramp into the tunnel. "Help me!"
"But there is no help," Sukki said,
eyes now black pits. He paused for
a moment, his face human again. "I
pity you, child, because I know the
suffering you will endure. I only hope
it is brief, perhaps ten thousand
Earth years, before another strutting
fool challenges you."
"Come to me," Marie Laveau
repeated, her naked body sweat-
glistening, the red fish still above her
head. "Come dance with me."
Unable to resist, Vance moved for-
ward. Then, from the top of the ramp
came a great stamping. It rever-
berated throughout the underground
garage. The dancers stopped. Marie
Laveau looked to her left. The stamp-
ing turned into a march like an
earthquake.
In the light, stood the three soldiers
from the Vietnam Memorial, their
weapons poised.
The black trooper opened up with
his M-16 on full automatic. The other
grunt, on one knee, fired round after
round from his pistol. Vance's uncle
with the grenade launcher fired
round after round at the dancers.
They all disappeared into smoke,
steel and scream. Marie Laveau
exploded into thousands of toads,
each with a tiny, wriggling replica of
Sukki deBrassier in its mouth. Then
each toad and each Sukki deBras-
sier vaporized into dust.
The vets picked up Vance and car-
ried him like their wounded comrade
up the ramp toward the sunlight.
As they thumped upward, the
black trooper whispered, "We who
have known an even worse darkness,
only we could have saved you.""
And Vance's uncle said, "I want
you to grow up to be the man I never
was. Do you understand, Vance?"
The boy understood.
At the top of the ramp, just where
it entered the light, the men placed
Vance down. Vance walked out from
the darkness alone, holding his
skateboard. Never had the sun felt
so good.
The Metairie boys surrounded him.
All wanted to know who won.
"They did," Vance said pointing to
the statue of the Vietnam vets in the
distance. "They did."
Then, for the first time that he
could remember, Vance broke into
tears. He was not in the least
ashamed of the emotion he dis-
played in front of his friends, who
stared at him like he was a creature
from another world.
SKATE
RAGS
P.O. BOX 84 CARDIFF
SEND DOLLAR
90
92007
SS
SMOKIN'CURBS
SKATERAGS
UR
CA