"It was arterial spray from her roommate Becky that saved Mary Jane's life. There was so much blood he must have thought she was dead too." So begins Crashpad, a story set in the turbulent war year of 1970. Skirts are short, hair is long; we've invaded Southeast Asia and the British have invaded us. College campuses everywhere are erupting with protests; Goldie Hawn go-go dances in a bikini and body paint. Walter Dalrymple is a sophomore at Cal State Long Beach, brilliant, spending his nights doing original research on lasers and his days thinking about a transfer to UC Berkeley and wishing he could get a date. In addition to physics, Walter has grown up with adventure stories -- James Bond, Shell Scott, and Matt Helm -- so he's ready when the nearly-naked girl pounds on his apartment door and asks him to hide her from a crazy guy with a shotgun. It's got to be some kind of gag, right? That's what he thinks until he actually meets the guy with the shotgun. Then Jane takes him to see the body. He's got to help her – after all, she's asked him to take her to the Get-Acquainted Dance. Turn on and tune in. It's time for some sex and drugs and rock and roll. No chicken jokes.
