Fear and Loating in Las Vegas. A Savage Journey to the Heart of the American Dream

The waitress was clearly in shock. The sight of the blade, jerked out in the heat of an argument, had apparently triggered bad memories. The glazed look in her eyes said her throat had been cut. She was still in the grip of paralysis when we left.

9. Breakdown on Paradice Blvd.

EDITOR’S NOTE:

At this point in the chronology, Dr. Duke appears to have broken down completely; the original manuscript is so splintered that we were forced to seek out the original tape record ing and transcribe it verbatim. We made no attempt to edit this section, and Dr. Duke refused even to read it. There was only one way to reach him. The only address/contact we had, during this period, was a mobile phone unit somewhere on Highway 61—and all efforts to reach Duke at that number proved futile. In the interests of journalistic purity, we are publishing the following section just as it came off the tape—one of many that Duke submitted for purposes of verification—along with manuscript. According to the tape, this section follows an episode involving Duke, his attorney and a waitress at an all—diner in North Vegas. The rationale for the following section appears to be based on a feeling—shared by both Duke and his attorney—that the American Dream would to be sought out somewhere far beyond the dreary confines District Attorneys’ Confrrence on Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs.

The transcription begins somewhere on the Northeast out of Las Vegas—zooming along Paradise Road in the White Whale ...

Att’y: Boulder City is to the right. Is that a town?

Duke: Yeah

Att’y: Let’s go to Boulder City.

Duke: All right. Let’s get some coffee somewhere ...

Att’y: Right up here, Terry’s Taco Stand, USA. I could go for a taco. Five for a buck.

Duke: Sounds horrible. I’d rather go somewhere where’s there’s one for 5O cents.

Att’y: No ...this might be the last chance we get for tacos.

Duke:. . . I need some coffee.

Att’y: I want tacos

Duke: Five for a buck, that’s like ...five hamburgers for a buck.

Att’y: No ...don’t judge a taco by its price.

Duke: You think you might make a deal?

Att’y: I might. There’s a hamburger for 29 cents. Tacos are 29 cents. It’s just a cheap place, that’s all.

Duke: Go bargain with them..

[Only garbled sounds here.-Ed.]

Att’y: ...Hello.

Waitress: May I help you?

Att’y: Yeah, you have tacos here? Are they Mexican tacos or just regular tacos? I mean, do you have chili in them and things like that?

Waitress: We have cheese and lettuce, and we have sauce, you know, put on them.

Att’y: I mean do you guarantee that they are authentic Mexican tacos?

Waitress: ...I don’t know. Hey Lou, do we have authentic Mexican tacos?

Woman’s voice from kitchen: What?

Waitress: Authentic Mexican tacos.

Lou: We have tacos. I don’t know how Mexican they are.

Att’y: Yeah, well, I just want to make sure I get what I’m paying for. ’Cause they’re five for a dollar? I’ll take five of them.

Duke: Taco burger, what’s that?

(Sound. of diesel engine truck. -Ed.]

Att’y: That’s a hamburger. with a taco in the middle.

Duke: A taco on a bun.

Att’y: I betcha your tacos are just hamburgers with a shell sad of a bun.

Waitress: I don’t know

Att’y: You just started working here?

Waitress: Today.

Att’y: I thought so, I’ve never saw you here before. You go school around here?

Waitress: No, I don’t go to school.

Duke: Oh? Why not? Are you sick?

Att’y: Never mind that. We came here for tacos.

[Pause.]

Att’y: As your attorney I advise you to get the chiliburger. a hamburger with chili on it.

Duke: That’s too heavy for me.