Savages

22

Giving White Widow seeds to Ben was like giving Michelangelo some paintbrushes and a blank ceiling and saying—

Go for it, dude.

What Ben did was take the White Widow and selectively breed it until it was even stronger. George Washington Ben Carver created a Frankenstein seed, a mutant X-Men seed, a genetic freak of a seed.

This was a plant that could almost get up, walk around, find a lighter, and fire itself up. Read Wittgenstein, have deep conversations about the meaning of life with you, cocreate a television series for HBO, cause peace in the Middle East (“The Israelis and Palestinians could coexist in two parallel universes, sharing space but not time”). It took a strong man—or a strong woman, in O’s case—to take more than one hit of the Ultra White Widow.

With that as his base, Ben started to create different blends of indica and sativa, all incredibly powerful, and he could customize them for each individual customer. Of which there evolved an increasing number as the word of mouth got around. Whatever it was you wanted to feel or not feel, Ben and Chon had dope for you.

One, then five, then ten, then thirty grow houses, all producing primo 420.

They became almost cultlike figures.

There developed such a devoted following with such a religious loyalty that they even gave themselves a name.

The Church of the Lighter Day Saints.