After the second night of sleeping 3 deep in Rook's explorer in the east side apartment complex parking lot we had decided we should figure out somewhere to relocate before we wore out our stay. Since Becca was the only one of our crew that had any time living in Vegas she told us that she had frequented an area just west of the south end of the strip and would take us there and introduce us to here street family. One last time we piled into the explorer for an evening of shoulder to shoulder slumber.
6 a.m we were greeted by the maintenance man of the apartment as well as the manager and 2 of Las Vegas Metro's finest. They asked us for ID (of witch I had none) and what we were doing sleeping in the car. We fended them off telling them that we just got into town 2 nights before and that we were moving on that morning. We all came back clear on the warrant check and they let us take off but not before patting down all three of us and briskly searching the Truck. I cannot blame them. there was so much stuff piled in the explorer, none of which was fresh or clean I might add. Now I had no physical license, but they did verify that I did have a valid CA License however they were reluctant to let me drive off with no physical proof. Something about "unlawful procedure" which to me sounded like coptalk for " i just want to screw with you a little more". At this point in my life I had never been to jail, nothing outside of a couple traffic tickets that were paid, so I decided to lean on the cops a little in hopes of either getting sent on our way or taking the "trespassing" on my back so we would then be let go. It went something like this;
Me: "So we can go now?"
Cop A: "No, now sit down i told you, you dont have a license"
Me: "just not my physical license but your computer said the California license number was my valid current number right"
Cop B to Cop A: "He's got a current CA license and his picture is a match"
Cop A to Cop B: "What do you wanna do with them?"
Cop B to me: "Where you guys headed again"
Becca: "Trop and Valley View"
Cop A: "I see you driving around in this area after you leave this parking lot I'm going to arrest all three of you and impound your car. Got it??
All three of us "got it!"
Cop B to me " heres the keys. DONT let us catch either of these 2 driving either."
Me: "I wont"
And after 2 hours of searching, waiting and useless questioning we were on our way.
We Arrived at the In-and-Out at Trop and Valley view about 10:30am and pulled into the Rebel Gas station where Rook wanted to get a beer. I instantly noticed the high volume of homeless and wondered how many people Becca actually knew. It didnt take long to get my answer. As Rook headed toward the front door of the Rebel Becca stepped out of the van and was greeted like a celebrity. about half a dozen vagrants practically ran to welcome her "home". I stayed in the car until Becca returned and by this time I was ready to pop the question.
"So, can you get me any black down here?" I asked.
"I'm sure I can but are you sure you wanna do that you have been clean for awhile and you dont seem that sick?" Becca replied.
"Well, I dont have any money and Im not gonna Hustle for drug money and Im not gonna shoot it so if you can get me some for free then yea I'm sure" I told Becca.
"Your sure?" becca repeated.
"YES IM SURE" I yelled.
"Ok then I have someone that owes me down at the tunnels so as long as you are willing to come with me Ill introduce you and should be able to hook you up with something. might not be much but Itll be free" Becca said.
"Sounds good" I agreed. "One question though what are 'the tunnels'?"
"You''ll see. c'mon I'll show you." Becca commanded
we rounded the corner and arrived to a side street that looked empty. just a closed business office buildings and a 24 hour storage facility to the south side of the road and what looked like a sandy plot of hilly desert to the north side.
"we're here! you still wanna get high?" becca said with a smartass tone?
"its only been 2 minutes of course I do but theres nobody out here" I said
"thats what its supposed to look like. follow me and we'll get you some dope." Becca replied
as we went down the sandy hill back to the east pointing towards the strip I can remember a mixture of shock, fear, and amazement as we came upon the tunnel. if you didnt know it was there you wouldnt and if you did know it was there you wouldnt want to. The Tunnel was at that time the dirtiest, darkest, most sorrowful place I had ever seen. I instantly had second thoughts about what I was getting myself into. About 30 yards into the tunnel Becca put her hand on a mans back who was laying down on a mattress on the tunnel floor and shook him a little;
"Josh.. Josh wake up. Its me Becca."
The man rolled over and pulled the sheet back. Josh was an uncomfortable sight to say the least. 24 years old you would not be able to guess Josh's age at first glance. Shirtless, wearing just a pair of shorts to display his condition, Josh was badly burned over 75% of his body. The bottom of his chin to about halfway down his thighs were mostly burns or skin graphs and Josh used this to gain pitty points from the people Josh asked for money from throughout his vagrant travels. And boy did it work but we will get to this another time.
"You got any black?" Becca asked Josh
"No just some hard" Josh Replied
"Dont fuck with me Josh my friend is sick and you owe me" Becca demanded.
"Fine, Here."
Josh pulled a bag of tar out of his shoe and have it to Becca.
"Thank you" I said.
"If he needs more can I send him your way?" Becca asked Josh
"only if he has money. We're square now and that was my wake up now I gotta go back to work so I have something for morning."
"thanks Josh" Becca Said
As we made our way back to the car I couldnt help but wonder how Josh came to be in such a condition. Or if I stayed on the streets if I would have a similar fate. But at that same moment I had bigger things to do. I hadnt gotten high in about 2 weeks and to most junkies that is an eternity. I told myself I wasnt going to be using needles anymore and I was going to stick to that but I gave no 2nd thought to smoking that bag. See when you are an addict and you have made up your mind to use there is no 2nd thought, no remorse, no ill feelings about what you are about to do. The idea consumes you and makes you feel things only 1 thing will make go away.
I can remember as I put the lighter to the foil Rook saying I was wasting it.I stopped. I told Rook that I didnt want to get back into needles again and his response is something that had a profound impact on me.
"Whats it matter if you smoke or bang dope bro your still doing Heroin, your still gonna get sick and your still gonna have to hustle to get more. You might as well enjoy your shit."
Rook was right. I remember back to the "great" choice a had made in reno just a few days ago. I chose to be where I was and chose that I wanted to be getting high so what was the difference. At that moment I think if I would have tucked my tail between my legs and found a way back to rehab I would have maybe fought a little harder to stay clean but Ive always been an all or nothing type of guy. I put the lighter back to the foil and as the hit entered my lungs I can still remember thinking. Im all in.... again.
If you would like to contribute to my efforts at stopping addiction please visit:
Together we can make a difference.
No comments:
Post a Comment