“Fuck!” he said. “If I could just get a Brillo pad we’d be alright.”
I said I’d take him to the store. We had some time to kill and we’d do just as well to smoke some crack while we waited. So we drove to the store. Gary said if I spotted him the money for the Brillo pad he’d let me and Ari smoke the crack rock with him. I spotted him the money. Gary got out and went into the store. He took forever. He came back. He had bought a box of Brillo pads and a tall boy of Mickey’s. I said nothing about the Mickey’s. Gary tore off a piece of Brillo pad and put it in the bowl and he had the crack rock in there too. He took a big rip of crack smoke. Then he exploded. Spit went everywhere. Gary opened the door and puked so bad he fell out of the car. He had got some puke on his clothes. The puke smelled like Big Mac sauce. It was my turn to smoke some crack but there was no more crack left to smoke. Gary had got the whole rock, one hit.
Ari’s phone rang. Gary picked it up. It was Old Boy. We were good. Twenty minutes later we were back at the abandoned house, shooting up in the inferno. The heroin was superstepped-on. I said, “No offense, Gary, but this shit is kind of some garbage.”
Gary said, “I don’t normally go through that guy. I only called him cuz you said you needed something quick. But my other dude, he told me he’s got some fire. I just won’t be able to get up with him till later.”
We agreed we would do that. I was sure Gary was fucked but I’d give him another try. In the meantime I had to run. I texted Emily when I was on the freeway. I got downtown and made a left off of Chester and waited for her to come down. We drove around to the parking lot.
“How is it?” she asked.
“It’s so-so.”
“As long as it gets me well, man.”
“It will. It isn’t that bad. It’s just the dope’s expensive for what it is and Gary and Ari depress the shit out of me.”
“Hmm.”
“What do you think?”
“I do feel better.”
“How’s your day been?”
“Totally fucked. The Writing Lab is a fucking joke. I have this one student. He’s on the basketball team. He doesn’t do anything. He expects me to write his assignments for him. I’m pretty sure he’s illiterate.”
“Well the basketball coach probably promised him that you’d do his homework for him. That was probably their understanding.”
“Fuck their understanding.”
“Yes, I know.”
“Ugh. I don’t want to go back up there.”
“Then don’t.”
“Sure,” she said. “That’s a great idea. Maybe I can join the fucking circus.”
“Just saying.”
My phone buzzed. I had a text. It was from Big. He said he was about to be on the East Side if I wanted to meet up with him.
I called him. Everything was good.
I said to Emily, “Big’s gonna meet me at Rock-and-Roll McDonald’s.”
“Why there?”
“It’ll be alright.”
“How many are you going to get?”
“We’ve got enough for a lot of them.”
“Then do it up. This heroin is shit.”
“You wanna come?”
“Sheesh. I dunno.”
“C’mon. We’ll buy these fucking pills, come back over here, shoot the fucking pills. It’ll be great. Romance, you know.”
“Fuck it. I have an hour and a half till I have to be back.”
“You’ll make it.”
Rock-and-Roll McDonald’s was just over on Carnegie. A lot of drugs got bought and sold there. Of course the police knew about it and there was usually an undercover cop or two at Rock-and-Roll McDonald’s. Still you had to go and do some dirt there every now and then because if you didn’t you were fucking nothing. I had even seen the mayor of Cleveland there before. He had cut me and about five other cars in the drive-thru line. Cleveland was a small town.
We arrived before Big.
I had an idea.
I said, “Let’s go inside.”
“Really? You want to go inside?”
“I’m tired of waiting in the car all the time. And we’ve got money today.”
“Whatever you want.”
“Don’t order a fucking salad either.”
“I’m going to order a salad.”
“Okay. But you have to get a milk shake.”
“Deal.”
We went in and ordered—burgers and shakes, French fries, the whole shit. Emily got a salad. We sat down where we could see the cars turning in. Big would be along in a minute. He wasn’t the type to keep you waiting. He was good like that. He may have shot some people to death at one time but that was nothing to do with us and he had paid his debt to society so there was nothing more to say about it but thanks for the dope. I only wished he sold heroin. He didn’t. He only sold OxyContin. He had his own script on account of his fibromyalgia and he could ride around with pills all day with no problems.
I saw him turn in. He was driving a white Chevy Blazer.
I said to Emily, “I’ll be right back.”
I went outside and got in Big’s truck.
He said, “I fucked a pink toe last night.”
Big was a corpulent man, in his 60s.
“She had a nice ass for a white girl,” he said.
“That’s good. Let me get twenty of them.”
He said no problem.
I had the money. It was Pell Grant money. I counted it out. Big counted out the pills. Big always had a fuckload of pills on him. He was an LPN and he bought pills from old people. Once I asked him how he knew which old people would sell him their pills. He said it was simple—you asked the poor ones.
I said, “Thanks a lot, Big. I’ll be calling you.”
He said, “Alright now.”
I went back inside Rock-and-Roll McDonald’s. I had just spent $900 I couldn’t afford to spend. But I had a lot of OxyContin in my pocket and it’d last Emily and me through to Monday, so I felt alright about everything. Then I became aware of the man who had followed me when I came inside. He sat at the table just past my right shoulder. He was middle-aged, pale as a ghost, wore a turquoise jacket and faded jeans, showed male pattern baldness. He had no food in front of him. Emily saw him too. She looked at me and I winked and she gave no sign and I was proud of her. She was too cool. She was like a cross between Mary Poppins and Billie Holiday.
I said, “How’s the salad?”
She said, “It’s alright.”
“That’s good,” I said. “So what’s this shit with this illiterate motherfucker again?”
“It’s not fair. He’s so fucking arrogant but he’s completely stupid. I don’t see how he can be so arrogant when he’s that stupid.”
We were talking real loud so the police could hear us. And we kept on talking real loud. We talked about school real loud, talked real loud about the illiterate basketball player and what she was going to write her thesis on and what so-and-so had said about so-and-so. We talked about a girl she worked with who was a piece of shit. Things like that. Whatever else. We acted like we were just good people out having some lunch.
CHAPTER FIFTY-FIVE
I was looking for something cheap but good. I thought if I could find that then it would be alright and we’d manage.
That night Gary got out on me for $180. It was a loss but not a total disaster. Emily and I had the Oxys we picked up earlier from Big. So we had time. As far as the money, I thought $180 was fair to never have to see motherfucking Gary again.
I left Ari at the abandoned house. I had said I’d look out for him when Gary came through. That was off now. But I figured he’d be alright. I got home. Emily had made me something to eat. She asked me how it had gone with the heroin and I told her.
“Fucking goddamn!” she said. “A hundred and eighty dollars?”
I said it wasn’t like I’d done it on purpose.
“I know but, baby, you have to see why I’m upset. I’ve been here working, taking care of the plants, making your cocksucking dinner, and I need to write a paper while you’re out playing the big shot and losing our goddamn money!”
“Did you say ‘big shot’? What the fuck is this? Are you a fucking idiot? Is this nineteen fucking seventy? You think I like this shit? You think I like dragging my fucking dead ass all over town and dealing with these fucks?”