A Drug Addict's Choice

By Brian Painter

Tammy and Nick are two hardcore partying free spirits that will take you on a ride through their twisted world of addiction. Anything from alcohol to heroin takes them on a ride in this action-packed true story about two drug users. This book is about two people struggling with the ups and downs of the drug world.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Page Publishing, Inc.
• Release date: Jun 23, 2020
• ISBN: 9781647011277

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A Drug Addict's Choice

Brian Painter and Kim Benson

Copyright © 2020 Brian Painter and Kim Benson

All rights reserved

First Edition

PAGE PUBLISHING, INC.

Conneaut Lake, PA

First originally published by Page Publishing 2020

ISBN 978-1-64701-126-0 (pbk)

ISBN 978-1-64701-127-7 (digital)

Printed in the United States of America

Table of Contents

Part One

Part Two

Part Three

So…there I sat wired out of my brains, staring down at a mirror with a line of Peruvian flake cocaine a foot-long staring back at me.

Keep driving! I yelled happily to the girl driving the car.

She couldn’t take her eyes off the eight ball of good grade A heroin and the eight ball of coke that sat on the edge of the mirror. I bit my bottom lip and snorted through my nose, letting her know I was upset she wasn’t looking at the road. I felt bad when she turned abruptly and stared at the road. I had to say something.

Do you think that will last us until we get to California? I sarcastically asked Alex, who was sporting a grin from one ear to the other.

Alex was the driver of my ’69 Chrysler Sebring I bought for three hundred dollars off someone who had no appreciation for classic cars. We were in New Mexico and San Francisco bound. We were heading there to see Grateful Dead play the New Year’s shows. I had picked Alex up a couple of states back, hitchhiking to the shows in San Francisco. I knew she was a deadhead when I saw her wearing a tie-dye and jeans with holes in them, along with the lace-up boots. She and I hit it off right away and had made love a couple times in hotel rooms we stayed in along the way. We both knew it was going to end though. It was not that type of relationship.

You know we are going to have to do it, she whispered in a sexy voice.

I turned and looked at her blue eyes partially covered by her long blond hair.

Aw hell yeah, I said.

I was thinking she wanted sex, but then she shifted her eyes, focusing on the BB gun on the seat beside me. I had brought it along for protection on the road. At least it looked real. She had let me down. She had made me think she was talking about sex. I smiled and turned, looking at her smile.

Yep, I said with a frown expanding the whole distance of my face.

I was disappointed she had fooled me, but she was in the right frame of mind; it just wasn’t the frame of mind I was hoping for.

Take the next exit, I said. She swerved off the road and onto the off-ramp. I put on the wig and gloves while pausing to sniff the foot-long line of coke up my nose.

Alex shook her head, smiled, then whispered under her breath, Only you.

I displayed a goofy boldness as I slipped on a pair of cheap sunglasses then pointed at a gas station near the on-ramp to the highway. She nodded and pulled into the parking lot. In one swift move I leaped from car, seriously amped up on the coke that was starting to send me on an incredible ego trip where I felt invincible.

Leave if I am not out in five minutes, I whispered without realizing what I was saying I was so wired. Then I blew her a kiss.

I was nothing but a blur—or so I thought—as I raced through the empty parking lot. I busted through the door in a frenzy but was glad to see just one man standing behind the counter. I waved the BB gun at him fast enough so he couldn’t tell it wasn’t a real gun.

The money! I screamed at the top of my lungs while feeling a wave of fear roll right through me. He gave me a scared look and grabbed the money out of the drawer.

Under the drawer, I half yelled, half laughed. Quick.

He handed me the cash, and I told him to have a nice day and handed him a fifty, telling him to put it in his pocket and don’t call the police for five minutes. The elderly man thanked me, smiled an evil grin, and stuffed the fifty in his pocket. I sprinted like I have never moved before out the door I went, then leaping in the open door of the car, I gave Alex a smile. I let her know everything had worked out.

You gave him the fifty, right? she asked, and I nodded my head, letting her know I had.

I was worn out and feeling a crazy rush. This was my first and last. I had never done anything like that. Alex had told me how to do it. She explained that if I had not given him the fifty, he probably would have shot me.

Thanks for telling me now. What if I hadn’t? I said with a grin. She explained that was how it was done around here. I let out a sigh and counted the money then threw it up in the air. California or bust! I yelled.

We both laughed, and I counted the money again as we made our way back onto the highway. Alex kicked it up to sixty. The speed limit at that time was fifty-five, and getting pulled over was the last thing we wanted. This was the first and last time I would ever do this, I told myself again.

Do you want a line? I asked Alex as I poured about a gram onto the mirror.

It came out in chunks, and I had a maxed out the credit card that I crushed the rocks with. She looked up smiled and leaned over and gave me a kiss.

"I guess that means yes, you want a line?’

Sure does, she said in a Southern accent I loved so much.

I picked the mirror up that had two half-gram lines on it. One was for her and one for me; the rest of the eight balls had been tucked away in a shaving-cream can with a false bottom in it. Now I held it under her nose as she sniffed the long line up one nostril then up the other. We drove through the night, sniffing coke and talking and laughing until the sun started coming up.

How about we find a liquor store and get some vodka for Bloody Marys? Alex asked while staring into the bright sun.

We were wired to the gill, and our pupils were pinpointed. I felt bad, so I handed her my sunglasses with a look of pity on my face.

After all, James, you are driving and doing a damn good job at it, so that sounds like a plan. There is a small town five miles up. We need some camels too, I explained, talking about Camel cigarettes.

I reached in my shaving kit and pulled out the shaving-cream can that had the false bottom in it. I had hidden the two eight balls in it, along with about a thousand dollars we had scored at the gas station. I pulled out a fifty as we excited the highway and pulled into a small town. Alex found an ABC on and off store right away. We pulled into the parking lot and jumped from the car. The store was just opening, so in we went, wearing permanent smiles the coke had put on our faces. I looked at the old man at the counter.

A carton of camel filters and a half gallon of Aristocrat vodka.

Alex nudged me and showed me her legs twisted together. I laughed, unsure of what she wanted, but it looked like she was doing some crazy dance. The it dawned on me, and I turned back to the man behind the counter.

Oh, and can the lady use your restroom. She needs to powder her nose.

As I said this, a giant white chunk of coke flew out of my nose, landing on the counter. There was silence as the man stared at the chunk on his counter until I weakly tried to fool the man.

We are doing a Sheetrock job down the road. Is there a hardware store around? I explained.

This lame attempt to make the coke that was sitting on the man’s counter look like Sheetrock made Alex crack up laughing. The man shook his head, handed me the keys that I, in turn, handed to Alex. The keys to the rest room had a lucky rabbit’s foot on them that made me laugh. Alex looked at them while trying not to touch the real rabbit foot as the man pointed me in the direction of the hardware store I would never see and Alex in the direction of the restroom. I was making my way out of the store when I realized I had forgotten the Bloody Mary mix. It was the last thing I wanted to do, but I turned and walked back to the far wall, grabbed two bottles of Bloody Mary mix, and made my way to the counter, sensing something was about to go wrong.

Can’t forget this, I mumbled as I put the two plastic bottles on the counter just as the bell on the door jingled, and the front door opened.

That’s when everything seemed to go in slow motion. I turned to look, and in walked two police officers. Alex came out of bathroom and walked past me when she saw the two cops. She managed to smile a have-fun smile at me and chuckled a little. I froze up as they walked up behind me. I was a little nervous until I heard them say something about cigarettes being so expensive.

I relaxed until one whispered to the other then turned and followed Alex out while the other stood, watching every move I made. That’s when I realized I was dressed in a ragged tie-dye and torn-up jeans, with a flannel shirt that had more holes in it than a piece of swiss cheese. It seemed like an eternity, and all I wanted to do was tell the old man to hurry the fuck up.

When he handed me the change, I turned, smiled at the cop, and swaggered out of the store. When I broke the turn around the corner of the store, the cop was leaning in our car window, talking to Alex. I almost freaked, wondering if there was anything sitting out like the mirror. When I got there, the police officer turned and asked me for some ID. I didn’t think too much about it until I reached in my wallet and pulled my license out that had a hit of LSD with the Peanuts dog, Snoopy’s, face on it that I had slid in the license on my picture.

I looked at it, then at the cop who had his hand held out, then back, and finally thought, Oh well here we go. I handed him the license, and he looked at it, reached over to his shoulder, radio called in my social security number, then handed my license back. Wish I could bottle the high I got when I realized I was not going to jail for possession of LSD that day. There was a sigh of relief that could be heard around the world as I slipped it in my pocket and got back in the car.

When the cop said we could go, I moved like the wind. I tipped my hat to the officer just in case he knew about the LSD and was letting me go. Once in the car, I slowly pulled out of the parking lot. As soon as I made it around the corner, I opened the liquor and poured two Bloody Marys. Alex laughed at the whole crazy scenario, causing me to laugh too. When we had made it about ten blocks down, I asked Alex to drive.

Sure, why not? Someone around here touched that lucky rabbit’s foot, and it apparently wore off on their ass. So why not? There’s no way I can get a DUI.

We exchanged seats and headed down the road. We hit the highway and started drinking as I put in a Led Zeppelin bootleg from somewhere in Amsterdam. On came Moby Dick, the drum solo by the late John Bonham. The pounding drums made us start to dance around in our seats. I was completely into the pounding of the drum, so I didn’t notice Alex getting us ready for the next trip.

Are you ready for this? Alex said as she pulled the bag of heroin from the shaving-cream can.

The cops had ruined my buzz, and the coke buzz was starting to wear thin, so I said, Hell yeah.

I told her to pull off on the side of the road, and she did. I had a special piece of marble I did my heroin on. I had only been doing heroin for about a month and was not completely addicted to it. I would say at this point I was more into the liquor and coke. I dumped two small lines out and sniffed one then passed the other to Alex.

Thank you.

She smiled and sniffed the potent heroin up her nose. We drove, listening to Led Zeppelin and drinking vodka until we hit the