The Dealer

This story may contain descriptions and details not suitable for all audiences. Read at your own discretion. Contains explicit description of illicit drug use. 

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The Hill was crowded with throngs of people just driting around, filing in and out of stores, and restaurants. It was Friday night, the beginning of the weekend. The meld of  students and street people was a perfect symbiosis.

Felix leaned against the stone wall between The Orange Julius and the entrance to Mary’s Idle Hour. Scanning the faces as they passed by, his mind calculated the chances of getting a ride. He needed a ride. Business necessitated a fucking ride.

“I got nothing,” Roach said, slipping into place next to him.

“Let’s check downstairs.” Felix jerked his head toward the door to the bar. He caught the edge of it, as it opened and a couple stepped into the foot traffic on the sidewalk. Spinning on his heel, he walked inside and headed down the steps to the bar on the bottom floor. Laughter mingled with the sounds from a jukebox, and they joined  the whirlwind. He waited for his eyes to adjust to the dimly lit room, and looked around for any familiar faces. “Check and see if Moondog is down here,” he said to Roach.

As he walked slowly past tables, most of those he saw were on foot – the carless folk who ambled around the town. A girl he’d not seen here before, sitting with some locals, caught his eye. She was thin as a rail, with hair hanging down around her face.

“Hey,” he said, trying to get her attention. Leaning toward her, he called out again. “Do you have a car?” She looked up at him, and he saw her respond with a silent, what? Louder. “Do you have a car?” She nodded. Pointing, he gestured for her to follow him,  and she did, rising from the booth, and stepping over to him.

“Yeah, I have a car.”

“Can I borrow it?”

She looked at him, pausing, thinking. “I can drive you.”

Felix nodded. That was better than nothing. They climbed the stairs, and filed out into the street. “I need to drop something off. My car broke down. It’s pretty important. You sure it’s okay?”

She shrugged. “I don’t have anything else I’m doing.”

“Where are you parked?”

“Around the corner.” She led the way, heading down the next block.

It was a Chevy Impala. She got in behind the wheel, and Felix settled into the passenger seat. “I’m Felix.”

“Jo,” she responded, smiling.

“Thanks, Jo, I appreciate this.”

The ride was just him giving directions. It was some distance out of town, and the darkness closed in around them, with just the headlights lighting the road. “Right up there,” he said, pointing to a house with a single porch light on. She pulled into a spot in front, and Felix opened his door. “I’ll just be a few minutes.”

At the door, he knocked twice, and took some money from the guy who answered, and at  the same time, dropped a palm-sized bag into the other man’s hand. Quick and slick.  That’s the way Felix liked it.

Back in the car, the girl and Felix sat for a few moments. “Where to?” she finally asked.

“You got some time?” She nodded. “Keep going up this road. There’s a spot, I think you’ll like it.” The road was quiet, a long tunnel of black just beyond the high beams.

“You new here?” Felix asked her. “I haven’t seen you around.”

“Uh huh. Just got in yesterday.”

“Where are you staying?”

“Some motel. Don’t remember which.”

Felix pointed, “Pull in over there, to the right.” As the car edged up over a rise, a field of lights appeared, a constellation of star-like twinkles. The town was spread out below them.”

They were parked in a little overlook. “That’s beautiful!” Jo said. Felix nodded.

He leaned forward, resting his arms on his legs, turning his head to look at her. A smile pulled his lips up. “You with anyone?”

“I came in with these people from out East. Met this guy, name is Papers, on The Hill last night.”

“I got a cabin up in the mountains. You want to come on up? Bring your friends.”

She smiled back. “Sure.”

Felix leaned over and brushed her hair out of her eyes. “You shouldn’t hide your pretty face.” Their lips met, and their kiss was soft, gentle. She tasted good. “Let’s go get everybody and head out.”

With the group rounded up, there were three in front, and four in the back. Felix took the wheel, and drove out of town. Jo sat next to him, and the guy named Papers rode shotgun. Roach sat in the back between a couple of girls, his arm, stretched out, wrapped around one. Another guy sat against one back door, making out with the other. Talk, and  laughter, and music from the radio, carried them up winding roads, along side of a river, which flowed silently, unseen back toward town.

The cabin was nestled in among tall pines. It was a small two room wooden building, with a large fireplace in the front room, along one end. The logs were lit, and music from a stereo filled the place. Food was pulled out of the refrigerator and the little cabin came alive. Felix made sure everybody was settled, and sat back and watched for a  while. Joints and pipes were passed around, and everyone was laughing. Things were  good.

The need came. It always did. Looking around the room, he saw Jo sitting in front of the fire. Making his way through those scattered around the floor, he leaned down, and touched her shoulder. “Can you help me with something?” There was that connection. He’d  felt it after he’d finished his business, when they were parked at the look out. She smiled up at him, and took his hand as he led her to the back room, then into the bathroom. He turned toward her, and pulled her into an embrace, kissing her, more deeply.

Jo giggled. “I like helping you like this.” They laughed together.

“No, I mean this.” Turning back to the sink, he laid out a syringe, and a glassine bag, along side a spoon. She looked over his shoulder.

“Mmmmm What is it?”

“Coke.” Working at his prep, he turned back to her. “Can I have that?” It was a silky, fringed scarf belt, looped through her jeans.” He untied it, as she nodded consent, and drew it out seductively. With everthing ready, he wrapped the scarf around his upper arm, pulled it taut. He slapped his arm, now stretched out, leaning on Jo’s shoulder, waiting for the veins to pop. “Hold this,” he said, handing her the end of the scarf. When I push in the plunger, you can loosen it.” He leaned in and kissed her again. Then he focused on pushing the needle into the vein, watching the blood fill the syringe, and slowly pushed it all back in. He sucked in breath, his body drinking in the drug, his mind soaring higher than the hawks did in the mornings here.

He closed his eyes, letting himself be taken. He felt her arms reaching around his body, and he wanted to be inside her. They stood, bodies pressed against each other for a while. When he opened his eyes, she was looking at him, caressing his arms, running  her fingers through his long black hair. “You want some?” He pointed to the paraphernalia behind him on the sink.

“No, I’m fine.” She pushed against him. “I like this.”

“I really dig you,” Felix said. “You want to stay up here with me?”

She smiled, “Mmmm.” Leaning forward, she kissed him.

She watch him as he cleaned up everything, and put it all away. Returning to their kisses, they drifted into the bedroom and found a comfortable spot on one of the two beds in there.

ooOOoo

Breakfast the next morning was at the pancake house back down in town. The group of  them took up one of the large round tables. When it was over, Felix watched Jo take  Papers aside, and tell him she was going to stay up at the cabin. Papers nodded, and  they drove back up to The Park. There was his car to get towed to the mechanic. But after that, they were free to hang out for the rest of the day. Life was good.

Roach didn’t seem to mind that he and Felix had a girl full time up at the cabin. Nobody minded. People came and went, and it was no big deal. Jo and Felix spent most days down in town. Felix eventually told her about his business. His runs to cop product from a supplier, and then selling it around to customers.

Her car became their ride, and Felix saw that Jo didn’t mind hanging around with friends while he did what needed to be done.

The landlord who they rented the cabin from got wind of the fact that Felix was a dealer.

It was late on Thanksgiving when he came inside. “We’re evicted.” Roach and Jo looked at him. “Or we’re in jail.” Packing up the car, they rode down to town. The snow had begun an hour or so before. They checked into the Ramada Inn, and sat around, looking at each other.

“How about Thanksgiving at the Jolly Roger?” Felix suggested?

Jo nodded and Roach was already on his feet, heading out the door. It wasn’t the worst holiday dinner.

“Turkey is turkey.” Jo shrugged. “I like the stuffing and sweet potatoes best.”

“Yeah, and the pumpkin pie.” Felix agreed.

Through bites, Roach chimed in, “I like it all.”

“Least we don’t have to come so far to work,” Felix consoled himself.

“Yeah! To working closer to home.” They clinked glasses and laughed.

Routine was routine, no matter where they stayed. After the festivities, there was one thing left… getting high.

“You sure?” Felix asked Jo, offering the syringe to her.

“I’m sure.” She was sticking to the straw on the mirror method.

“Maybe just once?” Felix urged.

“Okay, once.” She’d always watched him, a look of ecstacy washing over his face. It did make her wonder. She never shied away from popping pills, or dropping acid, or puffing on a pipe, or jay.

Cleaning out his set of works, and settling her into the soft cushy chair, he fixed up a shot for her. He knelt before her, his body sliding between her knees. Taking her arm, he tucked it between his own arm and body. Using the scarf, which he’d claimed from their first night together, he went through the ritual. He found a vein easily, and tapped the needle into it. He watched as the elixir filled her being. He saw her body react even more than when they’d made love, and he understood. He watched her ride the wave, as his hands caressed her body, feeling the shutter.

When she came back from the rush, he was still kneeling in front of her. Their eyes met, and he looked at her, eyebrow raised in question. “So? What was it like?”

“Oh my God. I swear I had an orgasm!”

“Yup.” His grin was impish. “Can you imagine the two oragasms together?”

oo00oo

Life was good, until Felix came back to the motel one night, and Jo was nodding out in the chair. She’d sat up one night, trying, on her own, to get it right. To do it herself. He counted, seventeen sticks with the needle until she hit paydirt. She was one determined girl. When he came in this particular evening, he knew what she’d done  wasn’t cocaine. It never made you nod. But smack, that would do that. They’d had a conversation one night, and Felix told her, no way would he let her do Heroin. He felt his anger at her.

Two days later he found her at the diner. “Hey, dingy,” a nickname he’d given her after finding out that she never turned down a drug. “I gotta go take care of some stuff. I got a friend who said you can crash at his place while I’m outta town. That okay with you?”

“Sure.”

With her bags packed, he drove her over to a house down the block from Tulagis, a club, situated just off The Hill, on a side street. “I’ll catch you later, when I come back.” He pressed a couple of bags into her hand. “Share the ride with Bruce, okay?”

Driving away, he thought he felt a pang of guilt. He’d just dumped her, but he knew she didn’t know it yet. Life on The Hill was ever changing. It was time to take it to the next level, which was the one where it was time to move on.