Thursday, August 02, 2018

Exactly what a young girl dreams love can be

The years I spent getting high and reading library books I do not regret. It wasn't a bad life, even if I would probably never go back. I had an income from stripping and could afford to buy what I wanted, which was drugs, and if you have never tried heroin I have news for you: It makes you feel good about yourself, especially in the beginning. It makes you feel good about other people. You want to give the whole world a break, a time-out, a tender regard. There is nothing so soothing. My first dabble in it was morphine, a pill that someone else melted in a spoon and helped me inject, a guy named Bill and I hadn't thought much about him or what the drug would be like but the careful way he tied off my arm and found my vein, the way the needle went in, so thin and delicate, the whole experience of this random guy I never saw again shooting me up in an abandoned house was exactly what a young girl dreams love can be.

"This is a pins and needles high," he'd said. "It'll grab you by the back of the neck." It grabbed me by the back of the head with its firm clench, rubber tongs, then warmth spread down through me. I broke into the most relaxing sweat of my life. I fell in love. I don't miss those years. I'm just telling you.
— from The Mars Room, by Rachel Kushner.

Here we go with the heroin, again.

1 comment:

mistah charley, ph.d. said...

i've read that a musician once said 'if god made anything better than heroin, he kept it to himself'

i've never had it - the closest i came is darvon, prescribed for pain after all four wisdom teeth were extracted at once - it was like being a lake, surrounded by tall pines, so calm that the stars were reflected on the surface

that was nearly 50 years ago - i'm a time traveler from the 20th century

in general, it is so clear that addiction is inconsistent with human dignity that i almost agree with criminalization of unauthorized distribution of these substances