They bumped into each other on the street. “How are ya mate? You don’t have your crutches”, it had been a while since he had seen J without crutches. He had a bung knee. J went straight into a story. It was the latest news in his life. “Not too good, you know that bloke you saw me with a few weeks back down the road?” D replied “oh yeah” D couldn’t remember his face but knew who he was talking about. “He died four days ago”. “What happened?”. “He rang me a few days after his birthday, he said can you get me on? I said nah I don’t do that shit anymore but I can get you a stick. I went over to see him and he left the back door open for me. I went in and he was passed out. I tried to revive him and rang triple zero. I did CPR on him but I didn’t know the exact address so I had to leave him and get the address then went back to him. He was basically brain dead by the time the ambo got him.” D said “Oh shit, that is terrible” J suddenly got a phone call on his small Nokia phone. An un-trackable Nokia. No frills budget phone for drug deals. D was like “mate I gotta go” and left J hunched over his phone taking the call. Another overdose. Another day. They weren’t from poor families some of these guys. They weren’t well off either. You really needed a job to keep you occupied. Then there were the urges. When you had a snow cone and your eyes rolled back and you felt a wave of relief. All of the pain was gone. You switched off. Everything was at a distance. Eventually reality came back in focus. You felt terrible coming down. You were emotional. You were angry. Worst of all you were desperate.

Also who ever knew the truth? What was the real story? Actually he was telling most of the truth but just left out details and changed little things. He didn’t want to come over as some kind of desperate junky. No he was a dabbler. He dabbled. They all dabbled. Some dabbled more than others. This had gone on for years. This bloke though who died got carried away. He got some money for his birthday and bang he got some gear. In the end the gear got him.