A Million Little Pieces - James Frey [112]
Why?
Stop asking why.
Can I ask what?
Maybe.
What do you do for a living, Leonard?
He laughs.
You know what I do, Kid.
I want to hear you say it.
Somebody been talking to you?
Yeah.
They talked to me too.
What’d they say?
They said they didn’t want me being a bad influence on you.
I told them you weren’t.
Thank you.
What do you do for a living, Leonard?
You already know, Kid.
I want to hear you say it.
Leonard takes a bite of his beef and noodles. He smiles while he chews.
I’m the West Coast Director of a large Italian Finance Firm.
I laugh.
Need to know anything else?
No.
That’s probably best.
Yeah.
You see your Girlfriend today?
Yeah.
You admit she’s your Girlfriend now?
Sort of.
She good?
Yeah, she is.
You like her?
I do.
You love her?
In a way.
Watch your step, Kid. They asked me about her too.
How would they know about her?
They know everything.
How?
It’s not hard to know things if you want to know them.
I guess.
You know what I think?
What?
I think love is a rare thing in the World. If you think you can have it with this Girl, then fuck whoever tries to stop you and fuck their Rules. Take the risk and do whatever you can do and try not to get caught. If you do get caught, do it again.
I laugh.
You’re being a bad influence, Leonard.
He smiles.
No, I’m not, Kid.
I smile. Leonard smiles. We eat silently nobody sits with us. We finish dinner and we walk to the Lecture and we sit with Ed and Ted and Matty in the same seats we always sit in with them. We play cards and the results are back to normal. Leonard wins, everyone else loses. The stakes are small enough so that no one cares time is slow in here the game just helps the time go by faster. We know Leonard will split the winnings when we’re done. Win a couple bucks, lose a couple bucks. Ignore whoever is on the Stage. I don’t even bother looking anymore.
The Lecture ends and we walk back to the Unit. I get a cup of coffee and I find a place on one of the couches among several other men and I watch TV. There is a show on about a group of Doctors working in an inner-city Emergency Room. One of the stories on the show is about a Female Heroin Addict who has come to the Hospital after an overdose.
She is a beautiful young woman whose body is absent of any bruises, scars or track marks. She wears dirty clothes that are ragged in a glamorous way. She cries whenever anyone talks to her and there are large, black bags under her eyes, though her crying is obviously fake and the bags under her eyes are a different size each time we see her. She started smoking pot on a lark, met a man and fell in love, and the man happened to be a heroin Dealer who got her hooked on his product. Now she can’t quit, and after loading up a particularly large dose, she has woken up and found herself in the ER, which is the only part of the story which is even reasonably authentic. She refuses to accept any blame for the situation. She yells it wasn’t my fault over and over and over.
As we watch the show, some of the men boo when the Girl makes her appearances, a couple of them clap and laugh, one of them grunts and throws his shoe at the TV, which he then retrieves and holds cocked in his hand until she shows up again. If he had a gun, he would probably blow the television to pieces.
As the episode drags on, the Girl confronts her problems with the help of a handsome young Doctor in the ER. He eases her off the junk, he gets her in AA. He lets her stay in his apartment, comforts her when she cries, brings home special nutritional juices for her each night after work. They fall in love and after an emotional candlelit dinner, they have glorious, romantic and multi-orgasmic sex. By the time the show is finished, she is all better. She has kicked her habit completely and she has a new life. It closes with a shot of her and the Doctor walking down the Street with a young Golden Retriever frolicking at their side.
If I could, I would hunt down the Creators of this utter bullshit fantasy fairy-tale piece of crap and I would lock them in a