Junk - Melvin Burgess [62]
That wasn’t too bad, but then Dev turned up back from Amsterdam.
It was just one thing after another that week. He had, I don’t know how much; he always has a bagful when he comes round. I don’t even know how long that lasted…
After you’ve done a junk binge, you feel it. Cold turkey. You feel horrible. If it was measles or the ‘flu or something you might think, Well, so I’m ill, it won’t last long. Coming down isn’t any worse but the difference is, you know that all you have to do is take one little snort and instead of feeling like dirt you’ll feel better than anyone ever did before.
That’s what makes it so hard. All you can think about is, junk, junk, junk.
If Dev’d still been about he’d have looked after us, but he’d cleared off that morning. We should have asked him to leave a bit behind so we could come down slowly, but he left really early and we forgot to ask the night before. Our usual dealer was away for the weekend, otherwise we could have got some on credit. It was awful. That was the first time. Up to then coming down hadn’t been so bad but this time – I don’t know – this just seemed to get worse and worse. I was taking Anadin and all sorts but it wasn’t doing any good at all. There’s only one thing can make you feel better when you’ve got cold turkey. More junk.
Lily was worse than any of us. ‘I’m really gutted, my head can’t cope with this,’ she kept complaining. Lily hates feeling bad. Feeling bad is against her religion.
She was sitting down, jumping up, going to bed, coming back. In the afternoon me and Tar got into watching this movie but Lily just couldn’t get into it. She got into this whispering session with Sal. I got irritated about it, they wouldn’t tell me what was going on and I hate being left out. Finally Lily dragged Rob off to the bedroom. I thought they’d gone for you-know-what, but five minutes later they came out and got their coats. Lily was back in her string vest, it was the first time I’d seen her dressed like that for weeks.
‘Where’re you going?’ I asked.
‘When I come back,’ said Lily, ‘I’m gonna make you all feel soooo GOOD!’ She stuck her bum out sideways and winked at me. Rob grinned, a bit shakily. Then they went out.
They were away about two hours. Me and Tar gave Sal a grilling but she kept her mouth shut. I got really ratty about it in the end and she started snapping, so I shut up, but I was burning up with curiosity. Then we heard their voices in the hall and I knew whatever it was they’d done, it’d worked, because they were both happy.
Lily came banging in and shrieked and just flung this money at the ceiling.
‘Yeah, free money, free money!’ she yelled. There was a big handful of tenners coming down from the ceiling. She started jiving round the room. Sal grabbed hold of her and kissed her. Rob grabbed the notes and went bombing off to get some.
I was going, ‘How did you get it, how did you get it?’ I thought they must have robbed someone. But she wouldn’t say, she kept just jiving about and putting music on and lighting incense and getting the place ready until Rob came back. He was quick too, he’s not usually that quick. He usually stays round there a bit, specially if it’s one of the dealers we don’t know so well. Lily had her fix first. Then she gave me that big Lily smile and she said, ‘Sixty quid, not bad for ten minutes’ work, eh, Gemma?’
‘Go on then, tell me, I’ve been going mad.’
‘I turned over a punter,’ she said.
‘What’s that mean? Did she rob someone? Has she mugged someone?’ I asked Sal. Sal giggled and shook her head. She was watching Rob stick the needle in his arm like she’d never seen anything so interesting in her life before. I couldn’t wait either but I was so curious.
Lily said, ‘I’ve been a little prossie for half an hour.’
I was just amazed. I kept asking her questions – how she did it, what she had to do, where she did it, how many she did it with, how often she’d done it before, what she charged. She got annoyed when I asked her if she enjoyed it.
‘It’s a job,