Riven - Jerry B. Jenkins [135]
“No, but you may always be in recovery.”
“Whatever.”
Brady liked her spunk. Was there a chance he could speak to her before she boarded the van back to wherever she came from?
Halfway through the session Jan raised the issue—as she often did—of the future. She had established early that one thing many addicts lost was a dream, a plan, a view of what might be in store for them. After living only for the next hit for so long, that was as far ahead as they could look. “And when we finally start to think further ahead than our next score, where else should we look? Anyone?”
“Our past,” someone said.
“Exactly. Search the recesses of your mind for your innocent years, your curious years, your best years. What was it you loved to do? What was it that was lost to you when you lost your way? What would you go back to if you could? I know maybe some of it is unrealistic now. Maybe you wanted to be an Olympic gymnast and those days are gone. But you could enjoy the sport in another way. Could you teach, coach, judge, just help out somewhere?
“That’s the same with any sport. Or maybe you were a ballerina. It isn’t likely you’re going to dance at the Met, but let’s not put any boundaries on our thinking right now. What did you once love to do that you would do again if you could?”
“Race cars.”
“And why not?”
“Work construction.”
“A clean and sober guy can do that. Go for it!”
“Be a model,” Katie said.
“You’ve kept your figure,” Jan said.
Brady wanted to shout, Amen!
“What’s in your way?”
“My parents. I already just about got disowned ’cause I didn’t make the Ivy League. To them modeling would be only one step down from druggie.”
Everybody laughed.
Several other dreams were revealed and encouraged. Finally Brady said, “Acting.”
“You were an actor?”
“Believe it or not.”
“As a child?”
“High school. Actually played Conrad Birdie once.”
Suddenly Katie was on her feet. “Get out!” she squealed. “I knew I knew you! Brady! I’m Katie North, Alex’s sister!”
“No way!” Brady jumped up to embrace her. “I don’t believe this! You were nothing but a snot-nosed kid back then.”
“And you were the bad boy everybody had a crush on. Just look at you now.”
“Yeah, same guy.”
“How long ago was that, Brady?”
“Only fourteen years.”
“I was like nine,” she said.
“All right,” Jan said, “you two can catch up later. Now who else can look back to look ahead?”
Adamsville State Penitentiary
“I think Dirk has a girlfriend,” Ravinia told her father that afternoon in his office. “He’s begged off of taking Summer twice in a row, claiming he had to work both nights.”
“Hmm. Have you ever known him to lie?”
“No.”
“Then why not take him at his word?”
“Maybe I’m paranoid. But Summer asks for him every evening.”
“Tell him that. He needs to see her. He can’t keep doing this to her. Listen, Rav, do you want him to have a girlfriend?”
“What are you saying? You mean so I wouldn’t be the only guilty one? No. Would I be jealous? Yes, I would.”
“Then you do care for him.”
“I’ve said that all along.”
“But his having someone else would take a little of the load off of you for, you know, what happened.”
“For what triggered all this, you mean? Sure. But if he’s guilty, that doesn’t make me any less so. Just makes us even. Except mine really was a one-time fling, and who knows what his is?”
“Or even if it’s anything.”
Ravinia shook her head. “I can’t believe I’m talking with my own father about this.”
Serenity Halfway House
Brady and Katie had only a few minutes to talk before she had to go. He had so little experience with women, he hardly knew what to say. “So, you’re all grown up, eh?”
“Yeah, you like?”
“Who wouldn’t? Can’t believe you got into drugs. I wouldn’t have expected that in a million years.”
“You kidding, Brady? There’s as much booze and dope in my part of town as there is in yours.”
“Seriously?”
“Oh yeah.”
“So, where’ve you been, Katie? What have you been doing all these years? What’s Alex up to?”
“He’s got two wives and three kids between ’em.”
“What?”
“Well, not at the same time. Had one with his first wife,