Suzie’s House 160: Old Times

Drew took the joint from Dave.

“This isn’t going to mess me up like crack, is it?”

“No. No, man. I’ve been doing it for weeks now, and I’m fine.” Dave spread his arms in a look-me-over-for-yourself gesture.

Drew made an effort to ignore the trash and grime on the floor of the van all around the man, the stench, and all the little signs of paranoia that crept into Dave’s comments in the chatroom for RamirezRules.

“Cool.” Drew stared at the lit doobie smoldering between his fingers. “You have any idea how long it’s been since I’ve done something like this?”

“No, man. I know a lot of folks gave it up. Seems like the best of them all moved on to something else. Me and this chick named Sarah used to be real close. We did the whole West Coast tour together right here in this very van.” Dave leaned back, making himself comfortable.

“Whatever happened to her?” Drew leaned into the back seat, settling in for the story. With any luck, Dave would lose track, and think Drew had partaken of the “sacrament” when he really hadn’t. Drew could pass the doobie back and get down to the business of turning this man into a snitch.

“I was me. I made a mistake.”

“Yeah?”

“She wanted to settle down, start a family. I couldn’t stop touring. I dropped her off in Berkley and kept going, thinking I’d hook up with her again in a coupled of years.”

“Got sot busy your forgot to go back?”

“I went back.” Dave frowned at the toes sticking out of the sandals. He had one foot tucked under him, and the other leg sticking straight out. “She’d already found someone else. Funny. When I left she said I’d be the one to find someone else, but that wasn’t how it worked. I don’t think I’d been gone a whole month before she replaced me.”

Drew flinched.

Would Suzie replace him the same way? He fought the urge to jump out of this van now and give her a call. He hadn’t talked to her in days, and the last time all she could talk about was the way Gene was acting up.

Dave’s eyes narrowed and his smile turned hard. “You have someone like that?”

“Yeah. Yeah, I’ve got a woman I shouldn’t have left behind.”

“You should do something about that before it’s too late.” Dave nodded knowingly. Then he pointed to the doobie, which, miraculously enough still smoldered in Drew’s hand. “Aren’t you going to try it?”

“Yeah. Yeah, of course.”

“Because there’s no way I’ll deal with someone who won’t touch the stuff himself. Got busted that way a couple of decades ago. Never want to go through that again.” Dave shivered, then gave Drew a hard look.

Drew put the joint to his lips and inhaled the smoke of the drug-laced pot deep into his lungs and held it there long enough to assuage any of Dave’s qualms. He already knew how the rest of this would play out. They’d talk some more about the old days, then about the deal then about Ramirez. Eventually Dave would come around and turn states evidence and they’d have Ramirez for good.

Yeah, eventually. In the meanwhile, Drew better call Suzie again and see how she was doing.

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