{"id":2085,"date":"2021-12-23T08:36:00","date_gmt":"2021-12-23T16:36:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/needlepictures.com\/tbd\/?p=2085"},"modified":"2022-03-12T22:35:17","modified_gmt":"2022-03-13T06:35:17","slug":"coffee-walk","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/needlepictures.com\/tbd\/2021\/12\/23\/coffee-walk\/","title":{"rendered":"Coffee Walk – An excerpt from my novel-in-progress A long Slow Aftermath"},"content":{"rendered":"

    This is an excerpt from my novel-in-progress A Long Slow Aftermath, coming out in January. This scene is the very beginning of the work in which we meet Preston and his friend Toshi, his friend-and-landlord’s girlfriend. This is a work in progress so any feedback appreciated!<\/em><\/p>\n

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     \u201cShe used to let me crash at her place,\u201d said Preston. \u201cBack when I was couch surfing between places. Curb. Sometimes she would make these big huge pots of, curb, spaghetti, in one of those large metal kitchen pots and we would chow out on, hydrant right, spaghetti leftovers for the rest of the week. Curb.\u201d
\n      It was a sunny day with a few long and thin clouds streaking across the sky. A light and cool wind wafted by as they made their way to the high-end high street, about a ten block walk from where they lived.
\n      \u201cThat’s just so weird,\u201d said Toshi. \u201cI can’t imagine living in a warehouse.\u201d
\n      \u201cYou grew up in Montclair, right? Lamp post right.\u201d
\n      \u201cYeah. Up in the Oakland hills.\u201d
\n      \u201cShoot. The only time I ever went to the hills, curb, is when I had work up there for a contractor. Stairs.\u201d They walked up the short concrete stairs and crossed the parking lot to get to the coffee shop. \u201cI lost touch with Thea when I moved to San Francisco. Door.\u201d
\n      Toshi reached out for the door just as someone from inside opened it.
\n      \u201cSomeone open the door?\u201d asked Toshi as she waved her hand around.
\n      \u201cYeah.\u201d
\n      Several people who were waiting for their coffee parted for Preston and Toshi as they entered the cafe. Preston led Toshi up to the end of the line as she kept her white seeing-eye cane close to herself.
\n     \u201cLong line,\u201d said Toshi.
\n     \u201cEverybody wants to get their caffeine.\u201d
\n     Preston scanned the line as a few people glanced in their direction.
\n     Preston could not help but feel conspicuous. He was wearing his black Crass shirt, as it was the least offensive of his clean band shirts. He had on his better pair of black jeans, but they were starting to fade. He felt it was quite a stark contrast to Toshi who was wearing a light gray blouse and a long gray skirt that looked as if it came from an exclusive clothing store.
\n     He also had very little hair. He had been cutting it shorter and shorter until it was almost a buzz cut. Toshi’s long black hair was tied back into an elegant pony tail.
\n     Toshi screwed up her face. \u201cSmelling that coffee when I can’t drink it yet is torture.\u201d
\n     \u201cTell me about it.\u201d
\n     \u201cSo you lost track of Thea when you left for San Francisco?\u201d
\n     \u201cI lost track of just about everybody I knew in the East Bay when I went out to San Francisco. That’s when I got deep into the scenes.\u201d
\n     \u201cOh yeah, the…\u201d
\n     Toshi stopped herself.
\n     \u201cKind of a long story,\u201d said Preston. \u201cKind of.\u201d
\n     After getting their coffee, Preston led Toshi out of the cafe and to a table in a far corner of the market hall quad, away from the general crowd.
\n     \u201cI got deep into the speed scene,\u201d said Preston. \u201cLike, really deep.\u201d
\n     \u201cSpeed? You mean meth amphetamine?\u201d asked Toshi as she held her coffee aloft in an effort to cool it down.
\n     \u201cYup.\u201d
\n      \u201cSo you were using it all of the time?\u201d
\n      \u201cNot at first. When I first starting using it I only did it occasionally, like once every other month or so. But then I started using it more often, say about once every other weekend. And eventually that became once a weekend. And then I binged on the weekend and started doing maintenance lines during the week.\u201d
\n     Toshi sat back. \u201cMaintenance lines? Because you were craving it so much?\u201d
\n     \u201cNaw. To keep myself awake at work.\u201d
\n     \u201cAwake?\u201d
\n     \u201cDoing that much speed on the weekend means you’re burnt out afterwards. You need to keep doing it to function.\u201d
\n     \u201cWhat kind of work were you doing?\u201d
\n     \u201cI worked at music stores, selling musical equipment. Mostly guitars.\u201d
\n     Toshi tried taking a sip of her coffee. She winced as it was a still too hot. \u201cYou were that burned out from using it on the weekends?\u201d
\n     \u201cYou don’t sleep when you’re on that stuff. Or eat.\u201d
\n     Toshi’s eyebrows went up. \u201cYou don’t eat when you’re doing the speed?\u201d
\n     \u201cYou got no appetite when you’re high on meth. In fact the idea of eating food is kinda gross. I mean, yeah you do eat a little so you don’t like die, of course, but eating is not much fun when you’re wired.\u201d
\n     \u201cWow.\u201d Toshi held her coffee cup out in front of herself. \u201cMy coffee is still too hot,\u201d she said as she waved her hand over it.
\n     Toshi tossed her head. Her pony tail hit Preston on the side of his face.
\n     \u201cGah!\u201d yowped Preston.
\n     \u201cDid I smack you with my hair again?\u201d
\n     \u201cY’all whip people with that long hair.\u201d
\n     \u201cI like having long hair.\u201d Toshi took a gentle sip of her coffee.
\n     \u201cIt would be easier to drink if you put some milk in it.\u201d
\n     \u201cI like it black.\u201d Toshi turned her head around. \u201cYou haven’t described the scene to me yet.\u201d
\n     Preston looked out over the the shopping hall crowd, checking out the people sitting at their tables and walking by. \u201cIt’s pretty crowded. Mostly just plain Janes and Joes. I think there are a couple of college students of by the cafe though.\u201d
\n     \u201cAny dogs?\u201d
\n     Preston squinted as he scanned the area. \u201cMmm, nope. Not seeing any. Wait, there’s one little white doggy. A middle-aged woman is holding onto him. She’s sitting at a table and he’s poking his nose out of her jacket.
\n     \u201cAw. I wanna small doggy I can carry around in my jacket.\u201d
\n     \u201cIf you got a dog, wouldn’t it have to be a seeing eye dog?\u201d
\n     Toshi tilted her head as she thought about it. \u201cMaybe I can have both. One big seeing eye dog and one little dog I can carry.\u201d
\n     \u201cYou could always have the little dog ride the big dog like a horse.\u201d
\n     Toshi waved her hand towards the quad. \u201cSo really, what’s going on today?\u201d
\n     Preston leaned forward with his coffee. \u201cJust a lot of yuppie scum. A few suburban college students. Nobody really interesting.\u201d
\n     \u201cThat’s a shame.\u201d Toshi put her coffee down on the table and leaned back. \u201cThanks for taking me out again.\u201d
\n     \u201cAin’t no thang. I need my coffee.\u201d
\n     \u201cIt really is a drag being all alone in that house.\u201d
\n     \u201cHow many times has Thea gone out of town this year?\u201d
\n     Toshi leaned forward and picked up her coffee. \u201cI lost count. She goes on some business trip or conference thing at least once a month. This latest trip is the second time time this month she’s had to run off.\u201d
\n     Preston looked out over the quad. He looked at the shops, the gourmet markets, the all-too clean high end home improvement store, and the clothing shop that looked as if it had not one spec of dust inside of it.
\n     They were all stores and businesses that he could never afford. He thought to himself that he would never patronize such places in the first place, even if he did have that kind of money .
\n     Toshi leaned towards Preston. \u201cDo you mind if I ask you more about the whole speed thing?\u201d
\n     \u201cNaw. I don’t mind. It’s not anything I’m hiding.\u201d
\n     \u201cSo you kept using it when you were working at the music store?\u201d
\n     \u201cYeah, at Levigate guitars. And then later at the Underfed Artists store.\u201d
\n     \u201cYou just kept using it more and more?\u201d
\n     \u201cI started go-betweening for my friends and coworkers.\u201d
\n     \u201cGo-betweening? You mean dealing?\u201d
\n     Preston leaned on the table. \u201cIt wasn’t really dealing. Dealers like to keep themselves insulated, so I would take people’s money and go to my dealer and make a buy, buying for my friends as well as myself.\u201d
\n     \u201cYou mean you would take other people’s money and buy for them?\u201d
\n     \u201cYeah.\u201d
\n     \u201cAnd they trusted you with their money?\u201d
\n     \u201cWell, maybe. More like they were willing to trust me because they really wanted their drugs.\u201d
\n     Toshi sat back and paused for a moment. \u201cSounds like dealing.\u201d
\n     \u201cI wasn’t making any money off of it, at least at first, but eventually I started buying in bulk and selling to people I knew. That got me started. Over the next couple a’ years I was selling more and more and making new connections, and eventually I had go betweeners coming to me for supplies.\u201d
\n     \u201cThen you were a dealer.\u201d
\n     \u201cFor like a year or two. And then those go betweeners started buying more and more from me. I eventually moved on from being a dealer to a small time supplier.\u201d
\n     \u201cA supplier?\u201d
\n     \u201cA drug dealer for drug dealers. Someone who sells in bulk.\u201d
\n     \u201cWhere did you buy your drugs from?\u201d
\n     Preston shuffled his feet. \u201cI got my dealer to introduce me to his supplier.\u201d
\n     \u201cYou mean someone who sold even more drugs than you did?\u201d
\n      Preston turned to Toshi. \u201cI’m talkin’ about the guy who knew the guy who actually made the stuff.\u201d
\n      \u201cWow.\u201d
\n      Toshi held onto her coffee as she took in what Preston had told her. Preston turned and looked around the quad, trying to see if he could spot anything interesting that he could describe to Toshi.
\n      \u201cI hope my questions weren’t too personal,\u201d said Toshi quietly.
\n      Preston turned to Toshi. \u201cNaw. It’s not a big deal. I don’t hide the fact that I’m an addict. I mean, not to people I know at least.\u201d
\n      \u201cCan I ask you something else?\u201d
\n      \u201cGo ahead.\u201d
\n      \u201cWere you still using it while you were dealing more of it?\u201d
\n      \u201cHell yeah I was. The more speed I sold the heavier I got into it. Eventually I started smoking it, and that’s when I went really nuts.\u201d
\n     \u201cNuts?\u201d
\n     Preston put both hands on his coffee as he quickly glanced around to make sure no one was close enough to hear him. \u201cI was using it so much that I started to have crazy mood swings, and sometimes I started to hear things, like voices and the sounds of people moving around, and sometimes I heard entire conversations from people who weren’t even there.\u201d
\n     \u201cOh my God. That stuff was making you hallucinate?\u201d
\n     \u201cIt was from all of the wear and tear, and lack of sleep. I’d look down the street and see people staring at me, just standing on the corner and looking up at my apartment. I was convinced they were narcs or cops or scumbags who wanted to rip me off. I would look around and check it out, and a lot of those people hanging around outside of my house turned out to be mailboxes, or fire hydrants, and sometimes nothing at all.\u201d
\n     \u201cMy God.\u201d Toshi moved her head around as if she were looking out over the quad. \u201cSeeing things that aren’t even there sounds worse that not seeing anything at all.\u201d
\n     Preston leaned on the table again. \u201cIt probably depends on what it is you’re seeing.\u201d
\n     \u201cI never tried anything like meth,\u201d said Toshi as she leaned back.\u201d \u201cI tried cocaine once. It made my face all numb. I didn’t like it.\u201d
\n      \u201cTrust me. Meth makes cocaine look like Bud Light.\u201d
\n      \u201cI wouldn’t know.\u201d
\n     Preston shifted around as a couple took a table somewhat close to him and Toshi.
\n     \u201cI’ve been partial to weed myself,\u201d said Toshi. \u201cAnd an occasional cocktail.\u201d
\n     \u201cI don’t do any of that stuff anymore,\u201d said Preston.
\n     \u201cNot even weed?\u201d
\n     \u201cNot even weed.\u201d
\n     \u201cThat sounds rough.\u201d
\n     \u201cIt can be,\u201d said Preston as he looked out over the quad.<\/p>\n

 
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You can read about Preston’s early East Bay adventures in The Falling Circle<\/a>, available on Amazon. (A prequel if you will to this novel-in-progress!)<\/em><\/p>\n