So while i have been upgrading everything, which basically means just transferring existing entries into the new domain I’ve been thinking about a situation I found myself in when I was about twenty years old. So i guess I might as well start introducing some new blogs in while the site is upgrading huh? Like I said, I was roughly twenty, maybe nineteen. Looking back on this, knowing what I know now, I was in a very very dangerous situation.
Before the whole “Hostages” saga unfolded, I was living with my Grandma in Valparaiso. I was with the friend I was with during the “Hostages” saga, but this is obviously before we took off for Georgia the first time. I had been partying every single day. No particular substance in particular necessarily, but I did love the rock. And Dope. I had managed to come up with around 60 bucks, and spent the rest of the morning arranging for a ride out to the city. This is another struggle for the addict- getting to the dope spot. Not all addicts who are strung out have cars, for long. I’ve actually scrapped my car before, just to get enough money to get my sick off. Annnnddd the next day I was strung out, AND without a car. Desperate times call for desperate measures. Every day was desperation. But anyways. So a friend of mine told me she was going to be heading out to Chicago around 2:00pm that day, she just needed to wait on a friend of her’s to become available, because he also needed a ride to his guy, but was going to be buying her a few bags for waiting for him and for driving him out. So I had a ride. She would be picking me up first, and then we would be heading out to Hobart to pick up her friend. Thinking about this day still shakes me. We scooped up her friend, who insisted on riding shotgun, since we were going to his guy, on the West side(this was my very first west side experience). I didn’t care where I sat, as long as I was getting my shit. So I switched to the back seat. Everything seemed fine and dandy the whole way to the City. None of us were sick. To my knowledge I had never experienced dope sickness prior to this day. Those strung out days were still a ways a head of me. But they were coming. So we spent the ride in eager anticipation, jamming out to some music and smoking too many cigarettes. After a grid lock on the Kennedy expressway, we made our way onto what I now know to be the Eisenhower. West bound. As we inched closer and closer the anticipation grew. I tested my pipe to make sure it was in prime operating condition. It was. We merge onto an exit ramp and onto the surface streets. After a few twists and turns, my friend was told that we were there. “Alright, pull into this gas station.” The man said. And she complied. She pulled right up to the gas pump, the man made a phone call and said he would be right back. He walked across the street to one of those little strips of shops with the hair places, chicken shacks, and convenient stores- jumped into a van and the van disapeared around the corner. I still have not seen that guy again to this day. I don’t even know if he’s alive. If he stayed using though, my bet, is that he is not. But what happened next is what I’m writing to tell about.
I sat in the back seat, in quiet anxious excitement. I had given the guy 30 bucks for 2 rocks and a blow. My friend sat nervously in the driver’s seat. After about ten minutes of waiting, she told me that needed to run in and pee. “I’ll be right back” she said. “ok” I’ll be here, I said.
Just as she walked into the gas station, a young black guy walked up to the driver’s side window and asked if I could spare any change. “Hang on man, I think I have a few singles you can have, actually”. I said. And as I leaned up to pull my wallet out, and get him some money, he reached his hand into the window, around the steering wheel, and felt for the keys.HOLY SHIT. As soon as he did this, I realized what he was doing. I reached up and tried to wrestle the keys out of his hand, but he wasn’t taking the keys- he was starting the car. And as I was distracted by the tussle with this guy, 3 other men jumped in. One in each door, with me sandwiched in the middle! FULL ON PANIC MODE. The driver sped off with the Saturn, whipped around a corner and did his best to focus on driving. WITH ME IN THE CAR. I knew what was going to happen to me if i didn’t get out of this car, so(Here goes nothing)(I did NOT think that) I didn’t think anything, i knew what i had to do. I hit the driver in the right side of his face with all my might, and as i pulled back my arm from delivering the blow, elbowed his buddy on my right side in the left side of his face, then stuck the guy on my left as hard as i could. Then repeated the process while they all scrambled to hold me still. Again. And again. More. Blood. My hand, elbow, and knees were killing me. There was so much commotion, I don’t really know what all happened next, but i saw my chance to reach for the door handle- over the guy to my right’s lap. So I grabbed the latch and pushed with all my might. Me and the thug both toppled out on to the street rolling on asphalt at about 35 MPH. Without feeling a thing or thinking at all, I ran in the opposite direction.The car slowed and collected the thug and then sped away. I have never ran as hard as I did on this day. And we were just getting started. I was now separated from my friends, and stranded. In the middle of K town….