Blood Brothers

I decided to give Marvin's case a couple of days off even though I was having a blast doing it. JR and Biker Tom had paired up on a case and were busy having UC meetings and making buys. Chopper asked me to come along on a Meth buy that he had set up the day before. We drove to a run down apartment complex and picked up a scraggly, toothless guy about 35 years old. His clothes looked and smelled like he'd worn them for a whole week without changing. He smelled of ass and stale cigarette smoke. I let "Jerry" ride in front with Chopper. Chopper introduced me as "Frank." Frank? Where the hell did he get THAT?

Jerry gave Chopper directions to a body shop near the west edge of downtown Dallas. You could see the County Court and County Jail buildings from the parking lot of the business. "Jerry's gonna be in there pretty soon.," Chopper commented, while we waited for Jerry to return from inside the body shop. "He'll probly be in there a little while, gettin' himself a little bump before we hit the road." Chopper said, fully expecting Jerry to shoot up while he was buying Chopper's dope. We were both surprised to see Jerry exit the building, nervously looking around as he slithered back to Chopper's car. "Were they out?" asked Chopper. "No. I got it right here." said Jerry, reaching into his crotch area to retrieve a baggie of Meth. "Can I have a bump of that?" Jerry asked, appearing to crave the contents of the bag. "Naw bud, you now I can't spare any of this," Chopper deflected Jerry's request, "I know you got yourself a little bit while you were in there, anyway." Jerry laughed shamefully, shaking his head at Chopper's accusation, but then he pulled a smaller baggie form his crotch and held it up, admiring the contents. I could see Jerry smiling, almost salivating as he teased himself with his little stash. Then, in an instant, his face froze in an unfocused stare, his eyes growing wider as he gazed into the bag. Jerry turned to stare at Chopper, who was now driving onto the interstate highway.

Jerry leaned down toward the floorboard and began pulling at his pants leg. Not knowing what Jerry was going after, I visualized a target at the base of Jerry's skull as I reached back for my pistol. I looked for a reaction from Chopper, but he was too busy avoiding vehicles as he merged onto the freeway. Jerry sat back and I could see that he had a rolled-up, Crown Royal bag in his hand. I waited to see what Jerry was going to pull from the bag, still looking for a contact shot in case he came out with a weapon. Jerry pulled a stainless steel tablespoon from the bag, the tang of it curled into a semi-circle. He also took out a disposable syringe, a film canister with water, and a small piece of cigarette filter. Jerry slipped his left forefinger through the loop in the spoon, placed a small amount of dope into the spoon, added the piece of cigarette filter and a few drops of water. Jerry then took a cigarette lighter from his shirt pocket and began to heat the mixture. I was immersed in watching the procedure, but more impressed by the ambidextrous agility of the dope fiend. Jerry slipped off his belt, made a loop, and slipped his arm through it. "Hold me off, Frank." I heard the words but I didn't snap at first. "Frank!, Hold me off, brother." Jerry looked back this time as he handed me the end of the belt. "Oh yeah... I'm 'Frank' today...."

I reached into the front seat and pulled on the end of the belt. Jerry made a fist and patted his veins, looking for a receptive artery into which he could inject the poison. He took the needle and slipped it into his arm, slowly applying pressure to the plunger. "Let off, brother - let off." Jerry stopped and pulled the plunger back slightly; a stream of blood retreated into the syringe. Jerry methodically injected a bit more poison, each time retrieving the plunger and drawing blood back into the syringe, patiently repeating the procedure until the syringe was empty. Jerry had masturbated the needle; teasing himself to a climax of sorts.

We returned to the complex and dropped Jerry off. "Bubba, I'm glad YOU did that! I almost threw up the first time I held-off a puke like that." Chopper snorted and laughed as he replayed the sequence of events. "You shoulda seen the look on your face!" "Bastard! You knew that was gonna happen, didn't you?"

I had to laugh about Chopper setting me up. It was funny to him, but I couldn't be pissed about it... he had just exposed me to another facet of the drug world.