Struggle for Weed in '07

Forced association. I wasn't a criminal. I was in pain. This crutch shouldn't steal lives.

There I was. Cops just released me from a three hour brain trip. Trying to squeeze any info out of me that they could. In the end I was charged and my life was forever changed.

Let me back it up right here. I moved to Missouri. Got here right before Christmas. Pulled into town in my truck, loaded with what it could carry.

For the first week I would sit out in my truck with my cat (Jack) and hotbox. Jammin to some music. I switched over to a little pipe cause I was running low and I didn't know anyone. I needed to conserve. One night when the supply was rock bottom I decided to walk a couple blocks into town and see what I could find. You gotta remember that December in Missouri is much nicer then in Detroit. No where near as much snow. That year it was just a little brisk. 

Jack stayed with the truck. I put the hat of my hoodie up over my head and started crunching my way down the street, puffing on my pipe. Was a nice little pipe. Ceramic, wood like log, over the metal. A green snake slithered up to the mouthpiece from the bowl. Had a lid too. Just perfect for hitting it once or twice then tucking it away. 
The streets here are all built on hills. My legs were totally not used to that. Michigan is flat.  I puffed and kept walking down the hill. A smile crossed my lips when I spotted a bar right there so close to my house. I didn't even know the place was there. Hole in the wall. Funny that was its name. I knew I could find some weed in there. 
The music came sweetly to my ears as I closed in upon my quarry. The sly smile on my lips. I was already studying everything in sight. I had one plan. Find a dealer. Earn his trust. Get the weed and get out! 
My hand reached out and grabbed the cold metal door handle as my other hand slid the pipe into my pocket. I know I smelled of weed, but that was the point. I was screaming, "Here I am. Sell to me." Without saying a word. The Warm air hit my face as I swung the door open. A bell chimed and all heads turned to look at me.
  My eyes quickly scanned over the room. Looking at each and every person. Nine or ten men and women. A few real drunk. I stepped in shutting the door behind me. I may have coughed. The air was smoky. "What can I get ya Hun?" the Bartender asked me as I approached a bar stool. Crap I hadn't prepared for that question. Of course, I should have realized I would be asked. It's a bar! No sense in beating myself up yet. I was in a tight jam and needed to think fast. She looked up at me while she was wiping some spilled beer with a damp towel. "Bud, bottle." The only beer i can stomach. 
 I looked down the bar to my left. there was a guy down there at the end that looked like he was the type of person I needed to find. Dirty like he just got off of work. Slamming beers. He was loud. The bartender slid me the beer. I tossed her a smile as I handed her the money. I looked back down the bar as she stepped away. The guy was the center of attention. He hugged on everyone he talked to. I noticed he had a cigarette tucked behind his ear. I pulled an ash tray closer, from the empty seat next to me. The bartender came back with my change.

            The change jingled as it hit the counter. I pulled out one of my cigarettes. I prefer to dip my tobacco, but, I smoke when I'm high. I might as well say I smoke all the time. Fracken cotton mouth. I sipped on my beer to try and clear my throat up. Yuk, the taste of that barley ehh. I had to be manly though and not let it show on my face. I sipped again. I looked up at the mirror behind the bartender. I needed to keep my eyes on everything. I was a little paranoid from my smoke. But I was in a new environment too. I didn't know anyone. I had to figure out a plan. How was I gonna approach this dude. I notice through the mirror that he looks at me a few times. Hell maybe he'll just come say hi to me. Wouldn't that be lucky! Bah I gave up on luck a long time ago. If it was up to luck id have nothing but bad heh. Nah this is gonna go down because I make it happen. I sip my beer again. I stood to one leg and pulled my lighter out of my pocket looking over at my target. Our eyes met. I nodded. He nods back and looks away. He's smiling and talking to some older woman. For once someone louder then him. I sat back down and took out a smoke. The flame reminds me of my pipe in my pocket. I can feel its gentle caress on my thigh. Yeah I loved the hell out of that pipe. I bought it for like fifty bucks at a head shop in Detroit. Man I miss Detroit. I start thinking of the "friends" I left behind. The crap I was doing with a couple buddies (that's another story). About this time my target comes over and wraps his arm around me like were best friends. Friggin liquid courage. The smell of the beer is fermenting on this dude. "Can I bum a smoke from ya, man? I get paid tomorrow. I can hit ya back then. I even have a tab here." he chuckles. I smile. I smile deeper inside. This guy is a joke. He's buying right into what I need him to. I can easily put him at ease and manipulate the situation. 

I hate people touching me, but I swallow down the instinct to hit him. I need more weed. And even worse I need a new supplier. "No problem bro". I tap the end of my soft pack of smokes and one pops out. Heck I'll even buy ya a drink! Since your down and out. I know how that is, man." He had to pick his jaw off the ground while I held out the lighter to the cig dangling in his mouth and motioned to the bartender. I ordered him one of his fav's on me. I slapped ten bucks on the table and set my lighter down. He took a puff from the smoke. "Man, your a nice guy. I really appreciate this." Before he could spew out any other bull crap I threw out my fist and said my name. He knocked my fist and sat beside me as the bartender set his drink down. Got him!  He rolled his hat around to the front and took a deep sigh. Nice he's gonna play the woe is me scam. I love it.

 I sipped my beer as he finished his smoke. He talked my head off about all his financial woes. Of course he built it all up with how much money he has coming in and how soon it'll be here. So that I'd know he was good for a loan. I lit up  a smoke then scratched my hairy face. I hadn't shaved in a month or more. My friend threw a couple looks over at my pack of smokes. I just laid them up by my change. Butts facing him. I want him to ask for another. After that I'll remind him of the one behind his ear. I want him to feel he's in my debt. Then feel like he wronged me. He'll go out of his way to see to it I get my buds tonight.
Of course he sniveled for another. Even touched my shoulder again. Gah I wanted to hit him. I'm just not very touchy feely. Maybe it's my Bipolar I don"t know.  Lets get back to the story.

 I buy him a second beer. By now it's almost closing time. He's bummed a few beers off other people but keeps coming back to sit next to me. I finish off that nasty beer and order another one. Finally He hits me for a smoke again and I yank out my ace. "What about the one behind your ear?" He grabs at it, laughs really loud, "I didn't even know that was there!" I come in close like I'm gonna whisper. He does the same. "Wish I had diff smoke heh." He pulls away and laughs. "I could go for some myself". Ok this is the point where i'm looking him over again. Tall, fit but not muscular. Jumpy so he might use some kicks. I lean back in and say "I have some if you got a place to go." No way in hell i'm gonna bring this cat to my truck.
He tells me he actually rents one of the apartments attached to the joint. He's also the bars handyman. Says he climbs trees for a regular job. Lot of tree trimmers out here. I didn't know that at the time. 
So now were leaving the bar and going up a windy staircase to this dudes apartment. This better pay off!! 
He opens his door and i'm greeted by a giant Rottweiler! Great! phht . "Its OK he wont bite ya." he tells me. I'm just ready to nail this dog in his side.
The dog turns out to be pretty cool. I pet him on his huge head a few times as he sniffs the pipe in my pocket. The guy grabs some papers out of his little bathroom, off the main room and tells me to grab a seat. I shut the door and sit on a pretty clean couch. The place smells descent too. My nerves settle some. Then I notice the decor. Toys! Friggin toys! Like action figures and crap. Now i'm trippin. This dude is a Jail bird. I know it. I've never spent time in jail at this point. But I know enough jailbirds to know when I see a sign. Then the proof presents itself. His criminal ID card. Its hanging on a hoodie on the back of his door. You see when you go to prison you get a little clip on ID you have to wear at all times.
I'm a little stress but still not scared. i need to find out what kind of criminal he is. I look about. Yeah There's a pair of work boots and some dirty gloves tucked into them. You could see green streaks on em like grass.
I pull out my pipe and hit it like I always do. "Oh you got yourself a deal there!" he puts the papers down and reaches his hand out for my gear.  "Careful on me man i'm almost out. I don't know anyone around here. I just got into town from Detroit." Yeah I pulled the D card. It starts conversations. He hit my crap and about fell on his butt. "This is some good stuff!!" He manages to get out in between a few coughs. "Yeah It came with me." We both laugh. Now he's my friend. "If you got some cash I can get ya some right now. But no way I could score as good as you have." I chuckle. "It better not be dirt weed, man!." You see I just put myself in a bad place with a friggin criminal all for some weed! What the hell was I thinking? I'll tell you. I was in pain. I didn't know it. Because I didn't want to know it. I was hiding from it. I was scared of it. So I was treating my inner pain with a mood altering stimuli while focusing on getting through the trauma. I actually gave this idiot a hundred dollar bill to go get me some junk. What was I gonna do if he came back broke? Take his toys? sigh
·  So he came back with some brick weed. Was dark green and full of seeds but some was better then none, so I thought.  
There I am parked out on the side of the road. Me and Jack. Maybe the last run lasted two weeks. Either way I needed more weed. I had a little left and still had the rest of my good stuff from the D, which I put away. I figured I should go hit the dude up again. So I waited till a little after dark, to make sure he had a descent buzz going after work and left Jack back at the truck. My little black kitten was growing up. I got him just before we left the D. I looked back at him. He walked out of the driver side window and walked along the edge of the trucks bed. I'm sure he was wishing me good luck. I  hit my pipe and began another journey. These blasted hills. 
Crap he's not in the bar! He was thrown out for fighting. The bartender goes on to tell me he's violent. Out of jail from using a brick to smash in a car window. Apparently he then pulled someone out of the broken window and beat them. Great! But I need my hooch. I need to get my nerve up to go knock on his door. After tucking my pipe in my pocket. I took off my hoodie cause I've pulled a guy around with one. I won't be that idiot. Before I can even hit the stairs some crack head looking black guy, with a silk nylon covering the top of his head, walks out of the front door. This cat is tall. Slim but a little built. Hes gotta be around fifty. Dude comes out behind him. Bare chested and swarms around the guy, almost in arms length distance to me. I throw my hoodie down and my dukes up. He looks pissed. He backs up. Little light on his feet. I was right, looks like a kicker. Only he didn't kick. "Where have you been? You should have smoked some of that ounce with me! I thought you was the cops!" Ok first of all. This idiot has no idea about us northern folk. You come at us and were gonna knock you the heck out! His friend jumps in between us and cools the dude down. I'm about to take the both of em down. 
Turns out he'll help me again but this time he needs thirty more dollars. So i'm buying him a little sack and some smokes. Maybe a beer. I can hang with that, for now. But I can't tell him that. I don't want him to raise it again. So I give him a hard time about coming out at me like that. Told him next time not even God will save him from a butt whipping. He says he's sorry. I kick it with the new guy on the steps while he goes and gets my stuff. 

I already know I'm gonna have to smoke with both these guys.
I don't wanna know anyone at this point. Not even myself. And i'm gonna have to sit in that toy house and smoke my buds with these two guys. phht. I'm not happy.
Dude is back in no time. He says, "This time were gonna roll one." Punk. Yeah One! That's what i'm thinking. I need to switch guys. I can tell already  this cat is trouble. I'm gonna knock this boy out if he gets too close. I also gotta try to keep friendly so I can get my junk. Man, i'm in a spot again. sigh
So the new cat in the picture ends up leaving town in a matter of days.  I used old boy a couple more times before I was dodging butcher knives one night. Even came down the back stairs at me with a ball bat. I picked up a friggin log laying against a small tree and went up after him. He didn't expect that . He stopped threatening to swing and ran back up those stairs. Wuss. I called him from the get.
One night there was a party in the apartment next to his. Even with his huge markup he was being a d****e and didn't want to go and get me my stuff. By this point I had waited a couple of days and came back.   I just waltzed right over to his neighbors. Hey, party means possible score, right? 
 I gained a lot of pain with that neighbor and his drama. Ended up moving in two people from that association.. This all snow balled into me standing at the back of my truck  waiting on some dealer to roll over to his spot of choice, when he pleased. Took like two hours every time. That lasted for about three months. Half the time he didn't show up at all. And now I have two other losers trying to pinch the crap out of me. 
One night I was by myself in my truck. Jack was off playing with his she cats. Sometimes I liked to turn off the radio and just listen to the night critters. I laid there, like I always did with my hammer in my hand. Kept it on the floor so no one knew I was packing. This guy, who always walked by. Decides to stop and take a step towards me. I surprised the crap out of him when I got up with my hammer in a hurry. He jumped back and threw his hands out, "Whoa man! i'm not trying to rob you!" He said his name. To make himself more human to me. I just stayed my ground and calmly asked, "Whats up?" He put his hands down and said," I've seen you over here a few times smoking some hooch. I have one if you wanna get high". He pulled a pen from the pocket on his flannel and unscrewed it. Out popped a Joint. "Get in." I said with a smile as I sat up and put the hammer next to me on the bench.
For a couple of months  we  traded smokes back and forth. He'd bring one then I'd have one ready. Only at night. Bout the same time every night. The thing is I can't remember much else from that time. Jack was bigger,. sleek, and mysterious. Where did he go all the time? I'd see him chasing some other cats around from time to time. One time I took a walk down the alley behind the house. I was high and Jack seemed to be leading me. Maybe he was just following ahead. Either way it was a bad idea. Those people all had dogs. Scratched my high all up. I popped out at a street and went back home, to my truck. I moved a pillow out into my truck. Just so I had something to lean against or lay on when I was really toasted. I felt like I needed to end this misery. I needed a change.  You know what I mean. I couldn't say it. I couldn't even bring myself to think of how. 
Eventually it was time to reup and like normal my guy was a couple days late. I had to run those kids off.  They were pissed but hey a change was needed. I could smell it in the air. I popped the cover off my dash where I stashed my D weed and rolled that puppy up in a Jay. I got some strawberry papers from the gas station. I bought a joint roller cause believe it or not I never learned how to roll. I set my one point five gram baby up on the dash and laughed as I hit my bowl. That was a fat joint.
"So you got one for us today?" the old man said to me. I smiled as he reached over the gear shifter and picked up the joint. I hit my bowl and chuckled. "Wow this is the fattest one you've rolled yet!" Hes giggling like a little boy in a candy store. I hit my bowl. "Its the rest of my Detroit weed." I casually say as he lights it up and takes a puff. I hit my bowl. 
Hes instantly starts gagging. I smile. I love that reaction when it's my stuff. He laughs "oh my gawd" he says. "I'm already buzzed!" I smile. "Hit it again." I suggest. My finest. Blueberry Kush. I miss my Detroit Weed. The smell overpowers the crap in my bowl. He gags on the second inhale.  "So why the big guns?" he asks. I hit my bowl. Nice. Atleast he isn't ignorant. "I need a new supplier. Tag your it." I chuckle as I take the joint from his extended hand and draw in a long pull. "I know a guy." he says. I say nothing. I just pass the joint back. "Its a couple towns over. This thing run?" he asks about my truck. Ok so  Hes offering to take me to a place outside of town to buy some stuff. Not a bad start. I start my truck and we pull out from in front of the house.
My friend here is not intimidating at all he always seems to be wearing the same pair of dirty blue jeans and flannel jacket. His beard was thick and silver. Hes wiry but not muscular. He laughs all the time. But then we're always high together. We pull off the highway and he warns me of a speed trap. "Turn in here." he points with his finger. Its an apartment complex. Definitely the projects. But still nothing like where I lived over on Evergreen and Plymouth, back in the D. He wants me to pull into the front. I have to go into the parking lot slow. There's a small group of guys there sitting on some logs, a couple of them standing just enough into the road to bring a car to a slow crawl. As we go past the entrance there's a few more sitting on lawn chairs.  One or two might have stood up I couldn't tell. There was one that was almost touching my front quarter panel. I look over at my dude. Hes looking at me chuckling. Was I scared? I needed to be. I was happy. I thought maybe this was it. "Don't stress it. Leave your hammer." he laughs as I pull into an empty spot. "They aint nobody." Yeah right. I knew better then that. I turn my truck off and follow his lead.

 We walked past the guys  mostly drinking. Some smoking. We hit the courtyard in no time. Up a couple flight of stairs and he knocked on a door. A really thick girl answers the door. She calls him by name then waves us in. She makes her way over a ton of garbage and sits back into her spot on the disgusting couch. She motions for us to sit on top of some newspapers. The place smelled like cat piss. Jack would have loved this dump. I wondered what he was doing there without my truck. Maybe hes on the porch.

 My friend pulls a joint out of his pocket as we sit down. Crunch. I think that was food. I'm not going to look. Great a cockroach runs past my feet. He lights it up. "Ah you brought a present." Shes looking at me. A guy walks through the door. Perfect timing. Nods to my friend then walks behind the couch she's on and disappears into the back of the apartment. My friend tells her we need two ounces. I take the joint and draw out a nice big drag. Hes got decent weed for being reggs. "I want double cause you brought him. Who is he?" The old man laughs and slaps his knee holding out the joint so the hots didn't fall off. "Double what? Taste? No problem. Now you know I wouldn't bring just anyone! This is a friend of mine from Detroit. He's gonna be coming here for me. He came here to work for me." I hit my bowl. This whole story is news to me. She leans forward with a grunt and reaches out her little stubby hands to grab the joint out of his hand. She hits it and looks me in the eyes. Thankfully the smell of the weed is starting to overpower the cat piss. "I want a dime for every ounce you ask for". She passes the joint back to my friend and I nod my understanding.  "He's gonna call you too. He'll come in his truck." He says. "Got the money now?" she asks,  rubbing a patch of flaky skin on her arm. I hit my bowl and pass on the joint. Hell I might not smoke with my friend ever again.. I wouldn't put my lips on anything she touched. He's sucking on that spit filled joint like the THC is syrup. "Same as always?" He asks. She nods and he turns to me and winks. " One hundred." He holds his hand out and I feel like i'm about to choke but I hold it in well. I'm not too bad at poker. He just cut my cost in half! I yank the one hundred out of my pocket. I learned in the past to keep that money separate from my other cash. She sees the cash and leans back on the couch. I swear I heard it creak. She yells out the dudes name and tells him she needs two Ounces. She snuffs out the joint and puts it in her ash tray. That's why my friend was hot boxing it. He knew she'd keep it. The guy from the back comes out and tosses a sack in her lap. She yells at him for not handing it to her. My friend stayed serious so I just hit my bowl. She weighs it then tosses it in my lap. 
 This new stuff is better then I've been smoking for a while now. Man, I really miss my D stuff though. The days slip by as the hair on my face grows longer. I notice my hairs grayer. Bags under my eyes. My eyes are blood shot. I chuckle. I can see Jack jump on the back of my truck through my rear view mirror. I sit back in my seat and hit my bowl. Its warming up. The chill wind feels nice on my hand. Jack blocks the sun as he steps over me. I  look down the road.Then turn to look  behind, at nothing in particular. Jack knows something is up too. He looks at me and meows. Something was changing again. I start my truck. I decided I'm going for a ride. Jack jumps off the hood and I slowly pull away from under my shaded spot.

It was a few moments before I noticed the red and blue lights in my rear view mirror..

Reviews

[Stephe R. Seede]

This is bananas. And I thought I had it rough when I went on my lil' missions, lol.

[Rev. Jr]

This may be a little familiar to some of you. Started writing this in 2010. I edited this. Put some time on it. Had to change a few things to enrich the story, but its as real as it gets. So many stories came out of this writing. I chopped it up and this is a small part. So stay tuned.