the sound: AC/DC – Thunderstruck
By the time Robert got out of the hospital I’d been moved from Mrs. K’s house down the hill to Robert’s.
I’d spent a bunch of time fighting the move, and trying to convince just about anyone that I talked to that I wanted to go home…but all the men just smiled knowingly, and most of the women refused to look me in the eye. Those that did, did so with such a sadness that I really truly got more and more afraid all the time.
The day Robert got out of the hospital there was a huge production.
Robert, of course, wanted to ride…his mother would have no part of it…so Robert came home in the passenger seat of one of the Cadillacs. Rosie and Mrs. K rode in the back while I sat wedged between Robert and Grey.
Mrs K having made the arrangements for the “young lovebirds” to sit together and Robert didn’t fit in the back of the car.
We arrived out at the farm and ushered Robert into the bedroom, the one with the big 4 poster bed and the bathtub the size of a pond. Robert’s bedroom was the room that I’d made myself at home in from the beginning and now all I could think of is finding a way to get my little bit of gear gathered and getting out….out of the bedroom, out of the house, out of the country.
Mrs. K and I got Robert settled into bed and Mrs. K handed me a prescription bottle. I read the label. It was dilaudid for pain. He was to have them at scheduled intervals and Mrs. K was happy to tell me that “even should he rage at me…he was not allowed more than the prescribed amount.”
“Fat chance I’ve got of stopping him” I thought…but for once wisely kept my trap shut.
Mrs. K left advising everyone that “the fiancé” was in charge of Robert’s care and they should all leave the “lovebirds” alone. She smiled, in what I’m sure she believed to be a kindly manner, and left.
I walked back into the bedroom to find Robert with the pill bottle in his hand, open and shaking literally a handful of dilaudid into his palm.
“they ain’t gonna last long if you take em all now” I said.
“shaddup and get me Gus the Greek on the phone” came the reply.
I left the bedroom and went into the kitchen to find Rosie and find out how to reach one “Gus the Greek”.
Rosie’s face dropped “no…he wouldn’t” she said.
“he wouldn’t what?” I asked
“Gus is the go to guy for china white in this neck of the woods” she replied.
“heroin? He wants heroin?” just making myself clear.
“apparently…that he does” Rosie said as she dialed the phone and handed it to me…”apparently he wants to speak to Gus” and she shushed me out of the kitchen towards the bedroom.
Gus arrived a couple of hours later…by that time there was no one to be found anywhere on the property. Just Robert in his big bed, and me, perched on the ottoman in the livingroom desperately trying to figure out how I’d landed where I was…and how the hell I was gonna get out.