| General Fiction posted June 29, 2024 | Chapters: |
...7 8 -9- 10... 
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Withdrawal, relapse, and the birth of a new enterprise
A chapter in the book DUEL with the DEVIL
DUEL with the DEVIL - Chapter 9
by Jim Wile
| Background A brilliant young chemist creates a new opioid with unknown benefits and pitfalls. |
Recap of Chapter 8: Brian slowly wakes up from a dream in which some unknown presence is chasing him through a dark cave. He finds himself being awakened by Fran, and he is in the hospital following a crash into trees as he was exiting the party. He is in great pain due to injuries to the spine in his neck and upper back. He confesses to Fran what led up to the accident. After three days, he leaves the hospital with a prescription for Oxycontin.
After a few months, he is given another refill for it and begins physical therapy, which doesn’t help very much. When the Oxy runs out, the doctor refuses to give him any more except just enough to taper off with.
Chapter 9
Tapering off an opioid is necessary to avoid withdrawal symptoms from cutting it off suddenly. The schedule the doctor gave me would take two months to taper off completely. As the taper progressed, my pain level increased substantially, which showed me I was not ready to come off the Oxy yet. The doctor would not, however, prescribe any more. He did give me a prescription for more physical therapy, which I told him was virtually worthless, but he said to give it more time and to make sure I did the recommended exercises regularly at home.
Following the accident, I had stopped the early morning workouts with Fran, and my muscles weakened considerably.
“Brian,” she said to me one day, “it doesn’t seem like you’ve been putting enough effort into your PT exercises. In fact, I haven’t noticed you doing any for quite some time. I’m sure your therapist told you that you would need to continue with them after the PT sessions were over.”
“They didn’t help very much. It’s hard to tell if they’re helping at all.”
“I know you haven’t been able to resume our regular morning workouts, but it’s time for you to start up again by doing your PT exercises every morning with me.”
“But I told you they don’t help. So what’s the point?” I said, starting to feel peeved.
“That’s because you didn’t do them enough. I saw you half-assing your way through them when you did them at all, always cheating on the number of reps. You’ve been too dependent on the pills up ‘til now, but since the doctor won’t prescribe any more, it’s time to get serious about them. That’s all you’ve got.”
She was right, of course. She’s always right. I hadn’t been very serious about them. So, I began getting up early with her again and working on them each morning.
As the two-month taper-off period ended, I was still in considerable pain, even though I’d been putting a good effort into the early morning exercises. Fran made sure of that. After a couple of months of this, the pain had plateaued. I was very discouraged. It wasn’t what I’d call excruciating, but still at what I’d consider a level 6, and it was there 100% of the time.
The pain scale calls level 6 a severe pain, and it took its toll on a number of things. Grass-growing season in North Carolina begins in March or early April, and I wasn’t sure I’d be able to resume mowing again with Derek Shafer this spring. I’d missed a month of it after the accident last summer, but finished out the fall under the influence of the Oxy. Without it, and with the way I felt then, I had my doubts about continuing. That meant no source of income for me.
I was talking to Derek about this one Saturday afternoon in March. I had gone to his house to play some computer games. “I’m going to give mowing a shot, but there’s no guarantee I’ll be able to do it for very long. You might consider finding someone else to partner with or dropping some of our customers.”
“Dude, let’s just play it by ear,” he said.
“Okay. I don’t know what I’m going to do for money if it doesn’t work out. Big sis won’t give me an allowance.”
Mrs. Shafer popped her head in the door just then and said, “Derek, you and Brian better wind it down now. You’ve got that paper to write for English, which you haven’t started yet. When did you say it was due?”
“Monday. Okay, Mom. We’ll play one more game, and then I’ll kick him out.”
“It’s been nice seeing you again, Brian,” she said to me.
“Yeah, you too, Mrs. Shafer. Thanks again for lunch.” She had made us some sandwiches.
When she left, Derek said, “Christ, I’d forgotten about that damn paper. I haven’t even read the book it’s supposed to be about—just sort of skimmed through parts. I really suck at writing papers too. Never got more than a C on one.
“How about if I write it for you? I won’t charge you too much. What book was it on?”
“Wuthering Heights. Have you read it?”
“Yeah, I’ve read it. I remember it pretty well too. So, what do you say I write the paper for $25? I’ll even dumb it down and get you a B on it. Teacher might get suspicious if you get an A all of a sudden.”
“Yeah, good idea.”
“So, what’s the topic of the essay?”
“How does Emily Bronte explore the theme of obsession in Wuthering Heights?”
“Perfect. No problem. How long does it have to be?”
“At least 1,000 words.”
“I’ll email it to you by tomorrow evening. Just delete the email after you store the Word file, would you?”
“You got it. Here’s the $25 now,” he said as he opened his wallet and extracted the bills. “Hey, maybe this would be a good way to make money in case mowing doesn’t work out.”
“Son of a bitch, you’re right! I’m sure there’s lots of kids who would want to buy papers from me. English or history.”
“I’ll mention it to a few kids if you’d like?”
“Sure. Just be discreet about it. I could get in trouble for this.”
And that’s how my bootleg paper-writing business began. As word about it slowly spread, I got more and more customers—even for term papers. I might charge $200 for one of those because they often required doing research, but there were a few rich kids in school willing to pay the price.
I began making more money than I ever did mowing lawns. But it wasn’t just the money. One kid named Joey Sanchez didn’t have any cash at the moment, but he had something even better.
When I told him his essay would cost $50, he said, “Look, Brian, I don’t have enough cash right now, but you ever had Oxy?”
He had my full attention. “Uh, yeah. Feel like bartering?”
“My dad has been taking it lately, and I can probably steal a few pills from his bottle without him noticing.”
“What’s the strength?”
“They’re 80s.”
“Alright, you get me five of them, and you’ve got a deal.”
The following day, he surreptitiously handed me an envelope with the pills, and I got started on his paper. What a relief to finally have some Oxy again!
Getting another taste of it after a few months off made me begin craving it again. I went through those five pills in no time. It was lucky that he had some to pay me with, but I couldn’t count on that very often. I decided to pay a visit to Ricky Bader, who was a known drug dealer in my high school. I had resisted doing this until now, hoping that PT and the regular exercise routine would lessen my pain, but it was clearly not working well enough and didn’t come close to the relief I got from Oxy. And there was the added benefit of a good high.
I’d saved up quite a bit of money from my bootleg paper business, and I purchased a two-week supply of Oxy from Ricky. This set me back $300, but it was worth it. Those two weeks were the best I felt in a long time. I became a regular customer of his after that, which started eating into my savings as I didn’t earn quite enough to keep up with it.
Fran noticed my improved mood and overall sense of relaxation. “Brian, I think the exercises are working. What do you think?”
Obviously, I couldn’t tell her the real reason, so I just went along with it and said, “I do feel better lately. I think I might even try starting to mow lawns again and see how it goes.”
“That’s good. I think sitting down all the time doesn’t do your back any good. You’ve got to keep moving. Mowing lawns should be perfect as long as you use the walking mower, not the riding mower. I’m really happy for you that the pain is lessening.”
I felt kind of bad for misleading her about the real source of improvement, but the relief I was getting from Oxy more than made up for it.
Mowing lawns was going to be essential because school would be over in a few weeks, and my paper-writing business would dry up almost completely during the summer. There might still be the occasional kid who’d flunked English or history and would need my services during the summer, but that wouldn’t be enough to sustain my new habit.
I announced to Derek that I’d definitely be interested in working again this summer. I’d already started mowing on a limited basis, and back under the influence of Oxy, I could do it comfortably enough.
 Recognized |
CHARACTERS
Brian Kendrick: The narrator of the story. At the beginning of the story, he is 12 years old and in 6th grade in Kernersville, North Carolina.
Francine (Fran) Kendrick: Brian's older sister. She is 18 at the beginning of the story and goes to junior college, where she studies law enforcement.
Chloe: Brian and Fran's cat.
Sandi MacReady: She is a pretty blond and Brian's crush in high school.
Derek Shafer: Brian's best friend and lawn mowing partner.
Josh Bennett: Sandi's boyfriend. He's the center on the high school basketball team.
Don Robbins: A high school acquaintance of Brian's. He is a rich kid who throws a summer rave party when his parents are away.
Pays
one point
and 2 member cents. Brian Kendrick: The narrator of the story. At the beginning of the story, he is 12 years old and in 6th grade in Kernersville, North Carolina.
Francine (Fran) Kendrick: Brian's older sister. She is 18 at the beginning of the story and goes to junior college, where she studies law enforcement.
Chloe: Brian and Fran's cat.
Sandi MacReady: She is a pretty blond and Brian's crush in high school.
Derek Shafer: Brian's best friend and lawn mowing partner.
Josh Bennett: Sandi's boyfriend. He's the center on the high school basketball team.
Don Robbins: A high school acquaintance of Brian's. He is a rich kid who throws a summer rave party when his parents are away.
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