A friend of mine, Tommy, had a horrible experience that I am considering turning into a story.
Tommy used to be a heavy drug user. One night, while on a binge, he met a man at a bar in Nyack. They went outside and smoked a joint and the guy said he had some good stuff in his car. They went to his car and he drove to the dirt road at the top of Hook Mountain and went in about 20 yards.
The guy turned off the lights in the car and opened the glove compartment, and pulled out a pistol. He turned it towards Tommy and smiled.
Tommy, who had one hand on the door latch, just in case, leaned back and fell out onto the dirt road just as a shot was fired. He rolled as he hit the ground and went down the cliff on that side of the mountain. He tumbled down about 100 feet until the underbrush stopped him. The man got out of the car and started firing into the darkness, but Tommy held still until the guy left.
Tommy walked down the side of the mountain, through the convent at the bottom of the mountain and up Midland Ave. to the hospital where they put a bandage on the bullet wound in his neck. Luckily it was a small caliber gun and didn’t hit a large artery.
It was a long time before Tommy gave up drugs, but he counts this incident as the one that led him to eventual sobriety.
2 Comments
Hi I’m a neophyte on the blogging scene just checking other bloggs for ideas not stealing just checking. Your story about your buddy would be a good one to expound on. I’ve had some experience with drugs my self and intend to write about them anonomously. I live in West Virginia and we have a terrible meth problem. It seems the tweekers have lost their minds.
Gary,
The story is archetypal, and must have happened hundreds of times, not always with Tommy's luck. I will be changing things like the gun to a knife and some other things to stretch it out into a horror story, but feel free to use it as inspiration.
As I wrote this down, I thought of half a dozen drug stories. Unfortunately, I knew too many people who have died due to overdoses or drug violence or who have had friends who died. All of them are terrible stories, but can be turned to stories. For example, my cousin was a heroin user who was beaten to death in a seedy SRO in New York City a few years ago.
A good story can also be a cautionary tale without taking away from the drama.
Good luck.
Keith