Read Baby Huey: A Cautionary Tale of Addiction for Free Online Page B

shook my hand again.
    “That’s great,” I said, already seeing the look on Doreen’s face when I told her. “When do I start?”
    Dale Gray gave me a look. “Two weeks. You owe your current employer a two-weeks notice, don’t you think?”
    No. At Goldenwood you could fall dead and not be noticed. “Yes, sure, you’re right.”
    Ronnie gave me directions to a MediQuick and said the bank would pay for the drug screen. Not a problem. I couldn’t remember the last time I smoked a joint. Thirty minutes later I watched a nurse dump my urine sample in the trash.
    “Not enough,” she said, and pointed to a water faucet. “Drink up, then wait in the reception room. Let the receptionist know when you’re ready to try again.”
    An hour later I parked the Caddy on the bank of the Arkansas River. Across the muddy water I stared at the five skyscrapers in downtown Little Rock--Bank of America, the Peabody Hotel, Regions, the Stephens Building, and SouthFirst.
    Later, looking back, I realized this was when the slide began: thinking I’d finally given Doreen a reason to be proud of me, thinking I’d finally become somebody important who worked over there in one of those tall buildings…Yes, this was when the slide began.
     

     
     
     
     
     

     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
    Chapter 5

    I’m sure our neighbors thought we’d won the lottery the way Doreen was carrying on, shouting at the top of her lungs, praising the Lord. Two times she stepped out onto the balcony and shouted, “Hallelujah!” Even Lewis stared at her as if she’d lost her mind.
    She called everyone she knew and tried to be casual with the news but was unable to restrain her excitement.
    “Hey, girl, how you doing?…Me? Girl, I’m blessed, just sitting here with John--he just got hired at the bank today!”
    Unable to stand it any longer I started for the door. Lewis asked if he could go and I said, “Yeah, why not.”
    At the bottom of the stairs he headed straight for the Caddy.
    “Uh-uh, we’re walking.”
    “Mama glad you working at the bank,” Lewis said when we were a block away. “How come you’re not glad?”
    Up ahead, at the busy intersection of Baseline and Geyer Springs, a white Ford Explorer and a green Suburu were tangled together, the drivers standing on the curb discussing the matter.
    “I’m glad,” I told Lewis. “I’m just not orgasmic about it. It’s only a job.”
    A cruiser drove up, followed by an EMT vehicle. We stopped and watched the police direct traffic while the EMT techs assisted the drivers, one a green-haired white boy who was now holding his back.
    Then we headed for Circuit City, two blocks away.
    Lewis said, “John, how come you don’t like me?”
    “Why you say that? I like you. Why you think I don’t?”
    “The way you look at me when I’m eating, like you mad. When Mama ain’t around you--”
    “Isn’t,” I said. “ Ain’t isn’t a word.”
    “When Mama isn’t around you tell me get out your face, go play in the street blindfolded, shut up and be quiet. Shaun Davidson, my best friend, his daddy takes him fishing and they play catch together and a lot of stuff. I asked Mama see if you wanna go fishing. She said you too tired for that kinda stuff. Shaun’s daddy works two jobs--he don’t get tired. That’s why I think you don’t like me.”
    “Shaun’s daddy works two part-time jobs, mopping floors. That’s not what you call hard work. My job I’m lifting wood long as a car all day long. I don’t mind you eating…” A heavyset woman walked ahead of us into Circuit City. I whispered, “See, look, you don’t wanna get that big, do you?”
    Lewis wandered off when a sales clerk came up and asked if he could help. No, I was just looking. The fifty-two-inch Magnavox television would look good in the living room, and I imagined watching the Cowboys on it but couldn’t afford it.
    Ready to leave, I found Lewis in electronics, playing with a Sony