In These Rooms

To fill the silence on the way to the meeting, he turned on the radio and a spacey electronica groove flooded the car. "All my frieeeeeends get hiiiiiiiiigh". The Universe is having a laugh, he thought.

The meeting was in a back room on the first floor of a hospital he had driven by a million times but never been in. He was ten minutes early so he waited by the door. The meeting room was occupied by a group of green-scrubbed hospital workers throwing a cake and paper plate office party for someone's birthday. As the hallway begin to fill up with addicts impatient to continue the recovery process, the party was brought to a hasty conclusion. He followed the others in and took a seat in the corner. The others immediately went to work assembling the room with well-oiled efficiency. Table opened, literature set out. Chairs in a circle, close but comfortable. Coffee brewing, doughnuts released. Let the healing begin.

Directly across from him sat a ragged scarecrow dressed all in black. The scarecrow's forearms were tattooed in large block letters. Left: GIMME. Right: DANGER. He thought of Iggy and the Stooges. He thought of what led the scarecrow to carve that on his body. He thought of where the scarecrow ended up. Lord, gimme danger, but not yet.

The meeting began with the ritual incantation of the Message. "We are a fellowship of men and women who lives have become unmanageable due to drugs..." Then the room hushed and a woman with long beautiful blond hair and a missing tooth began to tell her story. "My war's been over for twenty years," she said. She talked about hating herself and the daily contemplation of suicide. She talked about keeping life simple. She talked about staying humble. She looked at him while she talked. "All I can control," she said, "is my actions."

The circle nodded. When she stopped talking, the circle shared. Broken lives, smashed lives. Lives picked cleaned, lives drained by vampires. Yet these lives continued. Shredded of everything, these lives walked on, bare bones and beating hearts. He wanted to shed tears for these lives. He wanted to shed tears for his own life. But everyone was smiling as they talked.

He looked at their faces and watched how they shook hands and hugged each other. Thank God, he thought, thank God we have each other. Thank God we have tomorrow.