The Panic in Needle Park by James Mills

Author:James Mills
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Dover Publications
Published: 2020-02-15T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 12

FOUR hours later someone knocked on my door. I opened it and Bobby stepped into the room, walked angrily over to the window, spun around, walked back to the center of the room, and stood there, feet planted firmly, defiantly.

“Look,” he said. “I know you’re a square, and that’s supposed to make you better than all of us and all that, but what’s this with you taking Helen to the hospital? She had a trick last night, you know, and she missed it, and it’s not like I’m worried about the bread or anything but he’s a very high class guy and if she don’t make it, well, he just forgets her and finds another chick. And anyway like I don’t go for her just bein’ hustled off some place without my knowin’ it, you know, like we’re very close, Helen and me, and I worry when I can’t find her. . . .”

“Look,” I interrupted, “Helen was very sick. She had to go to the hospital. It’s possible she would be dead now if she hadn’t gone . . . And Hank helped me.”

Bobby sat down. “Well, you shouldn’t have done it without asking me. There I was out there trying to sell those cases of coffee and someone’s hustling Helen away some place and keeping her from her trick and now that guy won’t call her again and he was one of the last decent tricks she’s got.”

Bobby sat there, sullen, staring out the window.

“You want to go visit her?” I asked.

“They won’t let me in there, she’s a junkie. Can you fix it?”

“I can’t fix it if it’s against the rules. And I guess you’re right. It probably is if she’s an addict.”

“I can tell you it is,” Bobby said, grunting.

“Look, I’ll see her this afternoon, and I’ll tell her I spoke with you and that you miss her, and I’ll try to arrange for you to talk to her on the phone. If it’s not against the rales. Okay?”

“Sorry I woke you.” Bobby got up and went to the door. “See you.” The door closed behind him and I went back to bed.

I got up at five that afternoon and went to the hospital. Helen was in a room with another addict, and the two of them were sitting up chatting happily when I walked in.

Helen beamed at me and stuck out her hand. “Hi. They really fixed me up nice here. Of course, I still don’t feel too good, but I’m coming fine.” Her left arm was in bandages, and without make-up her face looked even more gaunt than usual. She had no eyebrows and her cheeks were sunken.

“Bobby said you’d be here this afternoon. I’ve been waiting for you.” She said it casually, but I could tell she was pleased by my look of surprise.

“Oh, really? I saw him this morning. I thought it was against the rules for him to talk to you.”

“Well, I guess it is.” She grinned. “But they had

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