It's amazing how fast drug users find others who use and others who supply.
I boarded the Coast Guard Sweetgum in the early afternoon to report to duty and put to work for the rest of the day. By the end of that day I knew who my next two friends were and how I was going to get my drugs.
My two friends weren't as heavy into drugs as I was, but they did use and could find me ways to secure what I needed. They warned me to keep drugs off of the ship because there were periodic raids. I was o.k. with that. Several months later I would look on the black and white photos of one of them with his face blown off lying with a pool of blood. His girlfriend said he shot himself with a shotgun, but nobody believed her. I often wondered, would that have been me if I had continued with these two friends?
During my first day on the ship I asked people what there was to do in Jacksonville. I was, in fact fishing for information about who did what with their time off. That was how I found my two friends. I also asked a guy named Brian that day the same question. He told me that some people liked to party and get drunk and others on the ship liked to go to church. Later that night I saw Brian talking about Jesus to somebody else on the ship; it looked like somebody had asked him some questions about his faith. I was cool with it. Brian didn't look like the Jesus Freaks that came to my High School, but then none of us looked like that anymore - we gave up our hair to Uncle Sam.
During the next day I worked on the deck scraping old paint off and putting new paint on until 5:00 in the afternoon. After work I ate and then showered. Now the shower was a community bathroom with several stalls for taking showers. I was just getting out of one when Brian came into the bathroom and told me he was going to the store. He asked me if I would like anything. I jumped at the opportunity because I forgot to bring laundry detergent. So I asked him if he wouldn't mind getting me some detergent. I, however, had to wait to get him some money and asked him if he wouldn't mind waiting while I got downstairs to get my money.
A strange look came on Brian's face, a look that I saw over and over again with him in the future. Brian looked like he was struggling - struggling inside - struggling with his thoughts.
Whenever I saw Brian with that look on his face, every time I saw him like that, something big was about to happen.
