Dreamseller

  I grab the handle and begin to lift, straining. I am frail—weight: one hundred fifteen pounds, eat: two or three times a week. I can only call upon as little energy as one would imagine a person of this description might possess.

  My legs begin to tremble, and I manage to raise the door almost three inches before it slips from my grasp and slams shut: Bang! As the sound resonates, I wince, fearful that the people who live above this garage might call the police if they discover that every night a junkie sneaks in and sleeps like an abandoned dog.

  I step back, take another breath, and analyze the situation: I’m sick, I need ten dollars now, and goddamn it, this door is going to open! Again, I grab the door handle and pull. My knees are buckling, my arms shaking, my back is about to give out, but I am motivated by the thought of my next fix: inspiration! Finally I manage to create a three-foot slot, underneath which I cram my shoulder and apply it as a brace to hold the door up.

  I look outside, to the far end of the two-story valley of red-brick row homes, where the mouth of the alley touches the street. There, the sunlight almost washes away the images of pedestrians, cars, stores. To most people, this is scenery. But to me, in these things I see opportunities to steal, lie, hustle, scam, and create victims. I swiftly slip out from under the door, letting it strike the concrete with a slam!

  I hit the streets, motivated by my plan to scam my mom. Suddenly behind me, a familiar voice rings out. “Yo, Brandon! What’s up?”

  I turn toward my old friend Scott, who glances over my condition. “Yo, Scott,” I say in a shaky voice.

  Scott is four years clean. As teenagers, we rode skateboards together. As we grew up, we became addicts together. The difference is, he went clean, I got worse, and he became my NA sponsor. It is an indisputable fact that we could always depend on one another; however, in this case, an unspoken code of ethics dictates that I cannot ask for money. This is for my own good—we both know it, and we both know why: obviously, any funds extended to me would be spent on Dope.

  Scott looks me up and down, scrutinizing my condition. “You don’t look so hot, friend.”

  “Yeah…” What else is there to say?

  Scott looks at me with pain in his eyes. “Look, Brandon, I have to get going to work. But here. Take this.” As he speaks, he jots down his phone number on a scrap of paper. “I know I always give you my number when I see you, but I want you to know, the offer still stands. Anytime, anywhere, if you ever feel the desire to clean up, call me, and I promise I’ll stop whatever I’m doing, come get you, and take you to rehab, okay?”

  “Okay. Thanks, Scott.”

  “Promise you’ll call me if you need a ride?”

  “I promise. Thanks, Scott.”

  “No problem, Brandon. Good luck.”

  Scott’s current occupation is real estate, and he is apparently doing very well at it. He steps into his white Mercedes and pulls away. I pocket the phone number, not because I intend to ever need a ride to rehab, but perhaps I can use Scott for something at a later time: a place to sleep, a change of clothes, a shower, whatever. A junkie always has to consider his resources. Okay. Mom’s house. Here I go.

  As I walk the six blocks to Mom’s house, my pace quickens, faster and faster. Her house is now in sight. I see her car and I know she’s there. Excitement shoots through me. I am trembling, as I can almost feel the sweet Heroin surging through my veins.

  Then I see it. I stop dead in my tracks, as my hope of obtaining ten dollars vanishes. The front door of Mom’s house opens, revealing my half brother David, a thirty-two-year-old lawyer who works for the State. He is the proverbial “brain” of our family. Behind David follows our older sister Lisa, who, at a young age, voluntarily assumed many of the parenting responsibilities necessary to raise me while Mom worked her way through medical school in order to provide a better life for us. With my sister are her children, my seven-year-old niece Cindy and eight-year-old nephew Nicholas. Cute little kids, innocent, not yet aware of the world’s evil. The last to exit the house is my mom. In raising us, she had done her best, especially under the circumstances of being separated from our father.

  As they gather in front of the house, I hide behind a tree, struck with jealousy, envy, and remorse as I watch them standing in a circle of laughter and joy.

  I grit my teeth at a memory of my childhood, when I was seven and won my first skateboard sponsorship. I remember the pride I felt in watching my mother cry with joy, and in the celebration that followed, when brother, sister, and mother surprised me with a cake on which was written in icing, CONGRATULATIONS, BRANDON! and a little skateboard, sculpted in pieces of chocolate candy….

  Hidden behind the tree, I ask myself if I am willing to suffer the humiliation and looks of disgust from my family. I contemplate turning back, but my subservience to Heroin makes my decision to proceed, slowly and cautiously, reciting the lies that I will use to deceive those I love most.

  David notices my approach and calls out, “Hey! Brandon!” At first, happiness is his instinctive response, but in recognizing the familiar signs of my condition, he then recollects the emotional pain I have caused him and my family: deceit, lies, and betrayal. At once, bitterness washes the pleasantness from his face.

  Lisa takes notice of me, hides her pain for the sake of her children, and calls out, “Hey, Brandon!” I give her my biggest smile possible and rush to her in hopes that I might win sympathy from my brother and, ultimately, the money from my mother.

  Lisa embraces me, and her nose retracts, wrinkling her face with disgust as she inhales my terrible stench. Breaking the hug from Lisa, from the corner of my eye I glance sideways to see if Lisa’s kindness is evoking any positive sentiments from David. One look tells me it is not.

  As I close in on my mother, I notice a sad disappointment in her eyes, which she quickly hides in order to make this occasion the least painful possible.

  My mother asks, “So, Brandon, what are you doing here?”

  I reply, “Oh, I had off work today so I figured I’d stop by to say hi.” Lies: I haven’t worked in years, unless you can refer to hustling for Dope as “work,” and I certainly did not come here to say hi.

  Mom hugs and kisses me, tolerating my stink because, although I am a junkie, the fact remains I am her son.

  Mom says, “We’re going to look at your sister’s new house; do you want to come?”

  In my head, I cry, “No! I just want to get my Dope money and get the fuck out of here!” I do not want to spoil this day for my family, to force them to look at me or smell my putrid stink. But, as sick as it sounds, enduring this discomfort is preferable to walking downtown, stealing, and risking arrest, so, I go against all better judgment and answer, “Lisa, that’s awesome; you got a new house? I’d love to see it.”

  My brother glares at me as if to silently scream, Get the fuck away from us! but he keeps his composure for the sake of my mother, and because, ultimately, he does love me.

  I turn to my niece and nephew. “Cindy! Nicholas! Come here, let me look at you!” I give them kisses on the head, telling them, “Mommy has been telling me how good you two are!”

  A vivid memory fogs my perception as I recall that not so long ago these beautiful children once came with Lisa to visit me in a rehab center.

  “What is this place? Why are you here?” they had asked.

  I remember how naturally my answer, a lie, was issued forth. “This is where I work.”

  We load into my brother’s van. I want to take a seat in the back, to spare them from my stench, but Mom insists I sit up front with David. He clearly does not want this, and I do not want it, but we do it anyway.

  I know that before long, Mom will begin to carry on a casual conversation, a social skill I haven’t practiced in years. At this point the only thing I am used to conversing about is where good Dope can be found and what makes of undercover cars the police drive. My mind races as if I had just snorted half a gram of coke, as the barrage of questions, and the
subsequent lies, ensue:

  MOM: So where are you living?

  ME: Well, I’m living in Fell’s Point; I have an apartment with a friend. It’s pretty small, but it’s okay.

  MOM: Oh, that’s nice. And where are you working?

  ME: I’m bartending part-time at a couple places, filling in different shifts. Soon one of the places will hire me full-time, once someone quits…

  MOM: Well that’s good….

  Before the next question is asked, my brother, who has the opposite personality of my mother, interrupts. “So, Brandon, where did you sleep last night?”

  A setup. This is a question that, if answered truthfully, will confirm that I have lied, and if answered untruthfully, will be met with a challenge. Whichever answer I give will be the wrong one. I answer anyway. “At a friend’s house.”

  Here we go. “That’s a fucking lie!” He points out the window, at a park bench. “You look like you slept on that bench last night! And you smell like a goddamn bum!” Correct on all three counts.

  My mother screams, “David, don’t!”

  His voice raises a decibel. “Mom, stop protecting him! Let’s get real! He smells like a fucking bum from the streets! If we have to spend the day with him, we’re gonna have to stop at a hotel or somewhere to get him a shower! This is disgusting!”

  My sister remains silent. My mother pleads, “Please, David, stop it!”

  David insists. “I will not stop it! Enough is enough! I want him out of this van!”

  “Fine!” I snap back. “You want me gone? No problem! You’ll never see me again! I guarantee you that!” The van is traveling ten miles per hour as I fling open the door, stumble and fall on the asphalt, scramble to my feet, and run away in tears and disgrace.

  Behind me I hear the sound of grinding gears as the vehicle is thrown into reverse before it comes to a full halt. David, now driving backward, is beside me, pleading, his anger for my addiction now overcome by his love. “Wait! Brandon, wait!”

  “Fuck you!” the only response I could muster.

  “Brandon! Look, I’m sorry! Get back in the van! Please?”

  For a moment I consider this, only for the purposes of pitting my family’s affections against their judgment in order to procure the money for my fix, but what little pride I have will not allow me to do so.

  As they drive away, I turn and examine this mess I’ve caused. My mother is apologizing for my brother. My sister is crying, hiding her face in her hands. And a heartbreaking vision engraves itself into my memory: my little niece and nephew, turned around in their seats like puppy dogs, with tears running down their faces, waving good-bye. And somehow, through their sobs, I could hear one of them call out, “Grandmom, please, just give him the money…”

  Hearing this, I realize I have not even asked my mother for the money yet, and I arrive at a conclusion horrible to consider: that, in my niece’s and nephew’s limited experiences on this earth, although they could not yet comprehend my addiction, their knowledge of what follows my visits includes an inevitable consequence: I ask my mother for money.

  As I walk toward the city in search of the Heroin money, I consider the lesson that had been inflicted on my niece and nephew: In trust, they will find lies. In relationships, they will experience manipulation. In love, they will encounter pain. And this is what they would forever remember, that I, their mother’s half brother, Uncle Brandon, had taught them about life.

  chapter two

  A Prayer Answered

  I advance my mental Rolodex of hustles until I turn up the address of a CD shop from which I might liberate several albums. When I arrive, I am met by a large black security guard who shakes his head as if to say, “Do yourself a favor and keep walking.” To protest would be a waste of time and energy. My intent is obvious; I harbor no resentments and accept reality: people perceive me as another junkie trying to get over. I turn away, becoming increasingly ill, contemplating my next option: Kmart.

  A Junkie’s Guide for Shoplifting at Kmart:

  Most Kmart employees are not paid enough to exert the energy to spot shoplifters.

  Undercovers are the effective deterrent to the shoplifter.

  An increased number of shoppers create distractions for undercovers, hence opportunities for the shoplifter, but, an increased number of shoppers also indicates an increased number of undercovers.

  Undercovers can be easily spotted, as they are the only shoppers unaccompanied by nagging children and/or arguing spouses, and they are among the few in the store who demonstrate acceptable hygiene practices.

  I arrive at the Electronics department, and to my disheartenment, I see several undercovers detaining a white woman and a black man, emptying the contents from the suspects’ handbag and pockets on a counter. Immediately I turn and exit, hearing behind me the click-click-click of handcuffs as they close around the wrists of the shoplifters. Goddamn it, can today get any worse?

  I make my way toward the Baltimore Inner Harbor, or what money-scrounging junkies refer to as “the tourist area.” I spot a tour group of about twenty people, and for my own amusement, I alter the tour guide’s speech in my mind. “Welcome to Baltimore’s Inner Harbor, one of the most prominent seaports in the United States since the 1700s…. Here, the National Aquarium is the city’s leading attraction and is home to more than ten thousand specimens…. Over here, students and scientists frequent the Maryland Science Center…. For a grand view of the city, one might visit the observatory in the Baltimore World Trade Center, which is the world’s tallest even-sided, pentagon-shaped building…. And finally, this is Brandon Novak, a once-prominent skateboarder who senselessly threw away his career because he became addicted to heroin. You might note that he is now a sick junkie with a disgusting presence and a putrid stench, and he is planning to ruin the good time of all the tourists in the vicinity by begging and badgering them for money.” The tourists then click photos of me, which will later be placed in albums next to landmark photos of Fort McHenry, the USS Constellation, and the grave of Edgar Allan Poe…

  Surely, if I ask enough tourists for a dollar, and one out of ten pays, then, one hundred questions later, I will have my ten bucks, I think. But in my optimism, what I failed to take into consideration is that I look and smell so horrible, no one will even stop long enough for me to ask them for money. As time passes and my desperation increases, my approach changes:

  First, delicate diplomacy: “Excuse me, sir, could you please spare some change so that I might get something to eat?”

  Then assertiveness: “Hi, look, I hate to bother you, but I really need a dollar and sixty cents to catch the bus. Can you spare two bucks?”

  Finally, aggressiveness: “Hey, man, I’m in a bad way! Give me five bucks?!”

  Hours later, nothing, not one red cent, just a cigarette given to me by a twelve-year-old girl who would brag to her friends that she “felt cool” because she had talked to a “squatter.”

  The bell in the tower above a neighboring church rings out, and as I count the chimes, I consider that the bell was probably manufactured to toll for the glory of God in the late 1800s. Now, over one hundred years later, I feel as if it had been constructed for the single purpose of increasing my frustration with each ring…Dong. Dong. Dong. Dong. Dong.

  “Five o’clock?! Already?! Fuck!” In a few short hours, the Dope dealers will start to pack up shop, forcing me to spend the night in that horrible garage, in a state of sobriety and complete awareness.

  My brain is pounding as I again race through an index of scams and hustles for a solution…. Then I see it, literally right in front of my face.

  I am sitting on a corner adjacent to an antiques store, and on the sidewalk, on display, is an array of handmade, sheet-iron furniture…. It’s lightweight, expensive-looking, and most important, unguarded by the employees who are inside the store preparing to close for the day.

  I sit and finish my smoke in careful analysis, noting the frequency of pedestrians passing b
y and customers walking in and out of the store. By the time I finish my smoke, I am able to conclude that, if I exercise a reasonable amount of caution, this might go smoothly.

  I cross the street and walk past the furniture, mimicking the mannerisms of an interested customer. I glance at the price tags, scoping out the items that might yield the maximum profit for minimal effort. I spot them: an end table worth four hundred dollars and a small statue worth two hundred. Perfect!

  I continue to the corner and give one final look around. I take a deep breath and remind myself that, being too sick to go to jail, I cannot afford to not do this correctly.

  Waiting for the moment when conditions will allow me to walk away with the merchandise in a nonchalant manner, I see an opportunity arise. A group of suit-and-tie-wearing men pass, and I follow closely behind them, trying to appear to be one of the men’s younger brother. But I am cautious not to follow too close, because I want to avoid being noticed by the businessmen. As I follow, I am struck with the irony that today I have been through more stress than the combined sum of this entire group of office-working nine-to-fivers.

  Okay, here I go; my eyes are locked on my target, the four-hundred-dollar table. I draw closer, picking up speed, and in one smooth motion I scoop up the table and swiftly walk away, with a prayer that I will not hear a voice screaming for me to come back.

  I turn the corner, and as it is my nature to test the boundaries of risk, I place the table on the ground, then return to the sidewalk display, grab the two-hundred-dollar statue, again turn the corner to my awaiting table, scoop it up, and haul ass!

  Blocks and blocks later, I find myself asking anyone and everyone in my path if they would be interested in the purchase of this furniture. Why would they, especially from me?

  Again, I hear the bell from the neighboring church. I pause and count the chimes…six o’clock?! That leaves me only one hour until the closing time of the antiques store that pays at least ten percent of the tag value on stolen goods. By the final stroke of the bell, I am running at full speed down the street with the furniture.