I had survived the big ordeal and Christmas morning. I had even gotten a little more popular. Everyone wanted to know the story. Jack had asked me to keep it quiet, but I needed some friends. I really only knew some of the others on detox and some of the counselors. Most of the counselors I had met were pretty cool. While on detox we didn't really interact with too many of them. We hung with Nate a lot. Chuck took us around a little. Chuck was a bigger guy from New Jersey. He had come out to Narconon about a year ago. Crack cocaine was his thing and he had two ruined marriages because of it. He always said he had nothing to go home to so he just stayed on at Narco at became a counselor. Now that he had lived the lifestyle he was a devout Scientologist. I really wanted to know more about it but Chuck was reluctant to talk too much about it. Chuck was probably in his early thirties and definately on the prowl for wife number three.
The graveyard detox guy was named Chris. Chris was one of my favorites. He would always play spades with us and he was more like one of us than a counselor. Chris was also from New Jersey. He was around twenty-five and a tall, dark and handsome. All the girls had a thing for Chris. He was in love with the California lifestyle and had no plans to go back to New Jersey. Chris was always cruising around the house with no shirt on and he had his nipples pierced and he got a new tatoo every time he was payed it seemed. I still liked him. Chris was a hardcore Heroine addict and he loved the East Coast smack. He said the shit in Cali. sucked. The East usually get's China White heroin and the West get's stuff called tar. Chris claimed tar couldn't even get him off. I wouldn't know.
The graveyard "Director" was Butch. He was a dink. basically he sat at the detox desk and bs'd with everybody and every once in a while he would go look in on all the bedrooms. He had been at Narco for over 13 years and loved to make sure everyone knew he was in charge, while everyone loved to make fun of him behind his back. He always wore a white Dodger's ball cap sitting on top of his head. Not down on his head, just sitting there so that a big tuft of hair stuck out of the front, he looked so stupid. There was to be no smoking in the building at Narco, but Butch would sit at the desk and smoke one after the other and ash his cigarettes in the fireplace. If anyone else lit one up he would say "uh-uh", he loved the power. One time we found a book on Scientology, about eight of us were in the room and Jeff was reading it aloud and we were laughing at some of the space shit. Butch came in and heard some of it and totally freaked out. Ripped the book out of Jeff's hands and started totally yelling at all of us "You guys don't understand this stuff and are too stupid to get it if I explained it" He went on and on, he was pissed, later he calmed down and said "It takes years and years of studying to get to the point where that kind of stuff makes sense. You guys shouldn't have found that book. If any of you are interested in the religion aspect talk to me at the end of your program and we will start to teach you and you can meet with a monitor, but not now" Wow, I was mixed up. I never liked Butch, he was nicer to me towards the end of my stay at Narco but I always thought he was a loser.
Tony drove us around when we needed to go somewhere, he was a pretty funny guy in his late 20's. Matt was a sauna monitor and was pretty cool. He always dressed in black. Long black Dickies shorts, black t-shirt, black skate board company ball cap off to the side and vans. His arms were covered with tatoo's. They all had tatoo's. That is just a taste of some of the workers I met before I even started the classroom, a lot of the students would stay after graduation and Narco would find them a job, that is why there were so many of them I guess. They were all really fun with the exception of Butch.
Anyways, after everything quieted down on Christmas everyone started to come outside to play on the beach. Class had been cancelled for the whole day. I was kind of bummed about it. I was usually comfortable with just the detox guys and gals I knew, now everyone was around all day. A lot of personalities, a lot of tough guys, a lot of loud tough guys and a lot of wierd or bizarre people. It was December so the water was cold so no one stayed in the water too long. Jack showed up with a football and a group of students started throwing it around. I could tell that there wasn't a lot of good athletes here. Maybe athletes like skateboarding, but not ball players. Jack was an athlete though, I could tell. He was old but you could tell he used to play all kinds of ball. They were kind of taking turns going out on patterns and then throwing wounded ducks into the sand. I was standing around with Brian, Danny and some other detox guys. Chuck was the only counselor with us, all the others were playing. Chuck was like "Danny, Brian let's go throw the ball around". Danny and Brian were young and in shape, I wasn't. I knew this was my chance to get some respect. Danny agreed but Brian would rather die than play stupid football. I said "I'm on it Chuck, get the ball and go long" . He paused and called for the ball, he was ignored for a few minutes, finally he got it. "Here you go Sam" and he took off on the sand. I kept waving him deeper and deeper, he slowed down like, come on dude, no way can you throw it that far. I was a little nervous, no warm up's. The ball was a little smaller than a regulation football so knew I would be able to bomb further than anyone else I had seen. I kept waving him deeper, he kept going, then I let it fly. It was actually a very important pass. Everyone was watching and if I flubbed it than I was just like everyone else. You know, "Go deep, deeper, deeper" and then not even throw it twenty yards. I was feeling the pressure. I uncorked a perfect spiral and it was long, way over Chuck's head who had slowed down not knowing how to go out for a pass correctly. I felt all the eye's on me and a couple of "Holy Shit's" from the guys. bingo. I was in. I ended up with a very sore arm that day but it was worth it. I made some friends. Jack called me back into his office that evening. "did you play college ball?" I wanted to say yes so badly.
I said "Jack, do you realize where I am? Do you think I had my shit together enough to play college ball? I really wish I had, I would have loved to give it a shot" Jack nodded and laughed. He told me his story, Jack and I were friends. That's all it took. We had a different bond, a ball players bond. It was huge.
Christmas turned out to be a good day. I was able to keep my thoughts off home except for the phone calls. those stung. I will finish Christmas next time, or maybe just let that be enough,
peace.
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