Meth A Memoir

by Wayne Huffman

  When the cop opened the container and pulled the pipe out, he asked, “What’s this? A crack pipe?” Knowing that the law in Tennessee is a lot harder on meth than it is on crack, I just went with it.

  “Yep, it’s a crack pipe.” I answered.

  The cop said, “Well, if you had a Tennessee driver’s license, instead of an Alabama one, I would just issue you a summons to appear in court. Unfortunately, since you don’t, you’re going to have to go to jail for possession of drug paraphernalia.”

  To her credit, Lisa spoke up then to say it was her pipe, but the cop said since it was in my pocket, it’s my pipe. They then took both of us to jail.

  Since it was a Saturday morning, (isn’t it always?) I had to wait until Monday, before I could get anything done about seeing a judge, to try to get out of jail. I wasn’t sure, but I believed the twins would get me out if the bail was low enough. As it turned out, I didn’t need them to get me out. The judge had granted me an O.R. bond. This, as you well know, meant that I was free on nothing but my word that I would return for my court appearances. I was willing to agree to anything to get out of there, before the probation office found out I was in jail, and hit me with a violation before I could leave.

  Chapter 40

  As soon as I got out, I called Tina to come pick me up. My plans for a new start were not going well, at all. Since returning, I had caught a new drug charge, went to jail, and I was sure my probation was going to get violated soon. On top of that, I was broke, had no car, and nowhere to go. I didn’t even have a lab, to cook some dope to make some money.

  I had Tina drop me off that evening at the Wal-Mart in Elizabethton. She gave me $25 before I got out of the car, and told me to call her if I needed anything at all. I thanked her, and went to go get change for the phone.

  I called FJ. She said I could stay at her place if I needed to, so I took off walking, and arrived at her house around midnight. I spent a few days at FJ’s, trying to figure out what I was going to do. I had her drive me to get my clothes and shaving bag, from her parent’s house, where I had left it the night we came back to town.

  Friday afternoon, was Lisa’s visiting day at the Carter County jail, and the twins told me they had made an appointment for all of us to go see her. Visitation there was all done by appointment. Faye also told me to bring clothes, because I was going to be staying with her and Tina.

  The visit went fine. Lisa was crying the whole time, and telling me how she wanted to change, and leave dope alone. It was an Oscar-worthy act of epic proportions. I didn’t believe a single solitary word of it. I went back to the house with the twins, and we started smoking dope again. Leanna showed up, wanting the twins to go somewhere with her. They said they would be back soon, and left.

  A couple hours later, a car pulled up the driveway. I walked into the living room, and my father-in-law was outside. I was just about to look out, to see who else was out there, when Levi came flying through the living room, and into his bedroom. Only one thing made Levi act like that. Cops! Feeling uneasy, I headed for the front door to make a run for it, but just as I got it open, I heard someone behind me say, “Sir, I need to speak with you.” I turned around to find a Carter County deputy standing inside the back door.

  My father-in-law was getting pretty worked up. He was telling the cop he had no right to come on his property, which was on the Unicoi County side of the line, and be able to arrest anyone. That was true, but I didn’t want a scene at their house, so I asked the cop what he was arresting me for. I expected him to say, “Violation of probation.” Instead, he said I was being arrested for possession of schedule two drugs. Since I knew I hadn’t been caught with any dope, I went on to jail with the cop. I figured it was a mistake, and we would work it out Monday when court opened.

  I got up for court Monday morning, feeling nervous. Surely, my P.O. knew about my arrest a week earlier, and had violated my probation, or at the very least, he would see me in court and violate me then. I sat in a small, windowless room with several other inmates waiting to see the judge. On occasion, a lawyer, or the assistant district attorney, (A.D.A.) would squeeze into the room to talk to someone. When the A.D.A. called my name and asked if I would need an attorney, I got pissed.

  When I came to jail a few nights earlier, I asked how it was I was being charged with possession of anything, when I didn’t have anything on me. The officer checked the report, and said FJ had called the Drug Task Force to her house, after finding meth in some property that belonged to me. The property was my shaving bag.

  I told the A.D.A. that I felt like this charge was bullshit, and I think she knew it too. If they could do this to me, then I could easily plant some dope somewhere, and swear it was hers and get her arrested. There was no PROOF the dope, or even the shaving bag for that matter, belonged to me. The A.D.A. agreed that, if I fought the charge, I would probably get it thrown out. She then asked, “Are you going to get bailed out of jail?” I told her it wasn’t likely, and she said I would end up sitting in jail for at least, two months waiting for a court date to plead my case. Unless, I wanted to work something out.

  “Working something out” turned out to mean, I plead guilty to simple possession, for a year of probation. Once again, hoping my P.O. didn’t know I was locked up, I took the deal to get the hell out of jail.

  When I got released, I didn’t want to call the twins again to come get me, so I walked downtown to decide on my next move. I finally decided to call Lea, to see what she was doing. Lea was now living in a big fixer-upper house in Elizabethton. I asked if I could stay with her until I got straightened out, and she said she would be glad to have me stay there. She came, picked me up, and took me home.

  I got a hold of the twins later that day, and they brought me my clothes. They asked if I wanted to stay with them, but I said I was better off being in town, where I could get around. Besides, once my P.O. started to look for me, their place is the first place the cops would show up at.

  I spent the first few days at Lea’s house helping her underpin a doublewide trailer she was about to sell. When we were finished with that, we pretty much did nothing except visit with a couple of her lesbian friends, and try to find Lortabs to buy. Lea always had a bad pill habit.

  After a week or so at Lea’s house, I had to find something to do to make some money. I called Faye, and asked her if she would front me the cash to get a lab together, and supplies to do a cook. She said she would. I got a ride with Larry, Lea’s neighbor, to go meet Faye to get the money. I told Faye I would give her a call when the cook was done, so I could repay the loan with dope.

  Larry loved meth too, so it wasn’t hard to convince him to help me buy pills for the cook. It took us about three hours to buy everything I needed, and then we went back to Lea’s, so I could get everything ready. Lea didn’t have any problem with me cooking, since she was a meth head from way back. I took everything to my room to do all of the prep work, in case someone came by to visit, or to buy or sell pain pills.

  I spent hours getting the Red P ready and the pills broke down. Once that was finished, I had to build my cook pot and get everything mixed for the cook. When the cook kicked off, I set the pot out the window, onto the roof of the front porch. There was a good breeze out which blew the smoke away, so it wasn’t noticeable. I laid down on the bed to give the reaction time to settle down. The next thing I knew, it was morning.

  I jumped out of bed and ran to the window, hoping the wind didn’t blow my cook pot off of the roof. Luckily, it was sitting right where I left it. I brought it inside, and went down to the kitchen to do the cook. The cook went perfect, and I went back upstairs to gas it off. I ended up with several grams of quality meth; seems that a good sit does wonders for the stuff.

  I called the twins, and told them why I didn’t call sooner, but they weren’t worried at all. Tina came by to pick up the dope, and I gave her a couple extra grams to sell for me. After she left, I woke Lea up and we got high. I had some syringes, so we
were banging the hell out of some dope that day. Larry came by, and I got him high too, for driving me around and helping me buy shit for the cook.

  Chapter 41

  By the next morning, Lea was getting a little paranoid. It started around late afternoon, when Lea was washing dishes. She looked outside, and noticed a county work crew, working on the sewer system. For some reason, Lea thought the workers were DEA agents, who were pumping the water out of the sewer system to test it for chemicals, to see if anyone was cooking meth in the area. I tried to explain to her just how ridiculous this sounded, but she was absolutely convinced we were about to get busted.

  Finally, the work crew left, and Lea seemed to forget about them. We went to Lea’s bedroom, and relaxed for a while by shooting up some more dope. Sometime after dark, Lea suddenly lost her mind. I was sitting on the bed, tapping my cigarette lighter on the nightstand, when Lea jumped up and asked me what the hell I was doing. I didn’t know what the fuck she was talking about, so I asked her, “What the fuck are you talking about?”

  Lea asked, “Why are you sending Morse Code messages?”

  “Morse code? Who the fuck would I be sending Morse Code messages to?” I asked while laughing my ass off at her.

  All of a sudden, Lea had gotten it in her head that there were four police officers in the basement, waiting for my signal, to come up into the house and bust us. She couldn’t explain to me how the cops got in the basement to begin with, or how she knew the exact number of cops down there waiting for the signal, but they were there; in her mind, anyway.

  I decided to have some fun with Lea, so I started tapping my foot on the floor in a Morse Code fashion. Lea flipped the fuck out. She started screaming for me to stop, and I would, for a couple of minutes. Then I would do it again. This was quite entertaining to me; kind of like using a laser pointer to fuck with a cat. When the Morse Code got old, I started telling her I was hearing voices in different parts of the house. Lea, armed with a steak knife from the kitchen, would believe me every time, and she would go investigate to see who was in the house.

  At one point, she finally locked the bedroom door and pulled a dresser over to barricade it. The entire time, all of this is going on; I’ve been kicked back on the bed, enjoying myself at Lea’s expense. Lea was bouncing around the bedroom, and peeking out the windows, when she told me to turn off the lights. I did, and asked what she was seeing outside. Lea asked me who put the ounce of dope on the running board of her truck for the cops to find. I got up to look out the window, and when I tried to open the curtain, she grabbed it out of my hand, closed it, and asked, “Who are you trying to let see into the house?”

  Irritated, I snatched the curtain back out of her hand and opened it so I could see the driveway as Lea did a belly flop onto the floor, out of sight of whoever it was she thought was out there. The “ounce of dope on the running board” was nothing more than the streetlight, reflecting off the surface of the running board. I tried to explain this, but she insisted she knew exactly what it was, and knew exactly what was going on... She was being set up! That was her explanation anyway.

  I finally gave up on messing with Lea’s head after a while. She was doing just fine messing with her own head. I walked over to the door, pushed the dresser out of the way, and was unlocking the door, when Lea ran over, grabbed her knife, and demanded to know where I was going. “To take a piss. Want to come watch?” Apparently, she was so fucked in the head, she did. Lea followed me to the bathroom, and stood in the doorway, knife in hand, while I took a piss. Just for the hell of it, I kept pinching off the stream, so I was pissing in a “Morse Code” rhythm. “Hey Lea, I’m messaging the DEA’s sewer submarine, so they know where we’re at.” She wasn’t the slightest bit amused.

  When I was done, she followed me back to the bedroom. When we got back in, Lea locked the door, and pointed the knife at me, telling me to sit down. Things were going from fun to serious, kind of quick, and I decided it was time I got the fuck away from this situation. Since it was the middle of the night, I couldn’t call anyone to come get me. Not that I thought Lea would let me use the phone right then anyway.

  I made sure I had my dope, syringe, and cigarettes in my pocket, then I told Lea I heard someone coming in through the living room window. She threw the bedroom door open, and took off running through the house. As soon as I saw her turn the corner into the living room, I took off down the hall, towards the backdoor. Seeing me open the door, she ran towards me yelling, “Don’t open that door!”

  I took off across the yard, jumping the fence between her house and Larry’s, while Lea stood at the door, yelling at me to get back in the house. I ran down the street, not knowing where to go. At this point, I’m pretty paranoid myself, and everywhere I looked, all I could see was tree people, and shadow people. To top that off, I ended up convinced the cops were looking for me for leaving Lea’s house, so I was ducking and hiding in the bushes.

  It took me a couple of hours, but I finally made it the four blocks to my old house. That was the only place I could think of to go. Once I got there, I hid under the porch. I stayed there until daylight convinced that every car that drove by was a cop, waiting for me to come out from under the porch. The porch was enclosed, except for an entrance hole, cut out near the driveway at the side of the house. This made me feel safe, because the cops couldn’t see me. The problem with this setup was that I couldn’t see out either, so all I had to go on to know what was going on around me, was what I could hear. What I was hearing, once the sun came up, was the cop on the porch, sneaking around, while he waited for me to come out, so he could arrest me.

  I was stuck, but I decided to wait the cop out. Surely, he would leave after a while if I stayed perfectly still, so he couldn’t hear me. I lay under that porch for hours, afraid to move. I was so thirsty, I couldn’t stand it, and that is what finally made me decide to give up. I crawled to the entrance hole, and prepared to surrender. Before I exited, I announced that I was giving up. I crawled out, and once I was clear of the doorway, I laid face down on the driveway, and awaited orders. Nobody said shit. After a few seconds, I peeked around behind me. There was nothing there, except a piece of rope, dangling from the front porch railing. The wind was making the rope sway back and forth, causing it to make noise every time it made contact with the rail below it. That, is the sound I thought was a cop sneaking around.

  I got up, cleaned myself off, and walked to the McDonald’s for something to drink. Once I saw that the cops weren’t stalking me, my paranoia began to subside a little, and I began to think about what I was going to do. I was practically broke, and Tina would be giving me a little money for the dope she was selling, but that wasn’t going to help me much at all. I still had no transportation, and nowhere to live. All of my clothes were still at Lea’s house, and so was my lab. Since I didn’t know the state of mind Lea was in at the moment, I wasn’t about to go collect my belongings just yet.

  I walked around downtown Elizabethton all day, visiting several of the “junk” shops, just to kill some time. When it started to get dark, my paranoia started to return. I started to think the cops were looking for me again. This time, I thought they were looking for me, for probation violation warrants. I ducked into a movie theater to get out of the streets, and went into the bathroom to do a shot of dope. By the time I came out of the bathroom, I was now convinced the cops were after me for escaping from jail. I don’t know where that thought came from, but in my mind, I had escaped from jail and was on the run.

  I called Tina and asked her if she would come pick me up. She was out running around with Leanna, and she said they would meet me somewhere. I told her to park behind a little ice cream shop a few blocks from where I was at, and I would be there soon. By the time Tina and Leanna got there, I was already there. I was laying on the ground, under an old school bus, watching to see if they had been followed. Once I felt that it was safe enough, I made a run for the car. I jumped into the backseat, and ducked down, telling L
eanna to get me the hell out of Elizabethton.

  We ended up at Tina and Faye’s house. I explained to the girls that the cops were after me for escaping from jail. They pretty much humored me, and talked me into taking a nap, which is exactly what I needed. When I woke up, I was much better. I no longer thought I had escaped, or that the cops were looking for me, but I still had a lot of problems to work out. I didn’t know exactly how I was going to fix all my problems, but Tina’s boyfriend, Billy, said he could help with a place to stay. That’s a start at least.

  Chapter 42

  Billy lived in Johnson City with Angelina, a friend of his from Georgia, in the basement apartment of Angelina’s mother’s house. The house was a nice, brick, 3 bedrooms in an upper middle-class neighborhood. The basement of the house had been almost entirely finished with carpeting, sheetrock walls, and a drop ceiling. The apartment consisted of a bedroom, living room, bathroom, and laundry room. There was also an area of the basement that was unfinished. It had a concrete floor, and cinderblock walls. The railings for the drop ceiling had been installed in this area, but there were no ceiling panels, so the floor joints from above were still visible. This area was furnished with a couple of couches, chairs, television, and even a small bed.

  With its own entrance, Angelina’s basement apartment was something of a hangout/party house. People would come and go at any and all hours of the day or night. Sometimes people would stay for several hours, and sometimes they would stay for several days. The first time I went there, it was late in the evening. We parked on the street, in front of the house, because nobody was allowed to park in the driveway or carport, and we walked through the carport, down a narrow set of wooden steps to a large deck area, that once surrounded an above ground pool. The pool area was surrounded by a 10 foot privacy fence. From the deck area, we took a set of steps down to a patio and entered the basement, without knocking, through a door down there.