Meth A Memoir

by Wayne Huffman

  When we entered the house, I was surprised to see there were five or six other people already there, when there was only one other car and a pickup truck parked at the curb. Someone said that Angelina wasn’t there, so Billy brought me a change of clothes, and showed me to the bathroom, so I could get cleaned up and changed. When I came back out, there were three more people there in the living room. Two drunk chicks and some dude who was apparently the boyfriend of one of the girls, a hot blond with big tits. The other girl was a pretty brunette, I’d say around 26 or so. This was Angelina. She was tall, pushing 6 feet easily. She was wearing platform boots, with obnoxiously high heels, so I had to look up at her, and she was wearing a short leather skirt. Sexy! When she lifted her legs, during a drunken fit of laughter while sitting across the living room from me, I also saw that she wasn’t wearing any panties. I definitely wanted to get to know this girl.

  Billy introduced me to Angelina, as a friend of Tina and Faye’s. I found it odd that he didn’t say anything about me being married to Lisa, since I had heard repeatedly, from Lisa, about how good of friends Angelina and Lisa were. I still had some dope, so I loaded a foil, and passed it to her. We sat there, passing it back and forth across the coffee table, as we smoked together. I’m not sure why, but neither of us offered the foil to anyone else, and although we didn’t speak to each other while we smoked, we pretty much ignored everyone else in the room. It was weird, now that I think about it. Billy told Angelina that I was going to hang out there for a few days, and she said it was cool with her. All that night, I met new people as they came and went. The twins, who had driven Billy and me to Angelina’s house, left sometime before daylight, because Faye had to go to work.

  One of the people I met that night was John. John was 6 foot 5, and about a buck twenty, soaking wet. At first, he pretty much sat off in the corner, by himself. I decided to go over and smoke a foil with him, and we got to talking. I told him about what went down at Lea’s house, and mentioned that my clothes and lab were still there, and I needed to get over there soon to get my stuff. It turned out that the truck I had seen outside, a 2002, 4 doors, Chevy Z71, 4x4, belonged to John. He said he was almost out of gas, but if I could put a few dollars into the tank, he would be happy to take me to get my stuff. It had been a few days since I had left Lea’s, so the next morning, John and I left to go to Lea’s. John asked me to drive, because he didn’t have a driver’s license, and he said he had warrants out on him, so if he got pulled over, he was afraid that he’d go to jail. He was probably right, that’s exactly what would have happened, so I drove. I knew I would soon have warrants on me, but at least I had a license, and that would get us through D.U.I. checkpoints, or a road block, if there was one.

  We got to Lea’s house, and I got out, while telling John to wait in the truck. I wasn’t sure what state of mind Lea might still be in. As I approached the door, someone called to me from next door. It was Larry. He jumped the fence, and walked over to me. We shook hands, and laughing, I asked if Lea was pissed at me for leaving.

  “You haven’t heard?” Larry asked me, a little too seriously.

  “Heard what?”

  Apparently, after I left that night, Lea really flipped out. She started calling her family members, mom, grandma, son, daughter, and begging everyone to help her. She was babbling about the cops trying to set her up, and saying that they were trying to break into her house. Lea’s mom, step-dad, and son eventually showed up at her house to see what was going on. They knocked on the doors, but Lea refused to let them in. She, in her altered state of mind, thought they were cops.

  Larry came over to see if he could help, and Lea’s step-dad asked for a pry bar, so he could get into the house. Larry helped get the door open and as they came in, Lea ran up the stairs and locked herself in the bathroom on the second floor. Larry said they spent close to two hours trying to talk Lea into opening the bathroom door. Lea refused, and finally her step-dad decided to kick in the door. This wasn’t very easy, considering this was a solid wood door, in an old, well built home, and Lea’s step-dad was probably as old as the house.

  After several attempts at knocking the door down, it finally started to come apart. That’s when Lea, kicked out the bathroom window, and jumped, barefoot, out and into the yard. I’m not sure if she hurt herself or not, Larry had said he didn’t think she did, but once she landed in the yard, she took off running down the street, screaming at the top of her lungs. Larry, Lea’s son, parents, and the cops, who Lea’s parents finally called, looked for Lea for several hours. Someone finally spotted her, lying under the fallen garage door in someone’s garage. Larry said it took some doing, but the cops finally wrestled Lea out from under the garage door, and into the police car that transported her to the hospital where she was sedated. The last Larry had heard, Lea was admitted, involuntarily, into a nut house in Knoxville.

  This was the craziest shit I had ever heard. Lea wasn’t new to meth; in fact, she had actually been doing meth longer than I had, and so I thought it was weird that she would flip out like that. Of course, Lea also did a whole lot of other drugs, so maybe it was a combination of everything that made her go nuts. That last night I was at Lea’s, was actually the last time I had ever seen, or heard, from her. I did see in the newspaper a few years later, that she got busted for possession of several different kinds of pills, so I guess she went back to normal at some point.

  After Larry told me what happened with Lea, he said Lea’s step-dad would probably be showing up at any minute, and it probably wouldn’t be a good idea for me to be there. I agreed, and said I needed to get my clothes and lab. Larry said he had packed up my lab and stashed it for me. I ran into the house real quick, to get my clothes, while he went to get my lab. I threw everything into the back of the truck, and left. We went back to Angelina’s house to spend the day. I was feeling a lot better since I had my clothes, my lab, and I had a place to stay for a little while.

  Chapter 43

  John told me that he didn’t have anywhere to go, and had no money for gas, food, cigarettes, or anything else he needed. I asked him if he thought he could sell any meth, and he said he could, very easily. We worked out a deal: John would be my helper; helping me collect supplies, sell dope, cook, and whatever else I needed, and he’d also be my transportation. In return, I’d make sure he ate, had cigarettes, and where I stayed, he would stay. Also, I told him I would teach him, slowly, how to cook dope. It was a win-win situation for the both of us.

  Right away, I had a couple of problems. I was out of dope, almost out of money, and I didn’t have anywhere to cook. I mentioned this to Billy, and he went to talk to Angelina. She came through the house a few minutes later, telling everyone to leave. As John and I were leaving, Angelina told me to wait until everyone was gone, then come back. I took the time to run to a couple of pharmacies, to buy some pills, and a few other cook items I needed. We went back to Angelina’s, and she let us in. Locking the door behind us, she asked me how bad it’d smell if I did the cook in the basement. I told her, the only part of a cook that smelled, was the gassing off part. I could do that outside if I had to, or I could put a fan in a window blowing out, and gas it off in front of it. She asked if her storage building in the back yard would be a good place to gas off, and I said it would. “Okay,” she said, “do the cook in the house if you need to, but go out in the storage building to gas it. Don’t make a mess, and don’t burn my mom’s house down.” I didn’t bother to tell her that my way of cooking wasn’t flammable.

  I did the cook, and ended up with about a quarter of an ounce of dope. I gave Angelina a gram for letting me cook at her house, then John, Billy, Angelina, and I, sat around smoking my dope for the rest of the night. The next morning, Billy made a couple of calls, and I had the rest of my dope either sold, or traded for pills, in no time at all. I did another cook that morning, before people started showing back up again, and once they did, I smoked with everyone who walked through the door.

  Tina an
d Leanna showed up that afternoon. I gave Tina a gram of dope, just because she’s Tina, and I started talking to Leanna about her getting me pills from some of her boyfriends. Leanna kept a few guys in her stable at all times, so I figured she would be a good source for pills. She was.

  After a few days of staying at Angelina’s house, and cooking there, I was getting cabin fever. I wanted to go somewhere, and do something. The problem was I didn’t have anywhere else to go. I was worried I would wear out my welcome at Angelina’s soon, because now that there was always someone at her place who always had dope, and would smoke with everyone, her place was staying packed with people.

  I kept it quiet that I was a cook. I was meeting a lot of people and I didn’t know who, if any of them, could be trusted. One night, Leanna got me alone, and asked me if I would be willing to work with someone, besides John, who would supply me with pills and cook spots. I told her that I might be willing to take on another helper but I was helping John, and I wouldn’t just up and abandon him for no reason. She understood, and introduced me to Sam.

  Sam was the exact opposite of John, it seemed. Where John was 6 foot 5, Sam was more like 5 foot 2. Sam was also well dressed and neatly shaven, where John dressed like a bum and was scruffy as hell. Sam was not a bad looking kid, which explains Leanna’s interest in him, and John bore a striking resemblance to the Crypt Keeper. The oddest thing about Sam, was his truck. He drove a huge, long, black, Chevy dually truck. Compensating?

  I met Sam at Angelina’s for the first time, and right away I said I needed some pills, and a place to cook. “Not a problem,” he said. We left, and John and I followed him to another house where we picked up a pretty blonde girl. We all got into Sam’s truck, and he drove to a couple of different places, so the girl could buy pills for us. Sam was paying for the pills out of his own pocket, but I told him I’d pay him a half gram of dope for every box. Once we got all of the pills, we went back to the girl’s house. When we went inside, Sam showed us to a bedroom, and said that John and I could do the cook there.

  When we finished cooking, I gave Sam his dope for the pills, and a gram for the girl. We still had not been introduced, and she never said a word to me the whole time I was there, or even when I left. I didn’t know if the girl was Sam’s old lady, or what. John didn’t know either, but we both kept talking about how we wanted to see her again, as we went back to Angelina’s for a little while.

  Later that night, while several of us were partying, a couple people showed up. One was the girl who let me cook at her house. She was pretty talkative this time, and I talked to her a few times. As she and her friends were leaving, she gave me a Styrofoam cup she had been drinking out of. “Call me, ‘Jackie’” was written on it, along with a phone number. I didn’t know if she wanted to go on a date or what, but I was going to find out. I showed the cup to John, with my finger over the phone number. “You lucky motherfucker.” was all he said.

  The next cook I did was at Angelina’s house again. This time, I ran an extension cord out to the outer building, to do the cook there, because Angelina’s mom was home. Angelina’s mom was born deaf, but had an incredible sense of smell, so I didn’t want to take a chance on her smelling anything weird coming from the basement. If she decided to investigate, she might have caught us in the act, although she would not have realized what we were doing. One thing I did do was break my pills down in Angelina’s bathroom. It was cold in the building, so the only thing I wanted to do out there was the actual cook. I had the bathroom door open as I worked, and Leanna was kicked back on Angelina’s bed, talking to me as I worked. For some reason that I didn’t quite understand at the moment, she stated, “You know, I’ve been with older guys before.” Now, I’ve known Leanna since she was 15 years old, so I didn’t take this as a come-on. I just kept working, and she went right back to talking about whatever it was she was talking about before.

  When I went out to the out building, it seemed like everyone in the house went with me. There were at least 8 people, including myself, there. Not suspicious at all. I got the cook going, and sat down on a box to wait. Everyone was talking, and it seemed like everyone was having a good time, when Leanna, who was sitting on the floor, said she needed to talk to me alone. I asked everyone to give us a few minutes, so they all left and went inside the house.

  “You didn’t tell me what you thought about what I said.” She stated.

  “What did you say?” I asked. I really had no clue at all what she was talking about.

  “You know, when I said I had been with older guys before.” She said.

  “I didn’t know you wanted me to say something about it. After all, you’ve been with lots of guys.” I said with a smile.

  I was basically calling her a whore, but she knew, while true, that I was just joking. She rolled her eyes, and said something about me never being able to take a hint, as she took her jeans off. Well, that’s a bit clearer, and you don’t have to tell me twice. There was no way I was passing up this piece of ass. That would be the first time I fucked Leanna, but not the last. Since she and the twins were such good friends, and had been for years, I never let it get back to them that we ever did anything. If they knew, they would have looked at it like Leanna had fucked their mom’s husband, without even considering the fact that Lisa had fucked around on me every chance she got, for years. As far as I was concerned, Lisa and I were done. It was time for me to live my life for me.

  Chapter 44

  I called Jackie, she invited me over, and said that I was welcome to come cook there at her place anytime I wanted. John and I loaded up the lab, and went to see her. When I went in, there was a guy there that looked familiar, but I couldn’t place him. He walked up to me and asked, if I remembered him.

  “No. Should I?” I asked.

  “My name is Scott,” he said, “My wife and I worked at the Appco in Boone’s Creek. We used to see you every day.”

  Right then, it clicked. He and his wife were cashiers at the convenience store down the road from the townhouse Elvira and I lived in for 5 years. One weekend, I had tickets to an AC/DC concert in Nashville. Scott’s wife started a fight with Scott so she could take off with me. I met her at the mall in Johnson City, and we went to the show. Scott apparently never found out, based on how he was acting towards me.

  I went into the bedroom to cook, and sometime during the process, Sam showed up. He didn’t seem pissed that I was helping myself to his cook spot, so that was cool. Sam and I talked while I cooked, and I was able to find out that Jackie wasn’t seeing anyone. In fact, Sam said I had a good chance at hooking up with her, because I was a cook. Jackie, like all dope whores, loved meth cooks.

  When I was finished with the cook, Sam asked if I felt like doing another one. It was pretty late, but I said I would do it. Sam had a shit load of pills, and that was the reason he had tracked me down to Jackie’s. He didn’t want to do the cook at Jackie’s, so he told John and me to follow him. We left, and followed Sam for a few miles. We had to stop and turn around a couple of times, but finally we came to a trailer that didn’t appear to be lived in.

  Sam got out of his truck, and signaled for us to stay put. He knocked on the door of the trailer, and after a few seconds, the door opened. There was a short conversation, and Sam waved us in, as he walked inside. When we walked in, the living room was lit by a couple of candles. The place was a disaster. There were bags of trash piled in the kitchen, pizza boxes and food containers all over the place, and there were at least 20 milk jugs full of water sitting on the kitchen floor, and the place was heated by a single kerosene heater in the living room. “Make yourself at home”, came a voice from the back of the trailer, a 16’ by 80’, 3 bedroom, 2 bathroom home, with no electricity, or running water.

  When the owner of the trailer came out of the back of the house, I saw that it was someone I knew. It was Scott.

  “Long time, no see,” I said.

  “Hell, why didn’t you tell me at Jackie’s that you were a m
eth cook?” he wanted to know.

  “It’s not something I advertise to everyone I meet.” I explained.

  Scott said he was fine with letting me cook at his house anytime I wanted, as long as I paid him a gram of dope every time I cooked. That was my basic deal with everyone, so I said that was fine. Scott told me he had some fines he needed to pay to get off probation, and he was going to sell the dope to get the money. Whatever, I didn’t really care what he did with the dope, but it was nice to know he needed cash. I could exploit that to my benefit.

  I cooked at Scott’s house the next couple of nights. Sam and John were always by my side, ready to learn something new. They could make the iodine crystals, prep the Red P, and break the pills down. I also showed them how to safely shop for ingredients, and all this made things a lot easier for me.

  Before long, I was basically living at Jackie’s house. I would sleep on occasion, at Scott’s house after a cook, and I spent a little bit of time at Angelina’s house every couple of days. But, most of my non-cooking time was spent at Jackie’s. Jackie was a sweetheart. Beautiful, sexy, and a damn good fuck, but I swear she would lie about anything. It drove me nuts. She would lie, and when you caught her in the lie, she would lie about lying. “Baby, that wasn’t what I said. You must have misunderstood.” she would whine. I would get pissed off about this from time to time, and that’s when I went over to stay at Scott’s for a bit.

  One night, before doing a cook, Sam got a call from someone wanting to buy a half gram of dope. Leaving John to do the prep work at Scott’s, I rode with Sam to meet the person. This was the first time I met Christy. Christy wasn’t the one wanting the dope, but Sam was meeting the person at Christy’s house. While Sam went in, I waited in the truck. When Sam came out of the house, Christy walked out behind him.