Spirits and Demons

Cold Turkey

                                                            Part Forty Two

  Jimmy Don called Mike and related to him that he'd had an accident and was in the hospital. Addicted to heroin, he'd driven a car off of a cliff in Guam and broke an arm, a leg and cracked some ribs. As soon as he was able to leave the hospital the Navy arrested and placed him in the brig. Navy officails discovered his dictaphone on which he'd recorded drug transactions. He related he'd recorded the drug transactions as a means to keep up with what he was doing since he couldn't remember from all of the heroin he was shooting into his veins. Mike recalled the large envelope full of opium Jimmy Don had mailed to the states to him right before his accident. Another letter arrived he'd written while he was in the brig, describing all of the boat people that were converging onto the island. Seemed Jimmy Don was having a bad flashback since he was in a full fledged panic, thinking the entire island was under attack when he'd seen all the boat people through the jail cell's iron window bars. With all of the boat people arriving, many criminals arrived with them and since there was nowhere else to place the criminals, the Navy went ahead and released Jimmy Don early to make room for the criminals. Dishonorable discharge papers were drawn up and he was placed on a plane in a matter of days to return to the United States. The dictaphone held thirty six drug counts against him with six counts added on to each of those thirty six counts. He was charged with a total of two hundred and fifty two drug counts so it was no wonder he'd received a dishonorable discharge from the Navy and was being sent home.

  The Navy was so happy to get rid of Jimmy Don, they had no idea he'd hidden large amounts of drugs that were never found. Mike met him at the airport when he arrived, walking off of the plane with a large brown paper bag in his hand full of heroin, opium, hash oil candy bars, and many other drugs. In two weeks he'd run completely out of heroin and there was nowhere in West Monroe or the surrounding areas it was available. Jimmy Don began flipping out having to go cold turkey, the needle marks on his body were so great that it looked similar to railroad tracks. He'd been shooting heroin into every vein on his body and even underneath his finger and toenails. His addiction was one that required professional help yet Mike ended up having to tie Jimmy Don to a four poster bed for seventy two long hours in order to hopefully help him to recover. Mike was barely able to stay awake the entire seventy two hours, slapping Jimmy Don hard in the face to keep him awake so he wouldn't die. Throwing cold water on him every few minutes, every time he was close to passing out. Mike was covered in sweat and his heart was racing fast and hard until he felt as if he was about to have a heart attack since Jimmy Don had come so close to death from going cold turkey. Finally after three days and nights Jimmy Don broke his fever and somehow Mike knew Jimmy Don would survive. Extremely weak from the seventy two hour nightmare, he cut the thick rope loose from Jimmy Don's wrists and ankles. Mopping his brow with cold water, Mike heard his brother speaking coherently for the first time since the ordeal had begun. Jimmy Don was so weak, Mike made him some chicken noodle soup and spoon fed him until he'd eaten two cans of it with a few crackers. Mike was completely worn out from the mental and physical fatique over the last seventy two hours. He smoked two fat joints of columbian gold, then fell and passed out on the bed beside his sleeping brother.