Throwaway People

Addicts

Just as sudden as her anger, Key was now crying.

"Hey, hey. I'm sorry. I just meant that people find excuses to laugh at other people." Jim explained. He sounded genuinely upset.

"Don't cry Kitty, Jim didn't mean to hurt you." Patty said.

Jim didn't know what he'd said, he wished he hadn't say anything.

"My name is Key." Key said with a sullen look at Patty.

"Of course it is, honey." Patty was smiling at Key. "I'm sorry, I forgot we agreed to call you Keyote."

"In public we need to make sure we don't continue to make that mistake of using Key's other name. If someone hears us call Key Kitty, they may tell this Jose or Andy." Jim recovered from his mistake with Key. "We have to be careful if we take Key into the public."

"I don't care about that." Key was getting agitated again. "I want you to call me Keyote because that is my name. I don't want to be Kitty ever again. I want to be Keyote."

Green Acres, Camp: 6:30 PM

Jim leaned back in his recliner. He had put his book to the side. Jim simply stared at the old yellowed ceiling. He was thinking about what Keyote had said. "I don't want to be Kitty ever again." It was a statement about the change in the girl over the last few days. She wanted to be Keyote. Jim felt Keyote was healing from her six year ordeal. She would never completely recover, that Jim was sure of. What could happen is that Keyote could have a normal, happy life despite that.

From what Jim thought of as 'Keyote's Room' the girls were practicing 'Love Me Tender' on their guitars. Jim hoped that Patty had gotten over her need for a hit. He heard the girls whispering. They laughed. Jim wished that he had that type of relationship with Keyote where he felt comfortable with her. His anxiety disorder was particularly strong around children.

There was a great deal of social pressure concerning children. What you did or said around children was scrutinized by social groups. A wrong word or gesture misinterpreted could cause a individual to be permanently ostracized from a social group or society as a whole. Children were often aware of the power they had where this sort of ostracism was concerned. A child with no empathy for another individual could use this power with little thought of the damage they did.

Jim would prefer to avoid children than to take the chance of this kind of social ostracism. As it turned out he couldn't avoid Key. Jim had no idea how to socially deal with an abused child. All he could do was treat her like a adult. To use his logic and what empathy he was capable of to help Key. Jim wished that he could find someone who had the capacity to properly care for Keyote.

Jim slipped into a meditative trance he used for when he was agitated himself. Worrying over things he had little control over. As he slipped into the trance he felt the presence of the building. Since he made the old building his camp, he was aware that the building had a presence of it's own. As if the building was a spiritual entity of it's own. There were two other powerful spirits within the area of the building. But these were elusive and worked independently from the building itself.

Of course, Jim couldn't tell Patty or Key about his meditations and getting in touch with the spirits, they would just think he was crazy. People who couldn't touch the spiritual world couldn't believe others could, even those who did may not believe the experience of another.

Green Acres, Camp: 6:48 PM

Patty put her guitar down. She wanted to talk to Jim about her near slip today after the incident with the cops. She was concerned that she might slip some day. If she had her guitar with her when the urge came, Patty would sell it in a heartbeat. She didn't want to leave the Gibson behind. Key might be right about her being a stabilizing influence for Patty.

"Patty." Key said before Patty could get up and leave. "What is it like? Addiction I mean."

"It's an obsession. Like a feral dog that you think you can control until it bites you in the ass." Patty took Key's hand. "When the urges come over me I'll do anything to get my next hit. I'd sell my guitar, sell myself. Hell, I'd let you sell yourself again to get a hit."

"No. You wouldn't. Patty, you'd never let me do that." Key Squeezed Patty hand.

"Yes, I would. How long have we known each other. You came on the streets two years ago. Terri had been on the streets for three years before that. Not once did I do anything to help you." Patty pulled her hand from Key. "It wasn't until I swore to get off crack that I began to see what was happening around me. Until then you were just part of the background."

"You were always nice to me, even when you were high." Key watched Patty pace the room.

"You know that people who are nice to you, aren't always looking after your best interest." Patty realized she was pacing. Sat down again. "I would have robbed you, Key. Stole your money that you earned to get a hit."

"You know, when you first brought me here, I thought you were a crazy old whore." Key took Patty's hand again. Her dark brown eyes locked onto Patty's. "It was the first night after I took my shower that I thought you would want sex. Instead you tucked me in like my Mom used to do."

"I knew I was safe with you. I don't think you could ever hurt me. I think even if you were high you wouldn't want to hurt me."

"I would." Patty told Keyote. "I would sacrifice your trust, I'd hurt you, rob you. Just to get my next hit. I'd sell my guitar, turn you over to Jose, and alienate Jim for my next hit. Don't you ever think I won't."

"Please, Patty. Promise me you won't take another hit." Keyote pleaded.

"Honey, I can't make that kind of promise." Patty wished she could. "I promise that I'll fight it every day, because I love you and don't want to hurt you."

"Good enough." Keyote said.