He remembered it all. The perfectly happy days when he was a solemn Catholic school boy. When he and his brother would bang pots and pans on the kitchen floor, much to his mothers disagreement. When he got his first guitar for his eleventh birthday. It was the best gift he could ever be given. He cherished from the moment he laid eyes on it. For that very guitar would lead him to his dream, but then take it all away.
Charlie sat there by the cave thinking of all this as his fingers twitched. He was having constant muscle spasms too. Unluckily he had run out of heroin. Soon his withdraw would be open for the whole camp to see and he could do nothing to stop it. He would keep it hidden for as long as possible. But there was only one person he had to avoid to accomplish this. Jack would notice right away after all he was a doctor he was trained to recognize such symptoms. Whenever Jack was near Charlie sunk into a corner hoping he would pass by. Every time he did, just as Charlie planned. Except once.
"Charlie I haven't talked to you lately. Actually I haven't seen you around much," Jack said.
"Yeah well I haven't been feeling to well," Charlie said wanting to smack himself. Of course Jack would want to look at him now.
"What have you been feeling like," Jack asked.
Charlie kept his face hidden by his black hoodie," Oh just a headache nothing severe." He forced a fake laugh.
Just then the muscle in Charlie's right leg began to have a spasm. Charlie began to lose his balance and fell to the ground revealing his sickly face.
Jack knelt beside Charlie,"Oh man Charlie you look like shit."
"Thanks I'll take that as a compliment," Charlie said sitting up.
Charlie's hands began to twitch and he tried to quickly pull his hands into the sleeves of his hoodie but Jack never missed anything.
Jack sighed heavily, "What was it Charlie, Cocaine, Oxycotton what?"
Charlie looked at the ground. He felt ashamed of himself. He highly respected Jack and now here he was a useless junkie talking to a man who actually had a meaning in life.
"Heroin," Charlie said quietly looking to the ground that he sat upon.
"This isn't going to be easy for you. For the both of us," Jack said.
Charlie looked up at Jack," For the both of us?"
"You don't think I'm going to let you suffer through this alone do you," Jack asked.
"Thanks for the offer Jack but you have already done enough for me," Charlie explained.
"Yeah I have done a lot for you, but I'm not gonna sit back and watch you suffer," Jack said smiling at Charlie.
"Thanks Jack. But one thing. When I start to get really bad and all I just want you to know that if I do anything to you or say anything to you I don't mean it," Charlie said.
Jack smiled but inside he began to brace for the worse. He hoped Charlie was too.
The next few days there was a lot of twitching and spasms. Charlie had never felt worse in his life and he just wanted it all to end. Jack kept Charlie in a small cave branching away from the main cave so that his secret could be kept safe. He told the others Charlie was suffering from the flu. One of the worse cases he had ever seen and also highly contagious.
Charlie laid by the side of a small fire, trying to sleep. He was breathing heavy and on the other side of the small fire he could see the figure of Jack far off in dream land. Charlie rolled over and feeling a pang of exhaustion he fell asleep.
Jack lay asleep by the fire side. He was so tired he was hoping nothing would happen to Charlie tonight. But that all changed when he heard the sounds of terribly irregular breathing and choking sounds. He opened his eyes. Charlie was on the other side of the fire, twitching and gasping for air. Jack recognized what was happening to Charlie immediately. He was having a seizure.
Jack jumped up and ran to Charlie, "Oh shit what am I supposed to do out here," he said to himself.
Jack ran over to a bottle of water he was keeping nearby and poured some water down Charlie's throat. He held Charlie up, hoping that it would all pass. Charlie shook violently and gasped for each breath. He wriggled this way and that praying desperately it would stop. For the first time he prayed in his head. Over and over again. And then, suddenly, the seizure ended.
Things began to come into plain view for Charlie. He saw Jack looking over him. He was in Jack's arms in a sitting position. Charlie began to feel faint and woozy.
"No, Charlie stay with me here," Jack said desperately.
Charlie looked up at Jack trying the best he could to focus. Things began to swirl around in all different directions.
'O great I'm hallucinating," Charlie thought.
But then Charlie stopped and was clam and quiet. There at the back of the cave stood his family. His Mum, his Dad and even Liam.
Jack still held Charlie in his arms and wondered what caused the sudden silence. He looked around but there was no one at all. Charlie was staring intently at something, but there was nothing to look at besides the cave wall.
Charlie stared and his family smiled back at him, all three of them. He then saw a figure come across the cave. A strangely familiar figure. He squinted his eyes only to see that it was himself. He saw himself embrace his mother and father and the Liam. There they were all happy together, something that had never happened since he was 17. He was seeing himself but as a clean Charlie. No drugs or anything. Tears began to fill Charlie's eyes as he watched he and his family laughed together.
He saw them all raise wine glasses and heard his father bellow,"To my son Charlie, for being the best son anyone could ever have."
Charlie watched as they all smiled and carefully tapped there glasses together and drank. But then they were all gone, no happiness no laughter just a cave wall. Tears streamed down Charlie's face when he thought of what kind of son and brother he was. He had stolen money from his parents even beat his mother once. He remembered destroying Liam's car in an accident when he was high. He didn't want to remember anymore and rolled over and went to sleep.
Jack gave a sigh of relief when everything had calmed down. Charlie was fast asleep so he thought he should get some rest and await the next incident.
In the morning Charlie awoke feeling better but with a massive headache. he looked up at Jack who was already handing him some water.
"Thanks Jack. Not only for the water but for everything you did for me," Charlie said.
"It's what I'm here for. But not to be nosy or anything what did you see last night," Jack asked.
"O nothing," Charlie smiled. "Just something that he is really going to help me get my act together."
THE END