CHAPTER 3: 'CAINE
Frieda and Carla were at Carla's house doing some homework. They had gotten to know each other pretty well and Carla had become good friends with everyone in Frieda's inner circle. Frieda did notice that her new friend seemed wired at times, and even distracted, but never questioned her about it, figuring it was nerves.
As they were doing their homework, Carla got up and stretched. She said, "You want something to drink, Frieda?"
"Sure, Carla," said Frieda. "What do you have?"
"Some cola, lemon-line soda, orange, root beer…"
"Lemon-line will work for me. Thanks."
"No problem, Frieda." And Carla left the room for a bit. Frieda continued to do her homework. She waited for Carla to come back, but she was taking quite a while. Frieda got up and looked for her friend. Carla's mother wasn't home and always worked late. Her father wasn't in the picture.
"Hey, Carla!" Frieda called out. "Where you at?" And she went around the corner and peeked into Carla's room. What she saw shook the curly-haired redhead to her core.
Carla was sitting on her bed holding what looked like a mirror. And on the mirror was a strange white powder made into lines. Then Carla took a straw that was cut to a third of its size and placed it in her nose. Then she started inhaling the white powder into her nose. Frieda immediately knew what she was doing. Carla was doing cocaine! Her friend, a drug addict! The question now was how deep was she into it? Was it occasional or was it every day? She decided not to talk about it to her, at least not yet. She would talk to Charlie Brown when she saw him next about what to do. She went back to the den and waited for Carla to get done. After five more minutes, she came back with the drinks for her and Frieda.
"Sorry it took so long, but I had to go to the bathroom," Carla lied.
"Sure," said Frieda, not letting on that she knew what she ACTUALLY was doing.
"By the way, did you figure out the answer to Question 8?"
"That one was hard for me, as well, Carla. Let's try to figure it out together." And they continued to do their homework. Frieda never brought up what she saw to Carla. She didn't want to think that she was spying on her or anything. She knew drugs were bad, but how to approach her about it was the main issue.
Later that night, Frieda went to visit Charlie Brown for a little while. She wanted to talk to him about what she saw at Carla's when they were doing homework together.
"Cocaine?!" said a shocked Charlie Brown. "Why would she even think about doing something dangerous as that?!"
"I don't know, baby," said a concerned Frieda. "I know I have to say something to her about it, but how? I just became friends with her and I don't want to break her trust."
"Well, as hard as it is to do something like that, sometimes you have to hurt the ones you care about to help them. Where was her mother at?"
"She was working. And the father's never around. So Carla is there all by herself, giving in to her vices."
"Peppermint Patty, for years, used to be all by herself, as well, but she never developed a drug dependency."
"Well she had sports to keep her occupied. Plus Snoopy would sometimes bodyguard for her."
"You use the term 'bodyguard' lightly, right?" Frieda had a little chuckle at that.
"Touché, sweetie," she conceded. "But seriously, Patty was never the person to get hooked on drugs. Plus she knew her mother was deceased. Carla's father, as far as we know, is still alive, but not seeing his daughter. She may have some resentment that she never acted on or talked about openly, which is why she uses drugs. That's just a thought."
"Whatever the reasons for her doing cocaine, she needs to get help." And the two of them continued to discuss Carla's drug dependency and what to do about it.
NEXT CHAPTER: MAKING A PLAN OF ACTION
