CHAPTER 10
DECEMBER 18, 2013
A tall, muscular man with a grey t-shirt stood in front of a group of people. His tattooed arms were folded behind his back. His bald head glistened from sweat. He smiled kindly to everyone who sat before him. "They say addiction is a disease. Something that cannot be cured," he began. "But addiction is not a disease," he paused. "It's a choice. You choose to put that needle in your arm. You choose to smoke that joint. And you choose whether or not you want to live or die today. When you have a disease, you don't get to flush it down the toilet like a bag of blow. Now, you can put your 'clean chip' under your tongue and if it dissolves-," he rose a finger in the air and pointed to everyone in the crowd. "-then you can do drugs again."
Everyone clapped and stood from their seats. Everyone happily grabbed their neighbor's hand and chanted along with everyone else, "It works! You're worth it, so work it!"
"Thank you everyone!" The man exclaimed over the chatter. "Please keep coming back and come back-"
"CLEAN!" The whole room exclaimed before they packed up and left the room.
"Allie," the bald man called out. The young woman turned around as she was about the exit the room. The man smiled softly at her. "You almost forgot your 90 days chip," he said as he handed her a bright orange chip. She read the quote on the back that said, 'clean and serene for 90 days.'
She smiled as she took it from him. "Thanks." She turned around again.
"Some of us meet at Denny's after the meeting. You should join us," he offered.
She turned her head to the side and gave him an apologetic smile. "Maybe another time. I sort of have something to do. Thanks though." She didn't see the disappointed look on his face, but she didn't care. She walked down the hall and saw the man she had anticipated meeting. She walked up to the dark skinned male as he laid out some brochures and packets. "Excuse me, are you Sam Wilson?"
The man looked up and smiled at her. "Yes, ma'am. That would be me," he offered his hand for her to shake.
She took it and shook it firmly. "I'm Allie. I heard about your friend in Afghanistan. I wanted to give you my condolences. I could never imagine what it's like to lose someone you love. Anyway, I better be going." She turned around and was about to walk away until..
"Wait," he stopped her.
She smiled to herself then quickly wiped it away with a blank expression and turned back around to face him.
"You here for the meeting?" He pointed to the room he was using.
"Not that kind of meeting," she smiled. "NA."
"Oh," he chuckled awkwardly. "Do you any good?"
"Best damn treatment so far," she took out her new chip. "90 days."
He took the chip in his hand to take a look, "Congrats! You just got 255 more days until you hit a year."
"Yeah, well, don't get your hopes up," she smirked. "Anyway, it was nice meeting you, Sam."