Chapter One: A New Beginning

By Sara Spring

Romeia’s thin frame meandered quietly through the crowded city streets of San Francisco. In between the shadows of tall grey buildings, the homeless slouched watching her hungrily. Their Destitution waiting for her to fall into easy prey. As the sun dipped lower behind the sharp and twisted buildings dark shadows crept with claws outstretched toward the young girl and soon enough she found herself wandering in twilight. A cold wind picked up, encouraging the rustling trash along the sidewalks to laugh as the young woman struggled to find warmth from the thin material tightly wrapped around her small shoulders. Bewildered by the cement jungle Romeia picked up her pace in the hopes of catching a bus to Upper Haight.

In passing a store front window, Romeia found herself startled by a face staring back at her as it was not her own. What was staring back was a hollow thin vacant face with large glassy brown eyes and a slight smile painted on to be reminiscent of one long ago forgotten. The face belonged to a mannequin that stood in the store window, moving ever so slightly. Cold wind picked up, working hard to push Romeia’s tiny frame along as she stood transfixed watching this flat chested young woman move in perfect oblivion of the passerby standing before her, unaffected by the twilight, the wind or even the hungry homeless circling about. What if one day Romeia found herself frozen ever so slightly in time, never quite able to escape the space she had chosen to be in? The two locked eyes and Romeia saw her face reflected in the window. Turning on her heel, Romeia ran for the terminal as the bus slowly approached like a lazy caterpillar, it’s hair the wires that powered the sluggish vehicle.

The bus ride was uneventful, and soon enough she bounded around the corner to come face to face with a large purple and green Victorian home protected by a black wrought iron security gate. Punching in a code, it  swung open. Slipping onto the grounds without a sound, within moments she was inside the kitchen of this quiet house. Fast like a cat, she traveled up three flights of narrow stairs and came to knock on a red wooden door. After a moment, the clunky sounds of multiple locks turning was music to her ears and her heart skipped a beat as a man with a small chin and beady brown eyes poked his head out. Blinking at her for a moment, he let her in with out a word or smile.  Moving past him with a bright smile, she kicked off her shoes and immediately wrapped herself up in a large comforter from his bed before settling down on the couch in the center of the room. Without a word, he closed the door and turned to her with his hands on his hips, a look of perpetual irritation stained upon his face. She avoided his gaze by closing her eyes and pretending to drift off. She could hear him sigh, and walk to his desk behind her. The creak of his chair as Alex sat down with his back to her brought a smile to her lips, she listened as he resumed his task. The sounds of the clicking keyboard and various violence of the video game he played soothed her feeling of isolation, and Romeia slipped into a familiar but yet empty feeling of home. All was right in her world again with Alex.

A few hours passed by, and Romeia had drifted off in the chilly room still wrapped up in the large comforter watching television. Alex had left and a leak in the window behind the couch brought a feeling of cold finger tips creeping along the back of Romeia’s neck as she slowly drifted in and out of sleep. The door of the room flung open and Alex entered with an unabashed grin. A thin bald man in his late twenty’s trailed behind holding a piece of marble, a roller and two bags filled with something white. Gingerly, Brian put the slab of marble on the cluttered coffee table before her. Romeia watched curiously as he emptied the contents onto the stone as Alex began the task of clearing off the table.  Brian worked meticulously rolling the crystals to a fine powder. When done, he fished out of his back pocket a driver’s license. As Brian went about separating a line from each mound of powder, Alex began to roll up a dollar bill.

Brian stopped him, “I wouldn’t use that. I have a bunch of straws next to my turn tables. Hold on.”

Fascinated, Romeia’s eyes grew wide and glittered with excitement as she watched the process. Curiosity had gotten the better of her before, and her mouth began to salivate with anticipation. Somewhere deep within a childish monster had woken up and stretched.

“This one is meth and the other is cocaine. I figured that since you can’t drink yet and you still want to party, you might as well do so in a safe environment with supervision. Me. I am a safe environment.” Alex’s tone smacked of sarcasm as a smile stretched across his face.

Romeia perched on the edge of the couch, raised one eyebrow and returned the smile.

“Brian and I are going to show you how to do this. Sort of monitor the situation to make sure you don’t overdose.” A pensive look washed over his face. “Are you sure you want to do this? You don’t have to.”

“Oh, yes! I am positive that I would like to try this.” Romeia blurted out. A part of her wasn’t listening anymore, obsessed with the display before her. When was she going to be able to take this into her system? Her blood developed a hunger, like an exquisite line of fire running through her veins. A numb feeling passed over her body, shutting out all other stimuli.

Alex outlined the rules, “For starters, let’s get rid of the blanket. Knowing you, you’ll wipe the table clean with the blanket and this stuff will go everywhere.”

Brian had come back and settled himself on the floor before the coffee table, “Not sure what you know about drugs but basically, this one is cocaine and that is meth. Whichever you don’t do, Alex and I will.”

Romeia nodded her head in understanding, then asked pointedly. “And, how do you snort it?”

Stunned, Alex and Brian both stared at her for a moment before rushing into explanation. When they finished, she took up the straw and without further decision did exactly as she was instructed. Turning her eyes to the ceiling, a long forgotten memory managed to shake itself free from where it had been hidden all these years. It came and went as quickly as a camera flash, but lingered as phosphorus does in old cameras. It should be summer time, Romeia thought, and she should be sitting on the carpet playing next to the front door.

“Just like a pro.” Alex’s voice interrupted her thoughts and he smiled. It was an eerie smile. Slightly crazed, turned up at the corners. “You’re going to feel it going down the back of your throat and it’s going to taste nasty. Which one did you do?” Romeia pointed to the meth, Alex did the line of cocaine and sat next to her on the couch.

After a moment he asked her how she felt, “Fine.” She responded.

“How does your heart feel?”

“Fine.”

“I am going to get something to eat, Brian is going to be in the next room. If you feel anything let him know.”

Alex returned after twenty minutes and Romeia felt the same, he frowned, “Maybe you should stand up.”

She did.

“Maybe you should walk around the room. Get your circulation going?”

She did.

“Run around the room.”

She did and Alex burst with laughter, “Sit down!”

“Will running around really help?” Romeia asked incredulously as she returned to her perch on the couch, wrapping herself back up into the warm and cozy comforter.

“No.” he shook his head with a smile.

It didn’t take long before Romeia found herself staying regularly with Alex, unaware that her use was becoming consistent with that of a bender. At his breaking point for privacy, Alex woke her up with a bark. “When was the last time you slept in your own bed?”

It was a good question, as she could not remember. Without a word, she slipped on her shoes and was on her way leaving behind a puzzled but yet relieved Alex. For the first week or two, Romeia’s body ached and she fought back the urge to call Alex for a fix. In an effort to distract herself, she took up chain smoking and became a regular at the gay bar down the street a few blocks from her house. It was there that she met Jackie, a loud mouthed but fun loving woman in her early thirties. About to be married, Jackie loved to play with younger men, meeting up with them clandestinely at this particular gay bar as it was the perfect place to keep a secret. The back smoking room dimly lit by a single bulb was frequently broken or removed, keeping the place in permanent darkness. On a few occasions, through the constant chatter, a groan of sexual satisfaction could be heard. Jackie was always quiet, but sometimes not so much her lovers.

In the space of three weeks after meeting Jackie and trying to forget Alex, Romeia found herself sitting in the middle of the road at three o’clock in the morning. Before her a crumpled up yellow hatchback with broken windows and slumped over passengers. Everything began to fade as Romeia struggled to breathe. In a rush, her lungs opened up and took in the damp cold air. Rising to her feet, pain began in her knees spread into her hips and lower back.  Looking down at her body, nothing seemed out of place and she turned her attention to the passenger door, it was open and the window shattered. Jackie still slumped forward in her seat with streaks of red stained on her face. The driver of the hatchback slowly regained consciousness and lifted his head. Looking to her right, the crumpled front end of a black Mercedes. Both the driver and passenger regained consciousness, slowly lifting their heads as if coming out of a trance. All was silent. The sight of the crash and the odd fact that her purse was still hooked on her right arm gave Romeia the abrupt realization that she had no shoes on. Adding it all together, left Romeia wondering if perhaps she had died.

Barefoot and unaware of the shattered glass around her on the asphalt, Romeia watched as Jackie stumbled from the car.

Romeia approached the car to look for her shoes as Jackie whimpered, “I have to find Bobby. Where is he? Where’s Bobby?” Peering in the backseat, Romeia found her heels right where her feet had been.

The driver stared blankly at what was left of his car.

“Should we stay with you?” Romeia asked.

“Get yourselves home. I’ll figure this out.”

“It’s illegal to walk away from an accident.”

“You’re under age and I don’t want you to be arrested.”

“You are too.”

“Don’t worry about me, just get out of here and don’t get yourselves caught.”

The wail of sirens echoed in the distance as Romeia turned to Jackie who was still unaware of what had happened. “Jackie. Look at me.”

Jackie’s eyes stared vacant at Romeia.

“We have to get as far away as we can before the police get here.”

The driver handed Romeia her shoes, his eyes plead for her forgiveness. “I’m so sorry.” The words meant nothing but his intent was sincere.

Putting on her shoes, she grabbed Jackie by the arm and ordered her to run.

“Why are we running?” Jackie asked.

“Because the police are coming and we have to get out of here before they arrest us.”

Together they ran three blocks away from the scene with sirens echoing through the city streets behind them. An ambulance and police cars rushed past them as they hid behind a gas station hovering in the dark. Jackie’s head wound kept bleeding, staining her shirt. No cab would take them with her looking like this. Romeia told Jackie to stay put and went inside asking for paper towels. Coming back she found Jackie blissfully unaware of the sight she was sitting on a curb directly under the stations lights exposing the grisly vision of her head injury. Romeia wiped the blood as best she could from Jackie’s face and instructed her to put pressure on the wound. Taking out her cell phone she dialed Alex, it went to voicemail.

A freshly scrubbed Alex came into his room, a friend sitting on the couch with a grave expression told him to check his messages. Curious, he did to hear a serious and vaguely unfamiliar voice of a female.

“Alex, it’s me Romeia. I need you to come and pick me up. My friend Jackie and I need your help immediately. Please, you have to get us!” The message ended, and his phone lit up with Romeia’s call.

“What’s going on?”

“Alex, there has been a serious accident and I need you to get us, we don’t have money for a cab.”

After a long pause, Alex answered. “I can’t. I can’t be involved in this, I’m sorry. You’re going to have to figure this one out on your own and don’t come to my place.”

Stunned, Romeia listened as the line went dead. It was then that Romeia became acutely aware of the gas station attendant watching them and placing a call himself. Her heart began to pound, as she sensed danger closing in around them. Grabbing Jackie’s arm the two set off running again. The buildings towered over them and blended together. Street signs counted off that they were approaching the Mission district, which at this hour would still be too dangerous. Exhausted and tired of running, Romeia stumbled across a cab whose passenger was a woman from India. She came to the door and begged him to take them to her house on Fell and Haight.

The driver refused, but after some words from his passenger he unlocked the doors and tersely stated, “Just don’t let her bleed on my seats.”

Unwittingly, he drove them right back to the same gas station where the girls had been prior. A police unit sat parked out front. The woman from India went inside the station and Romeia watched terrified as the Officer spoke with the woman while she purchased water and was handed more paper towels. As the woman shook her head, the Officer peered towards the cab. Uncomfortable, the cab driver moved the car off to the side of the building to rid himself of the scrutiny. Coming back to the car, the woman from India handed Romeia the water and towels. Turning around in her seat, she looked Romeia directly in the eye and asked pointedly, “How did she get hurt?”

Romeia couldn’t stop the lie as it rolled smoothly off her tongue and her voice seemed far away, “She called me to come get her and I found her like this. She says there was more than one person and she couldn’t get away.”

The woman said nothing further, turned back around in her seat and the cab took off towards Romeia’s apartment just a few blocks from Jackie’s. Upon arriving at her apartment, Romiea asked the driver to wait as she went into the house to get money to pay him.

Waving his hand the man said, “Don’t worry.” And sped off into the night.