Big Heroin - Small Town: Problems.

I will forever remember Nick. He lived up the street from me and the first time I met him he cruised by my 8-10 year old self and popped his skateboard up on two wheels. The year was probably 1994. He liked baseball and he had a Hank Aaron All Star Card.

I remember playing Kickball with Nick and he kicked the rubber kick ball over all of the houses for an very obvious automatic homerun. He was an amazing dude that me and all the other kids on the block looked up to. He could skate, play baseball, and kickball. 

Years later the age gap grew to the part that it was too weird for him to hang out with the younger kids, but you would still see him and he was always cool when you did. 

I remember the police busting him in the woods and it went downhill from there. In my freshman year I came home to ambulances and tons of cops and firemen on the scene. My mom told me tthat he had O.D'd on heroin and was being taken to the hospital. She told me that he was dying and that she did CPR until the firetruck arrived. 

Nick lived and I only know this because I saw his face and name on one of those local mugshot websites. He was on the front page. I was happy and sad at the same time. Happy he was alive, but sad that he was still in pain and making the wrong choices. 

Now, it gets sadder. Heroin is terrible and is a one way HIGHWAY. It is not even remotely close to being a one way road. Heroin has the powers to take you to 100+ real fast and you are in the game too deep before you know it. 

The saddest part about this is that I don't know this next guys name anymore. He will be known as Zach. I met Zach a few years back and he was super cool. He was fun to be around and was a really good person. While everyone that age smokes pot and drinks he started hanging out with a rougher crowd early in high school when he was about 16 as were we. 

It had been like 20 days and we all slowly noticed Zach hasn't been around for a while. My friends and I started talking. Then we heard the truth Zach had been at a party where he OD'd on heroin and instead of get him help the guys using with him left. Zach sat there for hours in his own vomit and fighting for oxygen. 

He was in the hospital for months and when he finally got out he was in the same state as feeble grandparents on their last days. It was sad to watch my grandmother go through what she did and was one of the most painful parts of my young adult life. That is my memory. 

Zach now goes through life in a nursing home. It is a super sad story and it all happened so quick that for whatever reason I have a hard time placing his face and name. One day he was here and the next day he was gone, but he didn't die.