The Wilderness Years - Here Comes Your Man

And so it began... in earnest you might say, i hadn't been back in the game long but i had a managed to not run out of gear at all in the first six or so weeks back and now i was sitting on this, the lovely green mid-grade that all us kids way back when loved so much, it didn't have much to do with marketing, good weed at a good price, there were assholes who would gouge people when they got shit like this and though i did raise the price slightly (to help cover costs, you know economics and shit) it wasn't much and everyone seemed to be more than eager to hand over money for this new batch, it took a day short of a week from the time i picked it up until it was almost gone, in that time i had hit the bar and laughed and joked with Hippie Jack, told him i was thrilled and wondered when i could get another one, he grinned and said whenever man, damn that was pretty fast he added, i shrugged and told him that people really liked it, told him this could be real steady, he slowly shook his head and laughed yeaaah maaaan, he said he'd put it aside that night... the next day i was over to pick it up...

The weed market is a funny thing, at the end of 1995 it seemed it was everywhere and nowhere, i heard a lot of talk from customers about other places to score but many seemed more than happy to score from me, it was easy, in those days i used to smoke with damn near everyone who came in, of course i had to keep my shit wired tight cuz one never knew when someone would try and rip you off or you'd weigh the wrong amount or not get enough money from people, dumb shit that surprisingly put many a would be dealer out to pasture, of course everyone thinks this shit is easy and it ain't but i was easy going and accessible and laid down some simple ground rules, explained that i had a real job (though i'm not sure the one i had classified as such) and that no one better be turning up unannounced or at 3am, things normal people wouldn't dream of doing but that the wasted of the world think is perfectly acceptable, and for the most part it worked fine, sure there were nights that when the last person left i'd walk back to my room and pass out fully stoned and half drunk in my clothes with the lamp on and the radio cooing away only to awake in a stupor to finally get out of my clothes and get into bed properly for a few hours kip, but things were beginning to roll, it would take less than three weeks to pay off the credit card thus in reality earning another six bills on top of what else i was pulling in which was still enough to put a little away and have enough in my pocket to hang at the bar, it didn't suck...

And so like Michael J. Fox in The Secret of My Success i was off, what was the secret you might ask? well it was just like i said, i wasn't a dick, i told people when i was around and how to find me, i had good shit at a good price, some motherfuckers spend four years of undergrad and another one or two chasing an MBA to learn in theory what i was learning in the real world,  i've heard people write books on this shit and get paid lots of money to basically teach common sense but that's all it was, do unto others as... well you know, of course the real key is good shit but like a good doctor or lawyer people come to trust their weed dealer, it's a strange thing but they do and soon they begin to stop calling the other ones they know and tipping off friends and such as to the fact they have a good one, the Snowball Effect once again and with the new line that snowball was starting to roll...

And roll it did, the kids were coming fast and furious, each week it seemed i picked up more customers, word of mouth among the potheads was doing wonders, there were a few people who i began to give carte blanche when it came to bringing me new people, a couple of cats from local bands and some old friends still bouncing around, soon it was taking around five days to flip a half pound, late summer had slipped into fall and old man winter was knocking but the phone was ringing steady and my head stash was growing and the wallet was getting a bit thicker and then of course the envelopes began showing up in the mail, the banker boys wanted reimbursed for all those leisurely days spent roaming the halls of academia, hell i was even lucky, the first few years the athletic department picked up the tab but i still managed to rack up a decent sized bill but $6.40 an hour didn't cover much in the way of expenses so this new connection was like water to this fish, i don't know why but my warped sense of responsibility made it imperative that i pay them off, i knew a lot of people, friends, who were defaulting or delaying payment and watching the fees and interest stack up, i watched as the bankers decided to wreck the credit of what should have been their future target market, yes we knew we had to pay back the money we just didn't think things would be so shit...

So in the straight world i made roughly $1000 a month before taxes, my rent, bills, loans and those pesky expenses like food left me with maybe a hundred left? usually less and this was not me eating Filet Mignon each night it was more like beans and rice and peanut butter, of course with the extra income i could eat a bit better (or worse really), the student loans ate up close to half of my legit income but with the real gig running so well by December or so i was putting all the loot Uncle Sam knew about towards my loans and such and living off the second job, still managing to stash away some money while having a fucking whale of a time at the bar and a couple of other establishments located roughly half a city block from my place... but we'll get to that...

It was right around Thanksgiving and things had picked up to the point that i was constantly looking for a ride or car to get my ass to Hippie Jack's place, usually if someone drove me there the next time they'd let me take their ride cuz sometimes Hippie Jack could keep you there for an hour or so fucking about and getting high and drinking beers and since his place was right on that main drag of no-man's land and said driver was parked at a shady industrial uniform place which was located directly across the street from the hood, the one where Mr. Wilson once lived, complete with walkway covered in wire fence and decorated with broken malt liquor bottles, I wouldn't have wanted to wait there and luckily i didn't have to, i was inside doing business and bong hits and adhering to the proper etiquette that seems to accompany this line of work... but the simple fact was at this point it was a hassle for me to get there and i needed to get there a lot...

And so one day i planted the seed of trying to figure out how to get more gear without having to put up more dosh, the front as we say, seems Hippie Jack was thinking along the same lines, after the first two months he told me i moved more than anyone else he had, so we came to the agreement that i'd give him the money for a half but get a whole elbow at pound price the  balance to be paid on my return with all the cash and the process starting over again, at least then it would be a solid week and i could always get him the money at the bar when need be, i'd try and hustle that first half as quickly as possible while putting all funds toward the pay-off, then of course when it was almost finished it'd be all profit, my rep was growing and the kids were now coming with bigger and bigger orders, the mention of qp's and the cost, it was still early but it seemed that every week i was picking up more and more people, the old new kid was back and hitting stride, there was a bit of new stress involved, not one of getting caught but of making sure i had the money i owed ready to go if Hippie Jack needed it and every so often he did, as for the fuzz they were something of an afterthought...

By the time X-mas had rolled around things had picked even more, i was still getting an elbow at a time but sometimes even those didn't last me a week, now i was putting up cash for damn near the whole thing, i was firmly ensconced at the bar as a guy who could move shit, Hippie Jack had apparently pointed me out to Mr. Big as a kid with talent, of course you didn't talk to Mr. Big unless expressly asked to do so and so i kept my distance, i'd show up each day and throw darts and do a little business, even managed to pick up some new business from different circles, people at the bar who knew Jack but seemed to like dealing with a more sane distributor shall we say, it was rolling, the 6'4 inch dreadlocked white guy was swiftly becoming a local face, another in a long line of faces who'd pass through that steel door but as 1996 approached he was on the rise, the Christmas lights blinking, the slush in my shoes, i had used some of my hard earned cash to buy a Carhartt coat for work, legit gig and otherwise, a good investment for bumming around in shit steel town winters , a coat that would last me over 15 years of shit jobs, a coat immortalized not a few years back in this very lounge, i had managed to pad the bank account a bit and keep a neat little slush fund but most of what i earned was tied up in the seed money but at least it was mine and if i walked or fucked up i wouldn't be in debt to anyone, at least not more than a couple hundred bucks, and that kids is another trade secret that we'll learn down the road...

But the holiday approached and for the first time in my life i wouldn't be hanging out with my old man, i didn't have the time or the means to get back to Cleveland, the warehouse gig was M-F but with X-mas on a Monday the stores were open and truck loads of disposable shit needed delivered over the weekend, six hour days instead of eight and all of it OT but i was still salty and even then i was making less than ten bucks an hour so it made getting to the old man's out of the question and with the good Doctor and Jess gone for a couple of days i had the place to myself, it was a rare and strange thing and it was cold with a dusting of snow and as i looked out over my little patch of nowhere, i grinned at the sad and derelict colored lights, the odd beaten and battered decoration hung in a dim window, i had a case of beer and some Hungry-Man frozen dinners and late one night a little elf showed up to keep me company and it was a bit slow business wise which was fine cuz for the first time in quite a while i was content, content to sit in my apartment, to catch my breath, it was a beautiful few days...