Special K

Dirk and I met just before I was working for NeXeT.
He was friends with Joel’s, who I’d briefly overlapped with in high school.
Joel worked the overnight shift doing tech support and was going to community college.
That’s where he met Dirk.

The three of us would hang out.
I had just turned 17 or 18, and Dirk was about four or five years older.

He had an amazing weed connection.

Dirk was working as a CAD drafter for a company called Sperry Litton Marine, which did ship design for the Navy.

We’d hang out for hours getting stoned and watching movies or just listening to music.

Dirk had freedom.
He set his own schedule.
He didn’t worry about things.

I was envious.

More than that, when I was around him, I felt that same kind of freedom.

Dirk and I used to snort ketamine.
He got it from a friend who was a vet.
We’d bake out the moisture in my shitty apartment oven.

This was before I had any furniture.

I just had a TV, video games, and a mattress on the floor.

I did have this blacklight strobe light.
And since my apartment had only one small window, it was easy to make it pitch black.

We’d do a line of K and toss a neon kush ball around in the darkness with the blacklight strobe going. It was magical and trippy, and when we added on other drugs it was even more so.

Dirk later introduced me to his dealer friend.
I can’t recall his name anymore, so I’ll just call him Skeet.

Skeet was a cool dude.
I just wish he and his girlfriend Gabby didn’t smoke like chimneys.

They’d come hang out and we’d get blitzed.

Skeet had everything—mushrooms, LSD, heroin, coke—you name it.

Weed was the bread and butter of his business, though.
And I was going through about two ounces a week.

Skeet cut me a good deal.
I’d buy two pounds at a time, then sell half to Chris and his wife for the same price as the whole two pounds.

Chris knew the markup I was putting on it.
He didn’t care.
It was still cheaper than what he was paying before.

He’d always ask me—

“When are you gonna introduce me to your hookup?”

“And cut off my free weed supply?” I’d chide back.