Jacob Bowman

Brent House
English Composition 1010
6 September 2010
A Drug To Remember
Chapter 1
“The Chaser seeking a sack will never look back not realizing in fact that their d
reams are but wasted”
There she came, late as always and not a worry for anybody that maybe he
r late arrival caused any inconvenience. It had been like this for a few years n
ow and all of us could only expect Jennifer to be late no matter what the occasi
on. It was actually surprising when she did show up for every time something cam
e up, she coincidently had an excuse not to appear. She walked to our table at t
he Mexican restaurant we were dining in and looked strangely out of place; she l
ooked distant from this time of reality. Her eyes were always a beautiful green
color but tonight they were dark, dilated, and bloodshot. The immediate thought
of my family and I was “Well, I guess she decided to dose up before she came here”.
The night was filled with an awkward space as we all tried to act as if nothing
was wrong with Jennifer. I guess tonight was like every other night to her: dope
up, show up, and leave as fast as possible to avoid questioning.
Drugs are the most home-wrecking, life-destroying, and mind-altering sub
stances in existence. Meth is by far the very definition of a ruined life and th
e most dangerous drug to ever be taken into your system. It is nothing to play w
ar with and certainly no joke. A survivor of meth is certainly a lucky find, and
even more rare, if they recover fully from their addiction. My sister is one of
the rarest forms of recoveries in that she would never seem to have been on thi
s terrible drug nor ever been affected by its horrible repercussions. Her story
is captivating and inspiring nonetheless that will aspire more intelligent actio
ns with your own children.
Meth is a psychoactive stimulant that will increase alertness, concentra
tion, and energy. It can induce euphoria and enhance self-esteem. These factors
make this drug extremely dangerous because of the effect it gives the brain that
the body is well and positive looking. This also was my sister’s, Jennifer, downf
all.
I was born in a small town in north Georgia called Summerville; not much
to partake in but friendly people nonetheless. I was the last child to be born
from my parents, and the only boy, so this was an interesting life growing up wi
th three older sisters as you can probably imagine. My sisters and I were always
playing with our animals, with each other, or in the pool we so dearly loved. L
ike most siblings, though, we did fight quite often but that never stopped us fr
om being as close as we were. Soon after I reached the age of six, my parents de
cided to split from each other, devastating my sisters and me. My oldest sister,
Haley, was eighteen years old and decided she wanted to live with my father aft
er the split. This decision she made separated us from how close we were growing
up; she did her own things and really did not interact with us as much as she c
ould have. Haley moving out caused Jennifer to get involved with the wrong crowd
of people being that Haley was an older influence.
Jennifer was 16 years old when she moved to Rome with me, my mom, and Ke
lsey. At the time I was 7 years old. She knew a few people at one of the local h
igh schools and decided that was where she wanted to continue her junior year of
high school. I can remember the time of moving to Rome because it was such a bi
g change in my life and my two older sisters’ lives as well. The only home we had
ever known was that of our home in Summerville where the rooms were big, the peo
ple were humble, and the size was relatively small. We resided in Rome for most
of our school careers, giving us many experiences to that area and a reputation
built up in the schools. My youngest sister, Kelsey, was eleven at the time and
was attending the local city schools, opposite Jennifer. My mom thought Jennifer
would be fine in the local county high school, but she knew little about what w
as going to be happening at that particular high school and the few so called “fri
ends” Jennifer did have there.
Chapter 2
Jennifer was a fairly big girl, standing at 5 7 and having a little port
ion of fat on her belly. She was very active in cheerleading, cheering on the lo
cal competition gym and also teaching her high school’s cheerleading team their ro
utines. She was a very smart girl and definitely had the capabilities to become
a sophisticated individual, always performing her best not only in academics but
in sports. Jennifer was ambitious, caring, always willing to help somebody--usu
ally by teaching them how to cheerlead--and bringing home poor, stranded animals
she found on the side of the road. You could say she was one of a kind, and a b
ig influence on mine and kelsey’s lives.
I can remember always being close to Jennifer. Kelsey and me had to hav
e a baby sitter growing up because we were always getting into trouble. Jennifer
was dragged in to do the job by mom, her being the oldest in the house, but we
had fun with her and naturally did what we wanted to do. We loved Jennifer to de
ath. We looked up to her and always wanted to be around her because of the thing
s we shared with her. I can remember staying up late with her just to watch tele
vision in her room. A funny memory was that I have always kept was the show we f
requently watched with her at night was one called “Blind Date”, a classic on MTV th
at had a run for its money. Needless to say, Jennifer wasn’t worried about what we
were exposed to as children. She didn’t mind cursing in front of us and actually
could care less about what we got into.
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“Jacob. Kelsey. I swear if you ever do drugs or get anywhere near this stu
ff, I will beat your ass,” Jennifer cursed. She had a very solemn look on her face
that night when Kelsey and I met her for supper. “I’m not kidding at all. You bette
r promise me you won’t ever do these things. You see where they have gotten me?”
“Yes,” we both muttered, “we promise we won’t”.
“Good. This is absolutely no life at all”. Jennifer stared into both of our faces as
we sat at the table in the crowded night of Applebee’s. Jennifer had called kelse
y that night and asked her if we wanted to meet her for supper that night. We na
turally said yes because we loved Jennifer and missed seeing her all the time--m
om didn’t like us being around Jennifer because of her drug addiction and the deal
ers that lived with her.
Seeing her made all the difference in the world in that we were never ar
ound her anymore. Jennifer had many homes during her drug-addicted years ranging
from the humble neighborhood of Hidden Valley, to the quiet, country of Cave Sp
ring, to the slums of Lindale. Kelsey and I tried to visit her several times but
usually ended up with us getting in serious trouble with our mom.
“How do you take in meth?” I asked, staring at Jennifer and waiting for a re
sponse.
“He doesn’t need to know that! He’ll end up knowing how to use it,” Ben exclaimed.
Ben was a drug dealer; tall and very skinny but was muscular all at the
same time. He had short black hair, a small, black goatee, and a soft, raspy voi
ce that could only be associated with somebody who consistently smokes. He was a
very shady character, always wearing a hat with baggy clothes and smiled about
as often as he went to church--he doesn’t go to church.
“No, he needs to know how it’s taken in and what it is so he won’t ever be tempted to
do it. Kids do drugs because they don’t know much about them. Jacob, meth can real
ly be taken any way. You can crush it up and smoke it, eat it, or you can shoot
it through a syringe”. Jennifer finished and blankly waited for my response.
“You can eat it?” I stopped with a questioned look on my face wondering why in the w
orld you would want to eat a drug.
“Yes, you can eat it. It doesn’t taste very good, but some people are desperate for
that high they get”. The night continued on--Kelsey, Jennifer, Ben, and I talked t
he rest of dinner, catching up and enjoying each other’s company.
Later after we left the restaurant and said our goodbyes, Kelsey and I w
alked into the house, expecting mom to ask how dinner went. We asked her if it w
as ok that we went to eat with Jennifer earlier that night and surprisingly she
said yes. That was definitely a first that we were not used to at this point, bu
t nonetheless never felt better to make contact with our troubled sibling.
Chapter 3
My dad is very strong man. Standing at 6 2 and having the arm strength o
f a weight-lifter from years of working the line crew at Georgia Power, he could
easily overtake a man and take his share of punches if the opportunity was at h
and. He grew up in the same town I did with the exception of growing up in a ha
rder, harsher, and more complicated life. Back in his day, calculators were a fo
rtune. Families hunted a lot more to feed their families instead of going to the
grocery store for every meal like today’s society. He knows his way around the wo
ods and knows about every knot there is for tying something tight--he is a very
powerful man, emotionally and physically. But, not even a man this strong can ha
ndle every situation. Sure, he may be able to handle a punch, but every man has
his breaking point.
There I sat in the front seat of my dad’s pickup truck. We were on our way
to Rome to visit Jennifer at the jail. We hadn’t visited in quite a few weeks and
my dad had to drop a check off for her to be able to purchase some things insid
e the jail, so we decided to make the commute. This was the third time Jennifer
had been sent to jail, over the same cause as the previous two. It seemed that w
aiting in a cell all day and night was not doing the job to get her off drugs.
Each time Jennifer was taken to jail, it was a feeling of hope that mayb
e, just maybe, she will come out clean. Each time she was sent in with a few mon
ths to complete, she emerged only to disappoint the entire family once again. Ea
ch time she got out, she only got worse. It seemed to me in all of this that jai
l was only making her grave a little deeper each time she was accepted in.
I thought about the memories of Jennifer and me growing up, while riding
in the car to see her. This particular occasion, it seemed that dad was also th
inking about her from the day she was born. He always had a solemn look upon his
face that dawned to everybody something was wrong. He would get this dark look
to himself, eyes almost darkened by these thoughts he had. He wouldn’t look at you
, only stare at the road in disbelief that his life was going the way it was. He
would grow weary and very quiet all at the same time. I would try to speak to h
im about Jennifer but it was like a kid asking for something that he could never
have--dad would only stutter an answer just to satisfy my empty question. Jenni
fer seemed to have this effect on him and only could her problems hit him deeper
than any event in a lifetime.
We reached the jail and by the looks of it, they weren’t open at the time.
Dad formed a disappointed look upon his face and searched around to see if he c
ould find Jennifer’s cell window from the fence. Scoping out the architecture of t
he jail, catching glimpses of other cell mates staring out of the windows at us,
dad finally saw the figure of a white girl. Focusing even closer, it turned out
to be Jennifer, one of few white girls in that jail. Dad’s expression exasperated
from solemn to a grimace. He smiled as we stared at Jennifer waving at the two
of us.
Jennifer has a certain awe about her--she has the most beautiful and not
iceable smile you will ever see in your life. When she smiled, the world lit up
around wasteland and become utopian. She could smile and turn a ruined day into
a perfect day. When you see a girl smile like this even in the confines of a wre
tched waste of jail, you can only hope to not cry for even a few minutes.
Dad waved to Jennifer in her window. He held up the check and mouthed “Whe
re do I need to put this?”. She mouthed a phrase neither of us could make out, but
pointed to the side of the jail. We walked over to the side to find a slot for
money checks where we promptly dropped it off and returned to our sign session o
f talking to each other.
Staring at each other and exchanging smiles, we lingered on in the parki
ng lot of the jail enjoying the somewhat company of each other. We even exchange
d waves with some of Jennifer’s cell mates that she made friends with. It was like
these people all had happiness inside of them, manners and friendliness that ra
diated to the outside world. I know I felt this sense of friendliness just stand
ing there while Jennifer surrounded by people in the same situation as her. Dad
waved numerous times, trying to mouth little phrases to Jennifer to tell her of
the things that was going on. We were at quite a distance from Jennifer so mouth
movement was not the most practical form of communication.
I was asked if I was ready to leave and I promptly responded with “I guess
so. I’m ready to get home”. Dad turned back to Jennifer, returning to his disappoin
ted face that I was growing more familiar with. He stared back at Jennifer one l
ast time and pointed back to the truck signaling we were leaving. Jennifer’s eyes
gleamed from that window, that dazzling smile appeared, and the hand motions of
I love you were formulated out of the air and sent straight to my dad. He caught
all of this, smirked, and sent the compelling, three-letter phrase that can cha
nge any life right back to her. Jennifer repeated the same hand motions, never s
topping and smiling the entire time.
We walked to the truck and dad unlocked the doors. Both of us opening th
e doors with the same motion, we swivelled into our seats. I fastened my seat be
lt preparing for the drive ahead and noticed the truck wasn’t started. Dad leaned
forward and burst into tears, sobbing loudly and covering his face with his hand
s. Never in my life have I seen any man of his size cry like this, and neither h
ave I seen my dad cry like this. I wanted to cry too but I hadn’t the faintest ide
a of how emotionally stabbing all of this with Jennifer could be. Dad continued
to sob, whimpering every so often and leaning against the steering wheel.
“Don’t you ever do this to me, Jacob! Don’t put me through this again. I can’t h
andle going through this all over again.” Dad sputtered these words out, wiping hi
s eyes and praying his words of wisdom would crack through my skull. His eyes we
re sanguine, his face was flushed and his body quivering from the excitement his
body never experienced in a lifetime. He had enough of Jennifer’s let downs, keep
ing his emotions locked in as she rose in criminal ranking. Seeing her still lov
e while she continues to destroy was destroying his capacity to continue to love
her like his little baby girl. I guess it is true--every man has his breaking p
oint.