It was the summer of love, 1967. She was sixteen quickly turning seventeen, and in Mexico for the second summer. The summer before she spent two months in Oaxaca with thirteen other girls, learning the culture and much more.
On her birthday a group of boys had a Mariachi band serenade her. It was her most perfect birthday.
This summer she was traveling on a teen tour. She doesn't remember what she did on her birthday. It was the summer, that summer of love, she was introduced to drugs. Walk into any farmacia:
"Tiene usted Dexedrine?"
"Si, Senorita, para usted..."
The "tu" form was never used in these transactions. They were formal, respectful transactions that almost made using amphetamines seem respectful and the responsible thing to do. She wrote brilliant letters home.
She quickly became addicted. She would never have known about buying Dexedrine, or Dexamil, or Ritalin to come down with had it not been for other girls on the tour.
One girl handed her a joint. She really didn't want to smoke it, and thought that you get high from second-hand smoke. The girls laughed at her and taught her.
She was scared of the drugs at first. She knew that a rat was the lowest form of humanity, but she went to the tour leaders thinking that they were older and wiser.
That's when she found out the tour leaders were paying for her roommate's trip. That's when she found out they planned to smuggle a key (kilo) of pot from an island near Isla de Mujeres, their last stop.
She had a hippie look. The tour directors thought that she would get with the program. Really, she wanted her mommy.
The tour leaders realized that she wouldn't help with the smuggling, basically because she was scared. She doesn't remember why they even told her so much.
They did tell her what happens to rats. They left a very vivid picture in her head.
She got over the addiction while still in Mexico. The feelings were too intense. It was scary to feel so capable of anything. It was even scarier to come down. Each time was progressively harder. Afterwards she couldn't believe that she let this happen. She needed to feel in control, and coming down from ups was like watching your mind whirl into unknown worlds.
It probably wasn't a true addiction. The whole thing began and ended in two weeks. She had to keep her mind clear because she couldn't trust the tour leaders or the girls on the tour.
Article comments
1 - cooper
This was lovely, and makes me want more.
2 - bliffle
Very good.
3 - jacobmilhouse
I'm just waiting for the book. There isn't much to say except I can't wait for more. This is good.