I have just completed the rewrite of Danny’s Story – 75 chapters and a hundred and fifty pages. At 57,000 words it is a little light but long enough. I’m pleased with it.
Here is a sample chapter.
Chapter 37 – Discussions with Terry
‘Terry, if I hadn’t had been in you would be dead.’
Terry chuckled. Once again they had taken him in to hospital and injected him and he was back out the next day no worse for wear. There was nothing to show that he had been so close to death. It was like it was some ludicrous game.
‘You don’t seem to understand the inevitability of this,’ Danny said earnestly. They were sitting in Terry’s front room and Danny was trying his utmost to get Terry to understand the seriousness of the situation. It was like they were talking from two different worlds. Danny sat there with his long hair, middle-class background and college education and Terry sat there with his tattoos and prison experience and there was a communication barrier that was an invisible wall between them. Danny was struggling to bridge it. But he was trying his best. He really did not want to be responsible for Terry being dead. He did not want to be called up to that flat and find Terry not breathing at all. He’d have to live with that for the rest of his life. ‘It’s not a fucking game, Terry,’ he argued as strongly as he could. ‘You will do this again and one day nobody will be there and you will not wake up.’
Terry shrugged. ‘Danny,’ he said, ‘I’m really grateful to you for what you’ve done. You saved my life, man. But Skag is the best thing that’s ever happened to me. Don’t knock it until you’ve tried it.’
Danny looked askance. He could not quite take in this new tack.
‘Skag is the best high you can buy,’ Terry repeated with a grin and wave of the hand. ‘Until you’ve done it you cannot believe it. It’s like one long fucking orgasm that never stops, man. You release the gee-jaw and this wave of beauty hits your brain, man. It’s the best feeling you’ve ever had in your life. It’s like you’re floating on this big warm ocean, bobbing about, and all your troubles just float away, all the bad feelings, everything. There’s just you and this wonderful feeling. Nothing else matters.’
Danny looked at him with disbelief, shaking his head. ‘But there are things that matter, man,’ he argued. ‘There are. You can’t just pretend they don’t exist. What about June and the baby? What about all the people who are going to have to clear the mess after you’ve done your sorry arse in? Don’t they matter?’
Terry shrugged. ‘Look I go to work.’ He’d recently started work as a labourer on a building site. ‘I bring in good money. But there’s still all this shit coming at me. So I like to try a bit of skag. It makes everything right. I don’t do it all the time. I just do it every now and again when it all starts getting to me.’
‘But it’s gonna kill you, man!’ Danny protested loudly in utter disbelief. ‘You’ve already been dragged off to the emergency ward twice. If I hadn’t had been here you’d be dead. It’s gonna kill you, man. Is it worth it?’
‘Why don’t you try some,’ Terry suggested persuasively. ‘Just a little.’ He took a wrap out of his pocket and held it up. ‘There’d be no risk. I’d just give you a little – enough to get a taste.’ He looked at Danny with a challenging grin while waving the wrap in the air.
‘No thanks, man,’ Danny said, sitting back in his chair with a concerned expression. He continued to stare at Terry who was smiling in a smug manner. He knew he was wasting his words. Terry was never going to stop. Heroin was going to kill him sooner or later.
June hovered in the kitchen busying herself with some cooking in order to give them room to talk.
‘You know what Terry?’ Danny said eventually. ‘The worst thing that could happen is that I tried it and loved it.’
Terry frowned at him as he tried to work that out.
Well, are you going to say what you thought about Rod?
Thought you’d never ask ! These are the ones I have –
Rod McKuen – Takes a San Francisco Hippie Trip
Live in London (Double)
Alone
The Beautiful Strangers
Pushing the clouds away
I’ve only played one so far. I like his poems and the albums are OK – bit too smaltzy for my usual tastes. I’ll persevere!
Which one do you think I’d like best?
Why should I ask again, I asked you when you said you had purchased them to let me know. “Alive in London”, I was there when it was recorded, Rod was just wonderful so honest, so natural and so loving. Then Rod was on all his work, he would give everything he had. (Which one did you play?).
I can understand as you say “bit too schmaltzy” for your taste, but it’s what a woman wants to hear a man say, and Rod wrote it all, and it was true. You should try and get some of Rod’s Classical works, they will surprise you. At least you now have some of Rod to listen to. See if you can find any of his books, “Finding my Father” is extremely fascinating. Rod helped the British Government to change the rules making it possible for people to learn more about their real Fathers and Mothers. I think I will have a look at the LPs you picked up. I actually have two copies of “Live in London” LPs and two copies of “Live in London” on CD – forgot I already had them and Ebay did well out of me.
Sorry – I forgot I’d said that.
The San Franciscan Hippie Trip.
I’ll play Alive in London and listen out for you. Are you on the right or left?
I don’t have any of his books but I’ll look out for some.
That’s ok. I was on the left, I wasn’t screaming. People didn’t do that at Rod’s concerts it was always applauding and “more, more” things like that. Rod was a shy homely man, but once on stage he was the true performer he could read the audience so well, he was Rod, the one and only. I must play “The San Francisco Hippie Trip” again. You know, or at least I believe I told you that Rod damaged his voice from nightly performances , told not to speak for a period of time and had to learn to talk again and his singing voice had that raspy sound, but we loved it because we loved him.