Writing
The Social Club (in three parts)
by Xavier - London, England
part two
A black smoke rising to the ceiling above your head.
There is a moment of silence as everybody gets used to a new point of view, everybody smiling numbly and thinking spacious thoughts once they've had their turn, their mind entered by the music or the flickering voices drifting from the T.V. Business follows, while you are 'on the subject.'
It is now okay to ask for what you came for, to talk about money without it being offensive. The bags of gear are kept in another room. You take out your money while the dealer leaves to go and get them. They might bring you one, sometimes more so you can choose between them. Ten minutes later, after another superficial conversation, you leave after writing the dealer's number down on a piece of paper having asked if they mind if you "give them a call sometime."
Most of the time everything follows this routine even down to the time it takes. The dealer likes to be needed but doesn't want you staying too long.
There
was one house we used to go to from time to time when there was nowhere else
to try, where you could have the whole ritual over in ten minutes. They used
to deal hard drugs as well so the atmosphere was always a little bit more
tense, the room a little more ugly than normal with the fire place stuffed
full of empty Coffee Chill cartons and cigarette butts. One dealer (there
were two in the house) was always on the phone using a language of large numbers,
while the other did the small-time talking, offering you as much gear as you
could smoke while you were there. We used to park down the road a little so
as not to
be seen outside, one going into the house while the others stayed in the car.
Occasionally from there you'd see someone else walk in off the street only minutes behind. That was always tense. They'd been raided a few times because of their hard drug connections and there was always that fear that the heat would come down while you were inside. If you weren't out in twenty minutes the instructions were to drive off, but we never had to do this as it was all over so quickly. They always had plenty in stock, so there was never any need to delay, never a need to wait around for a call or the supplier to turn up.
