Sentimental Attachment

I have a text from a former friend of mine.  It just reads-

"Hey hope your week was a little less stressful, and you have had some lovely fall weather!!!"

I say former, because two days later she was dead.  So it goes.

We were not close friends, probably more acquaintances.  She worked at the local around the corner from my Cincinnati apartment and we chatted most Sundays while I drank coffee and did the crossword before Tammy could get to it.  Sometimes I'd order goetta and eggs, dry wheat toast... but mostly just coffee.  I have my own mug there, thanks to Heather- another worker- it has an "A" on it for my name.  It's chipped, but its mine.  I'm very proud of my coffee addiction.  I love coffee.  But coffee addiction to my knowledge is never deadly.  I could be wrong.

Yes... I have a reserved coffee mug at a bar.  You wish you were that special.

She was a kind soul- addicted to drugs- but a kind soul.  She was nice, sometimes a bit over the top but just a friendly trying to please everyone person.  Her hat hung on the bar mirror for a few weeks after...a green slouch hat.   Just next to the clock, surrounded by brown liquor.  Right in the middle.  You couldn't miss it.  She had bad karma with cars, so I gave her a ride home a few times to help- I had nothing better to do and heck I was usually wired on coffee and annoyed with the CityBeat crossword.

She always talked of moving closer to Northside, getting out of her apartment and being more of a walk to work person.   That never happened.  She was trying to get right for herself and her kids.

There was something laced with something around Cincicnnati that week, and she got some.  I don't know drugs, so I wont attempt to even feign understanding.  I hope the death was quick, but I have no idea.  They couldn't find her for a day, she had rolled over on the other side of the bed wrapped up in the covers.  Like a burrito I imagine, if I wanted to imagine death.  I do not.  Nobody could find her, they searched the apartment and found nothing.  Later, the cops searched again and found her tangled in the blankets.  Case closed. Or at least body found.

Dead from a drug overdose.  So it goes.

I've never done an illicit drug in my life.  Caffeine is as wild as I get.  It is experiences and events like this that keep me that way.  I don't care what you do, but I know what I'm comfortable around.  I keep a few text messages and voice mails around for times when it's good to smile.  This is one of those items.

"Hey hope your week was a little less stressful, and you have had some lovely fall weather!!!"

Thanks.