Doc starts texting Campbell at all hours, stuff like Hey, man and Ragin’ tonight? What it boils down to is he wants dope. Campbell tries to blow him off in the beginning, because dealing to a movie star seems like a good way to get busted, but then his own habit gets out of hand, and he has no money, and Doc pays double for everything and doesn’t like to party alone. Campbell spends one night at the guy’s house, a couple more the next week, and then he’s practically living there. They sleep all day and order in from expensive restaurants. Doc’s name is magic. A chef from one of the places actually delivers the food himself and puts the finishing touches on the meal in the house’s kitchen. The girls who drop by every now and then aren’t whores, but they’ll take whatever they can get. Tall, leggy creatures, they know how to sit in short dresses and run in high heels, and all their conversations are in another language about some other world. Doc is always relieved when they leave for their parties and clubs, when it’s finally just him and Campbell and the dope comes out.
One day they drive down to the Strip to eat lunch. Afterward a display of sunglasses in the window of a store catches Doc’s eye. He goes inside and tries on a few pairs and makes Campbell try some too, sharing a mirror with him. “Those are hot on you,” he says about one pair. “Like Michael Pitt hot.” He insists on buying them for Campbell. Seven-hundred-dollar sunglasses. Campbell wears them later that afternoon when he makes a quick trip to the east side to replenish their stash. The bums look jaunty through the perfectly tinted lenses, the poor Mexicans happy. “How much do you think these cost?” Campbell asks Tony. “What the fuck do I care?” Tony replies. The sun is going down on his way back to the canyon, shining through the windshield at an annoying angle. With his new glasses he can stare right into it and take all the glare it has to give.
Publisher's Note: Check back on Monday for Part 7, when Campbell tries to turn things around. How long will it last?
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Instinctive Drowning Response
Short StoryLove and loss in L.A. “Instinctive Drowning Response” appears in Richard Lange’s short story collection, Sweet Nothing. “Richard Lange’s stories are a revelation. He writes of the disaffections and bewilderments of ordinary lives with as keen an ang...
