Horse

by Jack deMule

It was past midnight and there was someone pounding on the door. "Hey Shaky! Hey! Get Up! Come on man let me in." It was Danny. "O.K. Dan, O.K.. What's going on?" "I did that mom and pop store on Ripley street. There was two hundred bucks in the register. Wanna go to the Rainbow bar and see if we can cop some dope?" "All right! My man Dan! You know I've been jones'en for the last couple of days. All I've been able to score is some percodan." "Yeah, I know. Jerry says that there's a guy hanging at the Rainbow that should help us out." "Dan, Jerry doesn't use. How the hell would he know?" "He said he saw the guy dealing in the parking lot. Hey, it's worth a try."

I had a bad feeling about this as we drove down to the Rainbow to see what's going on. Jerry was right, there is a guy dealing from the bar. I had never seen him before and it worried me. He looked too clean cut, maybe he's a cop. The crowd at the Rainbow had changed too. Last time I was here it was a pretty rough, a biker bar. Now it's filled with yuppies.

Dan and I watched the man for awhile. He would hang out in the bar but the deals always went down in the back lot. Danny decided to try him out. "Hey man, you got any horse?

"Horse? Sure how many you want?" "Depends on how much it is, is it good?" "I only sell good stuff, it's a quarter a pop. How much can you handle?" "Gimme four of 'em" The guy eyed Danny for a moment. "OK meet me in the parking lot" Well this is it. If Danny is gonna get busted now's the time. I waited, watching him from a window. He'd need me to bond out if it was a set up.

The deal was made and Danny returned to the bar. "Come on, let's get outta here. This shit is weird, look at the color!" I looked at the stamp envelopes in his hand, in each of them was a little blue power. "Shit! Danny you bought blue smack? What the hell is it?" "Hey the guy says it's good stuff, don't worry about the color. Come on lets go."

We drove out to the reservoir. There is a deserted road were we could try this stuff out. "Hurry up shaky and don't spill it!" The blue powder melted in the spoon of rain water we'd drawn up from a nearby puddle. "I'm not sure about this stuff Dan. Maybe one of us should go first?" "What, you want to live forever? Pass the works over here. I'll do it." Danny slapped a vein and shot up. He slumped against the tree behind him. "Oh man, this is great! What a rush!" I had my kit ready and was just about to squeeze the trigger when I noticed something wrong with Dan. "Danny, hey look at me! You O.K.?"

Danny opened his mouth and tried to say something but I couldn't understand him. Then he tried to get up but fell over on his side. I swear I've never seen anything like it! His arms and legs began to grow and the fingers got real long growing together untill there was just one big finger tip. He began to swell up, all his clothes ripped off and his head got real long. I was scared and wanted to take off but I've known Danny all my life, I just couldn't leave him there. Besides I had to watch, I still had three hits of the blue stuff left. He was flopping around and making the most God awful sounds. All of a sudden I could see what was happening. Danny was turning a horse, a kinda beat up, shabby looking horse.

I hung around for a while, watching him untill I ran out of beer. As I walked back to the car Danny followed me. I tossed the packages of blue powder into the reservoir and got in the car. The horse that was Danny looked at me through the side window. He started moving his lips. I almost laughed 'cause it reminded me of Mr. Ed, except he couldn't talk. "Sorry man, nothing I can do. You won't fit in the car and the apartment has a no pets rule." Danny dropped his head. I watched him in the rear view mirror as I drove off. He tried to follow for a while then stopped in the middle of the road, shook his head, and trotted off into the woods.

I went back to the Rainbow the next night and found the guy that sold us the stuff. "Hey asshole, that stuff you sold us turned my friend into a horse!" He looked confused for a minute. "That's what he asked for, so what's the problem?" I was getting mad at his dumb act. "He meant smack, you know, heroin. What the hell kind of shit is that anyway?" "Just a little fun" he replied. "when you give him a hit of the white stuff he'll be back to normal" "White stuff? I didn't see any white stuff." The guy looked mad. "I always make a package deal. If you didn't get the white your friend was holding out on you. If you want it you'll have to buy both, it's a kit and the price has gone up. It's two hundred a hit. "

I stop out at the reservoir to see Dan every now and then. He looks a lot better now that he's been clean for a couple of months. I haven't told him about the ad in the newspaper 'cause it would just piss him off. Hey, he'd have someone taking care of him and I could really use the money.

Horse copyright 1996 by Jack deMule.