Cocaine by Jack Hillgate Read Free Book Online Page A

girls. The third term was spent cramming for part 1A of the Natural Sciences Tripos examination and listening to Duran Duran – the ‘ Rio’ album – at sufficient volume to attract a visit from the Senior Tutor. He popped his head through the wide-open window to my ground-floor room and reminded me cheerily that youthful exuberance was best exercised on the sports field and preferably in silence. He remarked on the inappositeness of the Simon Le Bon lyric - ‘ Don’t say a prayer for me now, save it til the morning after ’ – adding that unless I buried my head in materials science and Darwinian theories of Natural Selection, he would feel compelled to pray for me both now and the morning after the Tripos results were displayed on the wooden boards outside Senate House. I turned the music off and apologized.
    I opened my eyes to see Kieran holding up a little bag of white powder.
    ‘Canadian coke’, said Kieran. ‘Thought we’d do a little test.’
    ‘You heard of the expression ‘ bringing coals to Newcastle ’?’
    ‘Nope.’
    He opened the bag onto the top of the copy of the Spanish bible that came free with every room. He took out a credit card from his wallet and used it to chop up the coke and separate it into six lines, thin ones.
    ‘Two each’, he said. ‘I’ll go first.’
    Kieran rolled up a fifty peso note, leaned over, placed the end of the little paper cylinder against the book and snorted up one line into his left nostril, then another into his right. He sniffed and his eyes watered.
    ‘Not bad’, he said. ‘Not too shady. English?’
    I felt a little woozy from the hash. I also felt a little hungry suddenly.
    ‘ C’mere.’
    I stood up with difficulty, my head heavy, like I’d had too many pints of Guinness, and I took the rolled up note from him.
    ‘First time, huh?’ he asked
    ‘Listen…Kieran…’
    ‘Go on.’
    I did what he was urging me to do and suddenly I could taste a sickly-sweet taste in the back of my mouth. My nostrils felt numb. Kieran slapped me playfully on the back.
    ‘You’re a man now, Ryan Jacobs. Your mother would be proud.’
    I suddenly felt wide-awake. My eyes stung a little, but the effects of the hash had vanished. Juan Andres dabbed a finger into one of the remaining two lines and licked it. He used his tongue to smooth the crystals over his teeth.
    ‘Thirty percent, maybe not even this much’, he said.
    ‘So what’s the other seventy?’
    ‘ Who the fuck cares, English, huh?’
    Kieran’s grin was infectious and we high-fived each other. Kieran went into a strange Red Indian-style jig and Juan Andres leaned on the sideboard in amusement.
    ‘ He is crazy, your Canadian friend.’
    I noted that Juan Andres called him my friend, not our friend.
    ‘ Sure am, keemosabee’, hooted Kieran. ‘Now who’s for some food and salsa?’
    ‘ I stay here’, said Juan Andres. ‘You go.’
    I suddenly didn’t feel very hungry anymore. All I wanted was some more coke.
    ‘ I’ll stay too’, I said.
    ‘ Listen – I need to get out or I’ll just bounce off the walls, my friends.’
    ‘ Bring us back some empanadas, Kieran?’
    ‘ Sure, English. Catch you later, amigo.’
    ‘ Si, claro. ’
    When Kieran left we both seemed to relax. Juan Andres took off his boots and lay back on his bed, humming a song in Spanish.
    ‘ What’s that?’ I asked him.
    ‘ Is about a beautiful black girl who send you crazy.’
    ‘ Do you have her number?’
    ‘ I wish, Ryyy-an.'
    ‘ Tell me about Tropinone.'

8
    March 2007 – Cannes, South of France

    ‘You English?’, she asked me.
    ‘Yes,’ I replied.
    ‘London?’
    ‘Yes.’
    ‘Oh I love London. Whereabouts exactly?’
    ‘All over really. Mainly Kensington and Chelsea.’
    ‘How funny. Me too. Roderick always used to say Kensington and Chelsea was the only part of London worth living in. The permit, you see. Rod's the ex, George, no need to look worried.’
    Arabella raised her glass. She was about