Little Rock (Part 2)

Chad found out a few days before that he had tested positive for Shingles. He had Shingles running up and down his thighs and into his groin and his red-haired legs were covered in deep purple rashes. He had been smoking at his desk all day, angry that he had to work the day before Christmas Eve, scared that his drug dealer was going to kill him if he didn’t pay up soon, and excited about our holiday bonuses for producing a top rated network reality show. The smoke had been billowing into my workstation since ten AM and my Asthma was making it impossible to breathe. I kept leaving Sunset Gower Studios and going to Togo’s to get a large Orange Horchata and small pastrami sandwiches. My diet was going to shit. I had to get out of here.

I was twenty-four and had lost about thirty five pounds on my own, but between the junk food on set and my pot-smoking roommate who always had snacks around, I was surrounded by a horn-o-plenty of Good-N-Plenty’s at all hours of the day.

Chad would send our assistant, Petey downstairs with a stack of bills wrapped in green garbage bags to a waiting car on Bronson Avenue in the dirtiest part of Hollywood twice a week. Moments later, the phone would ring and a call that went something like this would ensue:

Chad: That’s all I got.

Dealer: (Something threatening)

Chad: I have a gun, too, motherfucker!

Dealer: (More tough guy banter)

Chad: I’m sorry, Man. Please don’t hurt me. I just need another day (or week or hour, depending on the urgency).
Dealer hangs up.

By the time Christmas Eve arrived, Chad had exhausted all of his payback time. The dealer was giving him until today to pay or something really bad was going to happen, because even Petey refused to go downstairs alone now. Chad had asked if he could give his dealer my number because his cell had been shut off, and I told him no. Absolutely not. I was already picking him up for work every morning at the North Hollywood subway station with an ice cold rag and a pack of Marlboro lights for him, which he never paid me back for. I wasn’t going to lose money and a limb now over his drug problem.

When we got to work, if Petey was unavailable, I would have to make Chad’s lunch, because the rashes on his legs made it almost impossible for him to...