Jamie Garrett - Riley Reid 01 - Jesters and Junkies by Jamie Garrett

on my forehead as I watched his legs pass by. Each heavy-booted footstep made my heart race faster. A circle of light lit up parts of the room. He was using his flashlight. It was a miracle that he didn’t find me. Or he just wasn’t very good at his job. Either way, the guard left without discovering me under the table.
    I heard the door close, and I emerged from my hiding place. After a couple of minutes I took a peek out into the hallway. The only one there was a female patient. She had on earbuds and seemed distracted. That was my chance to slip out.
    Upon further exploring Fresh Horizons, I came across several more patients who showed signs of being on drugs. Whenever I tried to talk to one, an orderly would come and question me. With the lie, “I’m here to visit my sister”, I was able to disengage. The speed and aggressiveness of their interventions was unusual.
    “Miss, miss!” Someone was trying to get my attention. It was the young lady who I first met behind the front desk.
    “Yeah?”
    “Dr. Wen can see you now.”
    “Really? Great.”
    The young lady motioned for me to follow. “This way please.”
    I was led to Dr. Wen’s office. The front desk lady went in first, leaving me in the doorway. Inside was a middle aged Asian woman with horn-rimmed glasses behind an expensive looking desk covered in pictures and papers. On the walls were several diplomas. She had a large fern in the corner near the only window. Overall, it felt like a cold place.
    “Dr. Wen, this is…” the young lady looked at me.
    I tried to think of a good fake name, but what came out was “Sally. Sally Cooper.” It was not very imaginative.
    “Thank you, Kim.” The doctor dismissed the front desk lady.
    Dr. Wen got up to greet me and shake my hand. “Nice to meet you, Ms. Cooper. I understand you wanted to talk to me?”
    “I wanted to talk to you about this place, about Fresh Horizons. I have a … a friend who might need rehabilitation.”
    “I’m sorry to hear that.” There was no sympathy in Dr. Wen’s voice.
    “So what exactly do you guys do here?”
    “Well, we provide a variety of services here. I suppose the best place to start is by asking you what substances your ‘friend’ is abusing?”
    “Heroin.” I looked for any sign of a reaction on the doctor’s face. There was none.
    Dr. Wen opened up her laptop. She looked over her glasses and asked, “How long has your friend been using?”
    “Not sure.”
    “Approximately?”
    “A couple of years, I suppose. I still don’t know if this is the right place. You don’t have to type anything.”
    Dr. Wen smiled. “Most people say the same thing, at first. But then they hear about the facility and get a tour. And they change their minds. So I do this just in case.”
    “Saves you the trouble for later, right?”
    “Exactly.”
    “Okay, so convince me.” I held out my arms, ready to hear the doctor’s pitch.
    “Well, here at Fresh Horizons, eighty percent of all our patients successfully get clean. Sixty-eight percent of them never have to come back. In fact, a healthy percent of former patients believe in the facility so much that they end up either working or volunteering here.”
    I wondered why that was. “Really? They end up working here, at Fresh Horizons?” My finger was pointed at the ground.
    “Absolutely. In fact, that is one of the things we’re most proud of here at Fresh Horizons.” Dr. Wen was quick to move on. You’d think if she was so proud that she wouldn’t mind staying on the subject. “We have fifty available rooms for patients. Half of those are meant for double occupancy. There are twelve different….”
    I stopped paying attention to a word Dr. Wen was saying. Instead, I did true investigative work by paying attention to her body language. She kept fidgeting in her chair. That could have simply meant she’d been sitting there awhile and was uncomfortable. Or, she could’ve been nervous.
    Dr. Wen was one of those people