1 Thanksgiving Eve by Happenstance
It was an uncharacteristically warm night on November 24th in Manhattan as Cooper left the emergency medical clinic where he worked.
The clinic was located right on the corner of 42nd and 9th avenue in Hell's Kitchen, only ten blocks shy of the luxurious Upper West Side.
Upon first impression, one wouldn't have guessed it but Cooper was a classically handsome man and while he didn't have broad shoulders or a muscle-bound torso. His thin European frame fell nicely in proportion with the rest of his body.
After working a seemingly never-ending shift fueled by the limitless amphetamine pills he was being prescribed by his attending doctor, Cooper decided it was yet he returned home to the far east side of Brooklyn.
By this point, he had made it a habit to alcoholically and pharmaceutically unwind after work at a series of bars surrounding his office.
Ever since he was five years old he had marvelled at the opportunity to live independently in New York City, and although this was his second visit on a whim in the last two years, by happenstance and through a little forgery he managed to open a bank account without the required visa and acquaint himself with a well-paying job in the heart of NYC.
Happenstance.
Although fascinated with Neuroscience and Neuropharmacology, which one could argue are topics associated with careful thought and consideration, Cooper did everything he could to not have to oblige himself with that kind of rationality, at least not yet. Instead, once he became an adult he lived by virtue of happenstance, novelty, and sedation.
His experimentation with mid-level drugs previously, combined with some events from his youth and the diversity of drug users he met along his travels is what propelled him to learn as much as he could about the functions of the brain.
His mind was constantly abuzz with memories, flashbacks, and unpleasant noise. Noise. And the deafening silence in lieu of noise is what motivated Cooper to contemplate, perceive and theorize the world around him.
The minutiae of life and human behaviour fascinated him to the point of obsession. Constantly making Darwinian like entries every time he noticed something out of the ordinary.
Why did that person choose to cross the road in that spot as opposed to the other?
Why is that woman choosing to scream about a nonsensical issue? Why? Why? Why?
To no avail, he was always trying to crack that fictitious code or find the missing puzzle piece that would finally fill him with content.
So as he walked up 42nd Street, he thought he would grab himself a drink at an upscale gay bar, which for those of you who aren't familiar with Hell's Kitchen, just presume that if you were to throw a pebble one hundred yards in any direction it would land at the doorstep of a gay bar, or a gay man.
But he didn't mind, his previous involvements at gay bars had always resulted in... how to put this delicately, a heterosexual experience or two.
He entered the dimly lit lounge which was unsurprisingly empty as most people were preparing meals for the day to come.
There was an older gentleman in his forties seated alone at the bar, and two girls, twenty-somethings sat over a few bar stools over at the corner.
Cooper walked in and sat down next to the man and engaged in some laborious small talk before making his true intentions known.
"Do you have any Ambien, Xanax or sleeping pills?" he asked the man with zero inflexion in his voice almost as if he was expecting him to say yes.
"No, sorry" the man replied apologetically.
Note: You see with all the stimulants, and stress running through his system Cooper was finding it increasingly, and irritatingly difficult to sleep.
The majority of the time he would be returning home near three or four am, following some type of now well-rehearsed hedonistic event, rest if possible, and then be up at 8:00 am to ride the subway back into Manhattan. However, not without ingesting a handful of uppers first.
Meanwhile, the barkeep turned to Cooper to take his order.
"Double shot of anything single malt you have please" requested Cooper.
"Sure," said the barkeep and started turning away to prepare the beverage.
"And, see those two girls over there? Take this and get them anything they want" Cooper handed over a $50 bill to the bartender.
He didn't expect anything to come from this, in his mind, it was merely a proud reminder of the disposable income he had earned.
So, he turned back to the man beside him and continued to engage in small talk.
Happenstance
A few minutes later the girls approached Cooper and thanked him for the drinks.
"No problem" Cooper replied.
The girls proceeded to introduce themselves by names that are now long forgotten, and show their gratitude by first passionately kissing each other, and then kissing Cooper.
"We're going to have a threesome" they exclaim. "Want to join us?"
For a moment Cooper thought whether this was the real deal but that thought quickly exited his mind.
Fuck it he thought to himself, why not?
"Lead the way," he said as they took his hand and escorted him out of the dimly lit lounge.
A sharp gust of wind blew past the three of them while they departed and made their way to an Irish dive bar several blocks in the direction of 8th avenue and downstairs from the apartment belonging to one of the girls.
In typical NYC fashion, the streets were filled with Christmas decorations, beggars, and junks.
This didn't bother Cooper because the man-made glow that illuminated NYC at night time also masked a lot of the underbelly hiding beneath it.
Happenstance
After one drink at the bar, another fella was asked to tag along upstairs.
Young. Broad-shouldered. South American. Absolutely clueless.
One of the girls motioned Cooper to the right of the bar and towards her apartment.
Uncertain with the direction the evening was heading, Cooper decided to rapidly consume one more drink at the bar, when suddenly a commotion erupted a few feet away from him.
The security guard at the establishment didn't take kindly to the attitude of one of the girls. Cooper didn't see the entire confrontation, however, the distinct sound of verbal retaliation pierced his eardrums like a woman yelling nonsensically in Times Square.
"I'm not drunk. Get your hands off me!"
"It's time to go, miss..."
"Whatever, fuck you anyway!" Nicole screamed whilst simultaneously giggling and grabbing Rebecca, Cooper, and the South American and then motioning them out of the bar, and up a flight of grimey stairs leading to her apartment.
There were several other unknown faces already at the apartment by the time he walked in.
Two or three people were crowded around a makeshift coffee table in the living room, taking turns intranasally consuming the contents of a bag that appeared to be filled with cocaine.
"Hey everybody!" exclaimed Nicole.
"This is Cooper, and... what was your name again? she asked the South American.
The cocaine duo turned to face Cooper.
"Hello hello," said the man.
"He's cute isn't he!"
"He's not gay Brendan!" Nicole repelled back.
"Not yet anyway" Cooper joked, trying to ease the tension of first time encounters with peculiar strangers.
Brendan, and the girl with him, Kelly, the blonde chuckled lightly in response.
Only a few hours prior Cooper had picked up his latest bottle of Adderall which he happened to have on him at the time.
He offered it around generously before sitting down on the couch facing the battered coffee table.
Meanwhile, Rebecca had taken the South American into the bedroom, unbuckled his pants, unbuckled her jaw and went down on him.
After a few minutes, Cooper heard distinct male noises reverberating out of the bedroom behind him.
"Watch this," said Brendan, Nicole's openly gay roommate.
He walked into the bedroom and noticed the south American's eyes were closed as his body squirmed towards ecstasy.
Brendan quietly motioned Rebecca to leave her post and picked up where she had left off.
After a few minutes, it became apparent that the South American hadn't realized the (classic) bait and switch that he had just fallen victim to.
The remaining guests including Cooper found it difficult to contain their laughter.
"Oh my god!" whispered Kelly, the Blonde, stifling her giggles.
Several minutes later, the apartment now on the brink of exploding into laughter, the south American opened his eyes sensing something was afoot.
To his horror sat Brendan, a 6'2 man stroking his penis.
"Aghh!" he screamed, quickly scurrying to find the remainder of his clothes.
"What the fuck!"
"Chill dude.. you were enjoying yourself there's nothing wrong with that" responded Brendan.
As quickly as he had come (no pun intended) the south American grabbed his possessions and made a beeline for the door.
Wicked laughter followed him outside and into the brisk Manhattan night.
To this day legend has it that said south American is haunted by night terrors of the event which he never managed to completely medicate or meditate out of the tight confines of his hippocampus.
For his sake, one would hope that the South American's memory was extra malleable, or perhaps still that after his obliviously amusing encounter he went ahead and downed a bottle of sedatives. Benzodiazepines, Barbiturates, or Quaaludes would have done the trick.
Note: The trick in this context is not referring to a deathwish or any kind of suicidal ideation or attempt. Rather, medical literature suggests that if post-trauma one consumes the aforementioned pharmaceuticals, when examined years later one would still remember the event, but no longer possess any emotional attachment to it.
Though, unfortunately, we know that this wasn't the case for the South American who sought weekly council in therapists and entertained fringe notions of anti-homosexuality.
Back inside Cooper glanced down at his watch, 11:55 pm it read, and with it, Cooper realized that there was little chance that he would be home by morning. But that didn't bother him, little did, when it came to novel situations that found him by happenstance.
He reached into his pocket, pulled out an orange Rx bottle, and dispensed himself two amphetamine pills. Although the bioavailability was lower he administered the pills sublingually because he knew that meant they would be absorbed faster, and he didn't mind their sweet aftertaste.
The pharmaceutical companies had literally made sugar pills, containing speed, and doctors prescribed them en masse' to anybody willing to spend $300 on a single psychiatric visit. Of course, they were rife for abuse, a thought that Cooper would linger on regularly.
Soon after ingesting the pills and led by the now heightened levels of dopamine, serotonin, and noradrenaline in his brain - increasing vigilance, arousal, and stamina Cooper's behaviour changed
With this, he became hyper-aware of the fact that the radiators standard to all NYC apartments had made this particular apartment a little too warm for him.
As he stood up to remove his jacket, he felt the undeniable touch of a female hand as it pressed against his back, and pulled at his hand. It was Nicole requesting that he follow her into the bedroom.
"Come with me" she whispered into his ear.
"You too," she said looking over at Rebecca.
Brendan, and Kelly, the blonde was delighted.
Cooper could hear sounds of them giggling and muttering to themselves as he walked away, but his mind took no notice of the words.
---
The bedroom door closed and what happened next, and continued to happen for the next five hours in all rooms, bathrooms and surfaces in the apartment could only be compared to a sexual science experiment with Cooper being the subject.
Not for nothing, Cooper felt his stamina beginning to dip, so after the first hour had passed he needed to constantly revert to the pill dispensary in his pocket to top himself up.
These girls, also fueled by alcohol, coke, and pharmaceutical speed were in the mood for experimentation, even Brendan made an appearance although he was promptly asked to leave.
"No fun," he said as he left the bathroom where Cooper and the two girls had formed something reminiscent of a conga line in the shower.
In between the moans he heard from within the shower, Cooper also heard moans coming from the bedroom. It appeared that Kelly, the blonde, had indeed found a suitor of her own.
With the help of a total of forty twenty milligram pills consumed collectively this persisted until daybreak when the Olympic threesome/foursome team eventually tired themselves out.
Indeed after the night's performance if the sex Olympics were approaching, not only ought they to enter but the trio would have been solid contenders, if not nominees or even winners. Cooper chuckled to himself at the thought.
Cooper put his clothes on and sat down on the couch closest to the coffee table, the second of two pleather brown couches in the apartment.
He looked at the clock, 6:00 am.
It was officially Thanksgiving. He pulled out a cigarette and took a long drag, breathing out slowly like a joint smoker or midnight toker* would do. Sitting beside him was Kelly, the blonde, and Rebecca. A blanket lay across the three of them...
Happenstance.
Cooper looked down at his cigarette packet and noticed that he only had one left.
He didn't really care at that point but he decided to use it as an excuse to temporarily vacate the premises and breath in some not so fresh New York City air.
The previous six hours had left the humid apartment with the stench of sex and sweat.
"I'm almost out, I'm going to go buy some more fags" exclaimed Cooper standing up.
Hearing the words the girls looked up at Cooper with a curious disillusionment, clearly misunderstanding the meaning and the context of the word fags in reference to cigarettes.
"Cigareeeeettes..." said Cooper, his voice and eyebrows going up an octave.
"Oh... right. Haha, sorry" replied Rebecca.
"I'll come with you, I need to get some things as well"
"Sure"
They walked out of the apartment and into the hustle and bustle of (really) big city living. Beams of sunshine grazed their faces as they walked east along 42nd St to the nearest CVS.
After starring in his own version of Eyes Wide Shut night long, secluded away in different rooms of a stranger's apartment, high on stimulants and adrenaline, Cooper felt nice being a part of functional or dysfunctional (depending on who's talking) society again.
During their fifteen-minute trip to and fro the apartment, Cooper and Rebecca started getting to know each other.
"How long have you been in NYC?" she asked.
"A few months now, arrived back in September.. and you?"
"Oh, I'm not from NYC. I live in Philly, I only came out for the holidays"
Cooper was caught off guard by this response because the previous night Nicole and Rebecca not only told him that they were roommates, lesbians, and potentially even non-blood relatives, albeit the conversation was blurry at best to him by this point.
"Really? But I thought... err. You and Nicole?" stumbled Cooper.
"Ha, that's cute. We were just kidding, we actually didn't know each other before last night. We met in the same bar that we met you in, not long before you walked in"
"You had me fooled!" Cooper smiled.
They both laughed, and for the first time, Cooper realized this girl probably had far more depth to her personality than he had originally thought.
After all, similarly, she was here by herself, and for whatever reason decided to by happenstance find herself involved with the ongoings of the prior night.
When they arrived back at the apartment they were greeted by a fresh-faced Brendan and Nicole, and possibly Kelly, the blonde though the freshness of her face at that point was arguable.
"Parade is starting soon!" announced an excited Nicole.
"And we need to get groceries for dinner, leaving in 15 minutes!"
"Gotcha" replied Cooper.
Note: Departures never seem to be executed successfully in fifteen minutes.
At that moment he remembered that his cousin and her family in Brighton Beach, Brooklyn - a town caught in a time capsule of the Soviet Union in NYC had invited him for Thanksgiving dinner. And he felt obliged to go.
Nonetheless, it was still morning and there were several hours to go before he had to make a decision.
He continued his conversation with Rebecca inside and found himself intrigued by some of her answers to his questions.
It turned out she was twenty-three years old and had been on her own since she was sixteen. She currently resided in Philadelphia but was originally from Arkansas.
Between the ages of eighteen and twenty-two, she fell into a toxic relationship with some abusive asshole, which led her to start injecting copious amounts of methamphetamine during their four-year tenure together.
Although, to the best of his recollection Cooper had never dabbled with methamphetamine (aka 'ice') because he considered it a 'dirty' drug, one of his former girlfriends back home did have a habit, and a story much similar to the one Rebecca was telling.
A stream of sunlight entered the dark apartment and illuminated Rebecca. Equipped with new information Cooper literally began to see Rebecca in a new light.
He noticed the scars of her abuse. An otherwise beautiful girl, her overly thin frame now a reminder of the many sleepless, foodless nights. The small cracks in her lips a reminder of her former dependence on the pipe, and those magic rocks inside.
---
It was 10:00 am when they finally made their way to the parade. It was an interesting sight for Cooper to witness. Never really having understood, or celebrated Thanksgiving he was now standing in the cold with thousands of people watching floats of enormous inflatable turkeys (or something alike) cross his eyeline.
He was completely ambivalent about the situation, and the notion of Thanksgiving. What's that old philosophy that he believed in? Oh right.
When in Rome do as do Romans do...
When in America assimilate cautiously, lest you start buying novelty sporting memorabilia and overpriced corn dogs from Times Square.
Cooper took a photo of the event as the group was getting ready to depart back to the apartment.
It was five o'clock before he announced that he wouldn't be staying for dinner, and with that Nicole's face took on a whimsical appearance.
"What? I thought we were society's rejects"
And in private she turned to Cooper, gazed directly into his eyes, and said, "But we slept together last night" clearly placing a deeper meaning on the night's events than Cooper did.
Due to a myriad of reasons Cooper wasn't great with expressing emotion so he took refuge in stoic philosophy and did whatever it took to medicate emotion out of his daily discourse.
At this point, Rebecca also made note of the fact that she had to leave. Nicole was evidently upset. Cooper felt the room suddenly go cold, as she turned around to start a conversation with Brendan.
Rebecca walked over, thanked Nicole, and hugged her. Cooper decided to walk her to the subway.
They exchanged a light kiss, wished each other the best knowing full well they would never cross paths again, and set off in different directions. Rebecca into the station, and Cooper back to the apartment.
When he returned he noticed Nicole's mood had improved slightly. He also noticed several new faces now residing in the apartment. He didn't bother introducing himself, nor did Nicole.
The sun had started to set outside so Cooper announced that he too better get going.
"Bye guys, thanks for the memories!" he said jovially.
"Wait, I'll walk you out" replied Nicole.
She walked Cooper to the bottom of the stairs and kissed him properly, holding it for a few seconds as though she wanted to make a competitive point involving Rebecca, or perhaps she simply wanted to demonstrate that the night's events had filled her with some gratitude and that she wouldn't mind seeing each other again. But alas, it was not to be.
Cooper bid Nicole farewell in the sincerest way he knew how, and walked slowly towards the station, replaying the unquestionably peculiar events that had transpired.
It was seven o'clock when he arrived at the Brighton Beach apartment only to be greeted with traditional shots of vodka, several different varieties of cow tongue, and where assimilation was concerned, a newly roasted turkey.
Cooper stuffed his hand into his pocket and rattled his Rx bottle around. Only a few pills left. The celebration and cheer enveloped him while his mind drifted off to thoughts of what Nicole and Rebecca may have been doing at that particular moment. Each in their respective enigmatic snapshot.
No sleep, little food yet still hyper-vigilant and consequently emotionally detached from what he had been involved in, he gave it a final thought just as his cousin's camera clicked for the family photo.
Cooper appeared distant in the photo as if his mind was somewhere else, which it was. Contemplating the snapshot in time that had just been captured and what kind of excitement and debauchery tomorrow would bring.
