I figured it was safer in the open. Dopers have an amazing calculus when they’re out of dope, when the sickness is on them, knowing that they need something now. I always believed the romance that junkies were fallen angels, had danced the Nutcracker, were just down on their luck, a day or two away from getting their “shit” together. Mostly though, they stole my wallet and my drugs and then they helped me look for them.