GRETCHEN AND NICK
A "Bonnie and Clyde" Story for Today!
by Max CallGretchen and Nick. Love that wouldn't die. The smooth radio announcer and beautiful promising figure skater...
But she was 15 and rebellious and he, at 27, was hooked on heroin. From love at first sight they began a descent into a place few souls ever go. Part of the lost generation, they were soon sacrificing $1200 a day to the drug god.
Yet this love story ends in glorious victory, for the love they shared came from the God who never gave up on them. And when they opened their hearts to that God, all of life took on new meaning.
PROLOGUE TO MADNESS
"Our hour is marked, and no one can
claim a moment of life beyond what
fate has predestined."
Napoleon Bonaparte
(1769 - 1821)In the course of every person's life, a moment of truth must be faced Nick and Gretchen built their life together on an addiction to heroin. They accumulated a vast fortune, only to see it fade away to their addiction. Like Napoleon, they had nothing left but life itself and they no longer had any control over that All that remained was the love God had given them for each other. Their fates were sealed and there was nothing they could do for themselves to add a single minute to the time they had left it was totally out of their hands. They had defeated themselves and were ready to give up in despair when the Father of the love they possessed showed them they had never been alone.
God had been with them all along the way, but just as Napoleon did before them, they felt defeated and lost until they learned the truth. When Napoleon faced his moment of truth, his victories were gone. He was no longer Emperor of France, and his vast fortune had vanished. He had become addicted to victory, just as many people become addicted to drugs. But as it is with a drug addict, he eventually became aware that a victory/fix did not produce the lasting happiness and satisfaction it seemed to promise. All that survived his violence was the love God had given him for France. At least that could not be destroyed by his final defeat it was the same for Gretchen and Nick.
Nick did a lot of heavy drinking while he continued in school, and when he finished high school, he joined the Navy where he added narcotics to his habit.
"I was already into drinking pretty good when I went into the service and that's how I met Pete. He turned me onto reefer. I didn't quit drinking at first, but I quickly learned not to mix reefer with liquor. Little by little, I let the drinking go and turned to other things. In addition to reefer, I got into pills, codeine, etc."
"I was sailing high, wide and handsome when I married my high school sweetheart. She didn't share my fondness for chemicals, but I thought our marriage was made in heaven. I was still in the Navy when our daughter was born, but I had sea duty and our marriage went downhill fast. I'd married her out of loneliness, but when Lisa was born in 1965, we managed to stick together for a few more years."
Someday Nick got involved with a crowd at the Four O'clock Clubin Fort Lauderdale. These people were tied into organized crime and that's where Nick plugged into a much heavier scene. He started dealing in a small way, enough to maintain his own habit and make a little profit on the side, but the real appeal of the club was in the violent action it provided. Nick had discovered the excitement he could create within himself though sadistically hurting other people.
"I loved it"' he confessed, "and I never missed an opportunity to express myself by giving pain to others. One night at the club, I was high and looking for excitement I knew I'd feel wonderful if I could just hurt somebody. This Englishman made himself available by not getting out of my way as I walked down the bar looking for an empty stool."
Nick asked the man to move out of the way, but the response wasn't fast enough. Hatred thickened Nick's voice as he shouted, "Okay, buster, we'll go outside and I'll teach you how to move faster."
He and one of his buddies were halfway to the door when the Englishman growled, "It'll be a pleasure to trim this Yank down to size."
I'm going to bust you up real good," Nick promised as they faced each other in the club's parking lot Taking the first swing, he spun the Englishman around where his buddy could hit him with a hard right cross that pointed him back to Nick.
"Oh yeah!" Nick yelled, "I like this." Getting blood on his hands made him feel great.
Nick and his friend beat the Englishman into a bloody pulp. Thinking they'd killed him, they threw him under a parked car. As they were swaggering back toward the club, the man moaned in agony. Going back to finish the job, they suddenly changed their minds as they pulled him out from under the car.
"This isn't right"' his buddy said. "This guy needs a doctor. We'd better call a cab and send him to the hospital."
A cab was called, but the driver refused to get involved. The police were called, however, and they took charge of the victim while Nick and his friend melted into the gathering crowd. No one knew anything about what happened and no arrests were made. To this day, Nick doesn't know what happened to the Englishman after he was released from the hospital.
"It was just something we could laugh and joke about"' Nick recalled, "my buddy and I would pop a couple of pills, have a few drinks, and boast about the number we did on the poor slob."
During the next few months, Nick replaced his wife and child in his life with a growing love affair with the needle. If he couldn't get heroin, he still wanted to use the needle. To this day, he carries a scar on his arm where it abscessed from an injection of sleeping pill solution. His addiction became so strong that he was powerless to resist his desire for the needle.
"I wanted to mainline the real stuff," he admitted, "and one day I simply didn't make my shift at the job. I knew heroin was easier to obtain in Miami, so I packed my stuff and left Key West without saying anything to anybody."
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