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pack of unfiltered Camels. ‘Isn’t it just a lot of effort for almost no return?’
    ‘Sure, but it’s about the only aerobic exercise I get these days. If I smoked those things,’ he said, nodding at my Camels, ‘I’d be on a life-support machine by now – but what do you want, I’m not going to give up.’
    I decided I would try and get back to talking about Melissa later on.
    ‘So, what have you been doing, Vernon?’
    ‘Keeping busy, you know.’
    That could only mean one thing – he was still dealing. A normal person would have said I work for Microsoft now or I’m a short-order cook at Moe’s Diner . But no – Vernon was keeping busy. Just then it struck me that maybe Vernon’s idea of helping me out was going to be an offer of some cut-price blow.
    Shit, I should have known.
    But then, had I really not known? Wasn’t it nostalgia for the old days that had prompted me to come here with him in the first place?
    I was about to make some wisecrack about his obvious aversionto respectable employment, when he said, ‘Actually, I’ve been doing some consultancy work.’
    ‘What?’
    ‘For a pharmaceutical corporation.’
    My eyebrows furrowed and I repeated his words with a question mark at the end.
    ‘Yeah, there’s an exclusive product range coming on-stream at the end of the year and we’re trying to generate a client base.’
    ‘What is this, some sort of new street language, Vernon? I’ve been out of the scene for a long time, I know, but …’
    ‘No, no. Straight up. In fact’ – he looked around the bar for a moment, and then went on in a slightly lower tone – ‘that’s what I wanted to talk to you about, this … creative problem you’re having.’
    ‘I—’
    ‘The people I work for have come up with an amazing new substance.’ He reached into his jacket pocket and took out his wallet. ‘It’s in pill form.’ From the wallet he produced a tiny plastic sachet with an air-lock seal across the top. He opened it, held the sachet with his right hand and tapped something out into the palm of his left hand. He held this hand up for me to see. In the centre of it was a tiny white unmarked tablet.
    ‘Here,’ he said. ‘Take it.’
    ‘What is it?’
    ‘Just take it.’
    I opened my right hand and held it out. He turned his left hand over and the little white pill fell into my palm.
    ‘What is it?’ I said again.
    ‘It doesn’t have a name yet – I mean it’s got a laboratory tag, but that’s just letters and a code. They haven’t come up with a proper name for it yet. They’ve done all the clinical trials, though, and it’s FDA-approved.’
    He looked at me as though he’d answered my question.
    ‘OK,’ I said, ‘it doesn’t have a name yet and they’ve done all the clinical trials and it’s FDA-approved, but what the fuck is it?’
    He took a sip from his drink and another hit from his cigarette. Then he said, ‘You know the way drugs fuck you up? You have agood time doing them but then you get all fucked up afterwards? And eventually everything in your life … falls apart, yeah? Sooner or later it happens, am I right?’
    I nodded.
    ‘Well, not with this.’ He indicated the pill in my hand. ‘This little baby is the diametric opposite of that.’
    I eased the pill from the palm of my hand on to the surface of the table. Then I took a sip from my drink.
    ‘Vernon, please – come on, I’m not some high-school kid here looking to score my first dime bag. I mean, I’m not even—’
    ‘Believe me, Eddie, you’ve never done anything like this. I’m serious. Just take it and see.’
    I hadn’t done any drugs in years, and for the exact reasons Vernon had given in his little sales pitch. I did have longings now and again – cravings for that taste in the back of the throat, and for the blissful hours of rapid-fire talk, and for the occasional glimpses of a godlike shape and structure to the conversation of the moment – but none of that was a problem any