Jason, of the Balmoral Jason's

I have no picture of him, so I thought a picture of Jason Vorhees (Friday the 13th) would suffice.

There was this dope addict Jason. He wasn't one that was around constantly. In fact, my very first run in with him was as I crossed the street at Hastings and Main. He ran up beside me and asked me if I wanted to do a date. Of course I did..and he told me he had a room at the Balmoral. That was fine...the Balmoral was scary but in comparison to the other sleazy and roach infested hotels, the Balmoral was tolerable. It was late evening..it was dark..that is about all I can remember about the specifics in regards to the outdoor setting.

We went to his room and I asked him what he wanted me to do. He was sort of sketchy..well, "sort of sketchy" is an understatement. He was "wired for sound" (whatever that means..my Mum used to say that when I was a kid when I was all overly hyper)...he was very much overly hyper. Uber sketchy.

He told me all he wanted was for me to bang some cocaine with him (at the time I wasn't much of a coke slammer...but of course I still did it) and to just hang out and help him not freak out...THEN if he decided I wasn't Satan incarnate he wanted me to give him a ******* while he did another whack. He had tons of cash and said he would give me a hundred bucks.

We go to the room...we both do our hits...and his was obviously like 4 times the size of mine.....then he sits on the bed and unzips his pants and leans back for the obvious..I finished my whack and before I even had a chance to get more than 1 minute into what he was paying me for he was almost on the f*cking ceiling. He was on his feet...and even just looking at him I could tell that he was totally hallucinating. He kept asking me if I saw "this" or saw "that" and I would say "no..." I would remain calm though for his sake. I have done huge whacks before and if you have a crappy person with you they can scare you pretty badly. I saw that he was wigging out huge so I just sort of humored him, tried to be calm and didn't want to make him feel like he was a nut case, which he obviously was.

Eventually he was in the corner of the room with a chair in front of him staring at the ceiling telling me that he is seeing demons and they are gonna get him and that I CANNOT leave him. At this point all I want to DO is leave him. I was afraid he was going to turn on me..and don't forget that I was totally wasted too at this point. I went through phases of whacking coke during my addiction..and this was one of my off season's, so my tolerance was low. He was freaking out..okay fine, I could see that...but he was also totally scaring me. Not to mention this is all happening inside one of the most evil places on earth..a low income hotel on the downtown east side.

He had paid me the hundred bucks when we had arrived in the room but since I didn't even have to give him the bl*w*** I felt bad about taking that much money. This is when my humane side/moral virtue reared it's head. Yes, I was a crack/heroin abusing, homeless, sex selling, street urchin..but I had a conscience AND a heart. (Even now I remember times when I was down there..times when I had the opportunity to steal a bunch of dope or totally screw someone over..and I never did it. I mean if given the opportunity I would take advantage of certain situations for sure but...for example, I had this "date" that became a dope delivery driver..he was totally into me..he told me he loved me and stuff. He worked pretty much 24 hours a day and whenever we were together and we were parked hanging out..I was getting high or whatever, he would pass out from exhaustion. He always hid his dope in his steering wheel. The center horn part could be popped out and inside was a hollow space for his wares. The only time I ever stole from him while he was sleeping was ONE TIME and I didn't even take all of it. I took a quarter gram of down and a big rock of crack. At the time I didn't want him to realize afterward that I had pinched from him...and if he DID it was a small enough amount where I could pay him back - plus I didn't want him getting in trouble with his bosses. But he never even mentioned it! He didn't even KNOW that I had ripped him off. Sigh...I coulda taken a bunch more. Why do I still think about these things? I have no idea. It is scammer's remorse maybe.)

Back to Jason: He was freaking and I told him that I needed to go get my jacket, that I had left it outside. As I was trying to retreat and get the hell out of there..I put half of the money that he had given me ($50) on the bed..I said that I was leaving it there so he would know I was coming back after I got my jacket. I had no plans of coming back...but I needed to give him some of that cash back..he was wasted and I could have taken ALL of his money had I wanted to. I didn't want to though. I gave him the money back because he had already given me dope, I hadn't even had to do anything to him (sexually) and I was bailing on him in his time of need. That sounds stupid probably, but it is true.

When I was backing out of the door assuring him I WAS coming back..he was almost in tears in the corner of the room...chair still in front of him...almost screaming at me telling me he will give me more money and to please not leave. I left. I had no jacket that I had to retrieve and I did not return.

The second time I saw this individual it the same time of night on some random side street off of the stroll..he recognized me and I him..and he wanted to give me $35 for a hummer in a close by parking lot. Again he seems super amped..but he tells me he remembers how I didn't f*ck with him the last time he saw me when he was wasted beyond comprehension. Again he wants me to wait until he does his whack of up...and recalling what happened last time..I accepted his proposition knowing I most likely wouldn't have to do anything to him (hum-wise) at all. This time I refused his offer of giving me a fix though. He did his hit...unzipped...freaked out..and then stood up and told me to forget about it. I offered him his money back and he said no. This whole interaction took about 4 minutes.

The third time I saw Jason it was daytime...he wanted to get a room and get high and blah blah blah. Same story...same things happened. I did get high this time...nothing too exciting about this incident. We just did dope...he kept wanting me to service him..but wouldn't sit still. I walked out of there with twenty bucks (from him) that time. He had no money when the hour was up...I already HAD money before even meeting up with him...and since all I did was his dope and didn't even even have to touch him..I gave him some of his money back again.

The last time I saw him it was in an alley right by Oppenheimer Park. It was rainy and the alley was muddy and it was just all around a miserable night for all junkies/street urchins/prostitutes etc. This time he had $20 and some coke and wanted to give me ten bucks and a bunch of coke to go down on him. I said "no". He was very sketchy and as I walked away he was bending down sucking puddle water into his rig cause he had no sterile water to mix his coke with.

He was a dope addict but not one that I saw very often on a street level..he obviously had another life - or he did when I initially met him...but then over time his using got progressively worse.

The first time he ran up beside me and asked me for a date he was about the same age as me or maybe a few years older..his clothes were clean..his hands were clean...and he was hot. I mean it, he was a total babe. He was one of those slightly framed males that were obviously very much a man but had a distinctly feminine look to him. He was pretty. When I last saw him he was none of those things. He looked about twenty years older, he was dirty, pathetic and using muddy water from an alley to slam his coke.

Do you even care?