A father writes........

Dear Heroin

Early on, before I knew you, one of my friends painted your name in different colours. It was very clever. The word of your name, Heroin, turned into 3 words: “Here on in”  That is really my fear. That you are with us. That you will possess my beautiful boy for the rest of his shortened traumatised life.That’s it, here on in.

As I saw it you introduced yourself to him on our doorstep when my son was 16. A young boy would come to the house but he wouldn’t ever come in. Something secretive, something dark, something that made my instincts scream. I wished I’d followed them.

Oh you are powerful. All the forces in all the world might not kill you. Someone should sue the Government for letting you in. I blamed that young boy. He brought you to us.   And that is what I believed.
And now that boy is dead. How must my son live with that?

I could not protect him from you and now he has to live with you. On his shoulder. At the back of his mind. Something lives right at the front of his mind. Sometimes, in your awful rabid greed, you possess every cell of his body and ship out every hope from mine.
My beautiful, shy, reluctant, kind, caring, dreaming little boy.

P.S. We have learned something about ourselves on this journey. We can live with despair. We have the courage that comes with having no choice. So we will stand up to you for as long as we can.  We have to believe, and still do believe that love will one day kill you.