Chapter 24

There is a knock on my door.

Very quiet. Almost apprehensive.

I open the door to see Tattoo Eric standing with his head down.

I need to ask you something Steve.

I let him in my room and we sit down. He tells me that his little cousin has been in an accident. He doesn't have much detail at all. He is scared.

He has been shot in the head.

I don't know what to do, man. I am in here and my Mom is telling me that the doctors don't think he is going to make it. He was with a friend and somehow he got shot in the face.

I am silent. I just don't have the words.

We have an NA meeting in the dining room tonight and I was wondering if you could, I don't know... say something. I can't talk very well in front of people and I know that you and Bryce like to pray a lot. I just don't know what else to do.

Yeah Eric, I would do that. I will see if we can just all pray together.

He just nodded and walked to the door.

*******************************************

The meetings that come to the treatment facility are not open meetings. There are usually two or three people that come in and run them. Tonight's meeting is a Narcotics Anonymous meeting and there are three people running the show. Two guys and one girl. They are all in their 20's and all three are heroin addicts.

They all tell their stories and we all sit in a circle and listen. This meeting isn't like the one we went to at the church. These guys are here basically to share with us what NA is all about.

Some of us know, some of us don't so it's fine by me.

It is a big group of us.

At the end of the meeting we all stand and recite the Serenity Prayer.


God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference.

This prayer is like our handshake. Everyone knows it. I think it is beautiful.

The visitors thank us and I decide that it is time for me to say something about Eric's cousin.

Hey, before we all leave I was asked by a person in this room to say a prayer for their little cousin.

It wasn't but 3 seconds after I said this that one of the male visitors looked at me almost like he was insulted.

We don't use our meetings for that.

The comment took me completely off guard but I knew that I was asked to do something and there wasn't anything that was going to hold me back from doing it.

I looked him dead in the eye and said,

I wasn't asking.

I looked over at Eric and he was just nodding his head at me.

That gave me strength.

A good friend of mine here approached me today because one of their family members is in the hospital. This persons younger cousin was shot in the head today and they don't think that he is going to make it. I just wanted to say this with all of us here because I know that there is power in prayer. I just want us all to pray together for this kid. I just want us to join hands and pray.

There wasn't one complaint.

We joined hands and I said a prayer to God. After I was finished I just asked that we all pray silently in our own way. Pray for this little boy.

So many of us just cried.

I know that there couldn't have been one person in that room, in that circle, that didn't feel what I felt. It was overwhelming.

Amen.