feeling thick. Unwilling to think, because all his head had to offer was trouble.
The doctor was an elderly man, short and stooped, bald and bespectacled. The hair that remained around his head grew long and gray down his back. He read the chart first and then came to sit beside the bed.
I pumped you full of thiamin and Valium. It will help with the withdrawal. But you have to eat too, he said quietly.
Griessel just lay there.
You are a brave man to give up alcohol. Matt Joubert must have talked to him.
Did they tell you my wife left me?
They did not. Was it because of the drink?
Griessel shifted partially upright. I hit her when I was drunk.
How long have you been dependent?
Fourteen fucking years.
Then it is good that you stopped. The liver has its limits.
I dont know if I can.
I also felt like that and I have been dry for twenty-four years.
Griessel sat up. You were an alky?
The doctors eyes blinked behind the thick lenses. Thats why they sent for me this morning. You could say I am a specialist. For eleven years I drank like a fish. Drank away my practice, my family, my Mercedes-Benz. Three times I swore I would stop, but I couldnt keep my balance on the wagon. Eventually I had nothing left except pancreatitis.
Did she take you back?
She did, said the doctor and smiled. We had two more children, just to celebrate. The trouble is, they look like their father.
How did you do it?
Sex played an important role.
No, I mean . . .
The doctor took Griessels hand and he laughed with closed eyes. I know what you mean.
Oh. For the first time Griessel smiled.
One day at a time. And the AA. And the fact that I had hit rock bottom. There was no more medication to help, except disulfiram, the stuff that makes you throw up if you drink. But I knew from the literature it is rubbishif you really want to drink, you just stop taking the pills.
Are there drugs now that can make you stop drinking?
No drug can make you stop drinking. Only you can.
Griessel nodded in disappointment.
But they can make withdrawal easier.
Take away the DTs.
You have not yet experienced delirium tremens, my friend. That only comes three to five days after withdrawal begins. Yesterday you experienced reasonably normal convulsions and, I imagine, the hallucinations of a heavy drinker who stops. Did you smell strange scents?
Yes.
Hear strange things?
Yes. With emphasis.
Acute withdrawal, but not yet the DTs, and for that you should be thankful. DTs is hell and we havent found a way to stop it. If it gets really bad, you could get grand mal seizures, cardiac infarction or stroke, and any one of the three could kill you.
Jesus.
Do you really want to stop, Griessel?
I do.
Then today is your lucky day.
13.
S he was a colored woman with three children, and a husband in jail. She was the receptionist at the Quay Delta workshop in Paarden Island and it was never her intention to send the whole thing off at a tangent.
The Argus came at 12:30 every day, four papers for the waiting room so that clients could read while they waited for their cars to be finished. It was her habit to quickly scan the main news headlines of the day. Today she did this with more purpose because she had expectations.
She found it on the front page just below the fold in the newspaper. The headline already told her that all was not right.
POLICE LINKED TO KILLING OF ALLEGED CHILD RAPIST
Quickly she read through the article and clicked her tongue.
The South African Police Services (SAPS) might have been responsible for the vigilante-style murder of alleged child rapist Enver Davids last night. A spokesperson for the Cape Human Rights Forum, Mr. David Rosenthal, said his organization had received sensitive information from a very reliable source inside the police services in this regard. The source indicated
The doctor was an elderly man, short and stooped, bald and bespectacled. The hair that remained around his head grew long and gray down his back. He read the chart first and then came to sit beside the bed.
I pumped you full of thiamin and Valium. It will help with the withdrawal. But you have to eat too, he said quietly.
Griessel just lay there.
You are a brave man to give up alcohol. Matt Joubert must have talked to him.
Did they tell you my wife left me?
They did not. Was it because of the drink?
Griessel shifted partially upright. I hit her when I was drunk.
How long have you been dependent?
Fourteen fucking years.
Then it is good that you stopped. The liver has its limits.
I dont know if I can.
I also felt like that and I have been dry for twenty-four years.
Griessel sat up. You were an alky?
The doctors eyes blinked behind the thick lenses. Thats why they sent for me this morning. You could say I am a specialist. For eleven years I drank like a fish. Drank away my practice, my family, my Mercedes-Benz. Three times I swore I would stop, but I couldnt keep my balance on the wagon. Eventually I had nothing left except pancreatitis.
Did she take you back?
She did, said the doctor and smiled. We had two more children, just to celebrate. The trouble is, they look like their father.
How did you do it?
Sex played an important role.
No, I mean . . .
The doctor took Griessels hand and he laughed with closed eyes. I know what you mean.
Oh. For the first time Griessel smiled.
One day at a time. And the AA. And the fact that I had hit rock bottom. There was no more medication to help, except disulfiram, the stuff that makes you throw up if you drink. But I knew from the literature it is rubbishif you really want to drink, you just stop taking the pills.
Are there drugs now that can make you stop drinking?
No drug can make you stop drinking. Only you can.
Griessel nodded in disappointment.
But they can make withdrawal easier.
Take away the DTs.
You have not yet experienced delirium tremens, my friend. That only comes three to five days after withdrawal begins. Yesterday you experienced reasonably normal convulsions and, I imagine, the hallucinations of a heavy drinker who stops. Did you smell strange scents?
Yes.
Hear strange things?
Yes. With emphasis.
Acute withdrawal, but not yet the DTs, and for that you should be thankful. DTs is hell and we havent found a way to stop it. If it gets really bad, you could get grand mal seizures, cardiac infarction or stroke, and any one of the three could kill you.
Jesus.
Do you really want to stop, Griessel?
I do.
Then today is your lucky day.
13.
S he was a colored woman with three children, and a husband in jail. She was the receptionist at the Quay Delta workshop in Paarden Island and it was never her intention to send the whole thing off at a tangent.
The Argus came at 12:30 every day, four papers for the waiting room so that clients could read while they waited for their cars to be finished. It was her habit to quickly scan the main news headlines of the day. Today she did this with more purpose because she had expectations.
She found it on the front page just below the fold in the newspaper. The headline already told her that all was not right.
POLICE LINKED TO KILLING OF ALLEGED CHILD RAPIST
Quickly she read through the article and clicked her tongue.
The South African Police Services (SAPS) might have been responsible for the vigilante-style murder of alleged child rapist Enver Davids last night. A spokesperson for the Cape Human Rights Forum, Mr. David Rosenthal, said his organization had received sensitive information from a very reliable source inside the police services in this regard. The source indicated
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