Rules & Beatings
by Jonathan Quince
Monday, January 19, 2004 13:01:25
I just beat the shit out of Vivian.
I caught her with drugs. Cocaine, if you must know. In general, I have no problem with people doing what they want to their own bodies; frankly, it's none of my business. But when it comes to “hard drugs”, I have a strict and up-front rule: Do not bring it into my house or into my life.
There are “little rules” that can be broken with consequences, since real human beings make real human mistakes. Then there are “big rules” that absolutely never must be broken. There are only a few of the latter, and I am very clear about which is which. This was one of the latter.
I do associate sometimes with people who play with fun chemical substances, but only at arm's length. The fact of the matter is, besides the standard risk of bringing the police into my house (which I'm not too worried about), there are some very real risks. I could wake up one day and find her in the throes of a critical overdose. She could pass from “recreational user” into “serious addict” (which she has before), and I'd have to either deal with it or deal with throwing her out on the street with no assets but a serious and expensive addiction. There are a thousand things that could go wrong when someone plays with fire; and while I will go to extraordinary lengths to help people who are sick or downtrodden through no fault of their own, I have zero patience with people who make an active choice to destroy themselves.
Therefore, I gave her an ultimatum: Either walk out of my door and never return, or submit to a very severe, very real, very un-fun beating. She opted for the latter, and I give her some little bit of credit for that. Not much, though.
She looks pretty awful, but nothing's broken. If I did my job right, she won't stand for three days and won't sit for a week. And she won't be sneaking drugs anymore; she'd better not, since I will be watching her like a hawk and if there is a next time, she will have no third chances and no choice but to leave forever.
[Update: Quit the whining and knee-jerk reactions. There are punishments I could have inflicted that are far worse than mere physical pain. And think about the context of this for a second; consider what would happen if I let her slide back into it.]