Nose pickers, crack smokers and other ghosts
They get away with murder.
When a lecture seems to be going on forever, I like breaking things up by looking around at my classmates.
I suspect not many people do. Because if they did, they’d surely see the one kid in the fourth row picking his nose with furious abandon.
His labors weren’t lost on me. It occurred to me that picking one’s nose in public has nothing to do with manners or upbringing. It’s a self esteem issue. They probably don’t feel seen. Why would anyone be looking at them, anyway?
They probably didn’t start out that way — or at least took a long sabbatical after their toddler years. The public picking likely began on the sly. A covert jab here and there. But they embraced the habit when it dawned on them that no one gave a fuck what they did.
Well, except maybe for me. Because I've always preferred to look at people rather than screens. As a result, I’ve seen all kinds of bold misdeeds on street corners, subways and every public space you could imagine.
And you know what dank human activity I’ve catalogued the most? Crack smoking. It happens everywhere.
It’s no surprise, really. When I was using, I was constantly bewildered by the brazen acts of my crack-smoking associates.
“Put that away!” I’d snap at a companion. “We’re at the drive-through window.”
I’ve been pulled over by police and even shown up at the Canadian border with passengers still clutching their pipes.
Taxis are the worst.
“You can’t light that here!” I’d whisper-shriek to the person in the backseat with me.
“Why not?” he’d reply.
Because the fucking driver’s eyes are locked on me in the rearview mirror.
Whatever. Click click, went the Bic.
It wasn’t until I spied that industrious young nose picker in class that I made the connection.
Why would anyone care what an addict is doing? On the streets, people go to absurd lengths to pretend they don’t exist. Sometimes, it takes days for people to even notice their corpses.
Forget feelings of self-worth among nose pickers. What kind of malformed self-esteem do you have to harbor to walk amongst humanity with a smoking crack pipe?
Tsk, tsk, a right and proper citizen might say if they catch sight of someone hitting it in a bus shelter.
But crack smokers will be crack smokers.
Most people don’t think anything of it. They just keep their eyes on their screens.
Addicts know they’re invisible people. That’s how they get away with murdering themselves.