When I was younger and didn't have any good coke connections, I used to go through the squatters at Tompkins Square Park on the lower east side of manhattan. I had just obtained fourth dollars through some less than legal hard work, and was copping with this kid who was a few years older than me. At one point he told me to wait on one side of the street because the dealer was on the other side, and would be suspicious if he saw me. I reluctantly complied. So this kid runs across the street, and at the same time a buss passes, blocking my view for just a second. After the bus passed the kid was no where to be seen. I felt incredibly humiliated, and wanted to get high so bad, I was just jonesing for coke.
So anyway, I go back to tompkins and start asking the squatters and junkies if they'd seen the kid who was copping for me, and they all told me to "give up", and to "quit complaining and accept the loss." of course this just made me feel more humiliated and I was determined to cop no matter what. So I start walking down avenue A thinking I'll run into the asshole who ripped me off, when I find a busted keyboard on the ground. I check to see if it works at all, and as it turns out, for the most part it still played, only a couple of the keys were screwed up. So then I try and hustle this piece of shit broken keyboard, and I'm walking down sevent avenue banging on the working keys and screaming "keyboard for sale, 20$!" (mind you I was pretty fucked up on Xanax at the time). Well after about an hour of hustling this piece of garbage, I actually manage to sell it to some fool for seventeen dollars. In the end, I decided to shoot some heroin instead, but the whole thing was quite an ordeal.
So if you're ever down by Tompkins be wary. Some of those kids are real sweet and will help you out as long as you throw them a bag. Others will act real sweet, and then rip you off.