The Fallen

An animated and friendly man approached me in front of the recovery clinic. He didn't have the typical look of someone I'd pick up there. He was handsome. He had all of his teeth and, although he did appear a bit unnaturally thin and unshaven for at least a couple of days, he looked healthy.

During the ride to his house, he told me that he was given a small house by his parents when he was twenty years old. He repaired and flipped it, then bought another and did the same. He repeated the process until he could afford a house that he wanted to live in and a lifestyle that felt comfortable to him.

At the peak of his success, he developed a drug habit. As the story almost always goes, it got the better of him. Just before he hit the bottom, he said, he was trading in his vehicles every few months to avoid missing a payment. Now he's without a car or a place to live, but he said that he wasn't worried. Quitting drugs was the big challenge. Everything else is easy.