The Lotus Crew (15 page)

Tommy prepared a backup shot out of the other two bags. He tapped the air out of the cylinder, capped the tip of the weeper, placed it carefully on the bed next to him.

Maybe one day he'd see Alvira again. Maybe one day he'd be with people who knew who he was.

Glossary

This glossary is written with the ear and is entirely phonetic.

Agua:
(Spanish) police

B:
brother; bro'

Babanya:
(Italian) heroin

Bad company:
informer or undercover

Ba hondo:
(Spanish) police

Bean:
brother; bro'

Blanco:
(Spanish) white

Bleed:
nonblack

Blood:
black

Bundle:
ten dime bags

Burn:
beat for money; a tattoo

Button:
made man

Cake:
cash

Chill out:
detox; calm down

Chinaman:
opium

Chinga:
(Spanish) sexual intercourse

Cooker:
bottle cap; spoon to cook fix

Cool:
no sense talkin' about this word

Cop:
to score; police

Cura:
(Spanish) fix of heroin given to crew workers

De nada:
(Spanish) thanks

Dinero:
(Spanish) money

Dope:
heroin

Double D:
strong heroin

Downtown:
heroin

Dread:
(Rasta) dreadlocks

Drop a dime:
inform; make a phone call

Ease off:
taper dosage down gradually

Embalao:
(Spanish) hopelessly addicted

Esta bien:
(Spanish) all clear

Fao:
(Spanish) detective (literally,
ugly)

Fows an' bows:
blow harmonies

Ganja:
(Rasta) marijuana

Gimmick:
hypodermic

God's own:
heroin

Goodness:
heroin

Gram:
one twenty-eighth of an ounce

Heat:
police

Heroin:
God's own

High:
stoned on God's own Rx

Holdin':
heroin on person

Hole:
hole in boarded-up building to pass cake in and dope out

Iron:
pistol; motorcycle or car

Jesus jizz:
methadone

Joint:
marijuana cigarette; prison

Jones:
dope habit

Junk:
heroin

La hara:
(Spanish) police

Long:
big American car

Marimay:
(Romany) dirty informer, person to avoid

Material:
what crew workers and bosses call heroin

Maytagging:
cleaning money

Membrane:
unhip person

Mometta:
(Spanish) hot female

O:
opium

Off:
not using, clean

On:
using, high

On the money:
quality heroin worth the price

Pick up:
score

Play:
extra bag for buying bundle

Poppa:
what touters call customers

Program:
methadone program

Reefer:
marijuana cigarette

Schmeck:
(Yiddish) heroin

Schmooz:
heroin

Score:
cop heroin

Short:
small foreign sports car

Sick:
junk withdrawal symptoms appearing

Smokin':
high-quality heroin

Sound on:
suggest

Spliff:
(Rasta) thick joint of marijuana

Taken off:
robbed

Tapped out:
no money

Taxed:
robbed

Tecata:
(Spanish) heroin

Tip your mitt:
reveal

Ven acá:
(Spanish) come with me

Vendador:
(Spanish) heroin dealer

Vig:
loan shark's interest rate

Weeper:
hypodermic syringe (usually number twenty-five)

Yen:
need for heroin

Crew Hierarchy

Crew boss:
  Holds money. Serves as bank. Directs workers. Calls all shots on the street. A boss will split every hour or so to deposit money and pick up material.

Moneyman:
   Takes and counts cash. Passes it on to the bank or boss, counted and with bills facing same way. Will not take singles.

Bagman:
   Holds bags and makes actual pass. Will not take cash. (No marked money on him.) The bagman takes most direct risk.

Stashman:
   Feeds bagman. Hides and reclaims packages: small brown paper bags containing fifty-four dime bags (five bundles, four extra for play).

Protectors:
  Armed and mean backup lurking around to protect crew (and customers because muggings are bad for business.) Protectors earn $200 daily just hanging around, as no one in their right mind would take off an organized crew.

Steerers:
   Hawk a brand name and lead or point you to it (tip you to it).

Touters:
   Same as steerers.

Lookouts:
   Outer perimeters of a crew's op. Far corners, rooftops, points of usual police entry into junk turf. Lookouts' whistles and cries of “Ba hondo” (police), “Fao” (detectives), and “Esta bien” (all clear) ring through the street like a frantic, lyrical calypso spirit.

(This structure is by no means a rule but represents a highly evolved professional op in midregime.)

Acknowledgments

I wish to acknowledge my parents, for the first breath; Bill Burroughs, who “scratched the surface,” and the following friends whose faith sustained me: Howard Brookner, Roy Burman & Giselle, Ann Moradfar, Jacques Stern, Herbert Huncke, James Grauerholz, John Giorno, Dr. Joseph Gross, Lance Spano, and Harris Glasser.

About the Author

Stewart Meyer was born in Brooklyn, New York. At age twelve he discovered Henry Miller's
Tropic of Cancer
in a used bookstore on Flatbush Avenue and decided to become a writer. He attended the City University of New York and audited William S. Burroughs's lecture series on creative writing. This led to a lifelong friendship with Mr. Burroughs and to an opportunity to observe a master writer going from draft to draft.

Meyer's first novel,
The Lotus Crew
, was originally published in 1984. He is currently at work on a second novel,
The Heist Broker
, and a memoir,
Memory Chips and Reconstituted Pebbles
. He lives in New York City.

All rights reserved, including without limitation the right to reproduce this book or any portion thereof in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of the publisher.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, events, and incidents either are the product of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, businesses, companies, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

Copyright © 1984 by Stewart Meyer

Cover design by Mauricio Díaz

978-1-4976-8521-5

This edition published in 2015 by Open Road Integrated Media, Inc.

345 Hudson Street

New York, NY 10014

www.openroadmedia.com

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