Thanks @trucklife-family this story is so personal to me. There are aspects of both Row and Charley in me and my history. I wish it weren't so sometimes, and I certainly wish that I had Row's life, although maybe living in a luxury place in the wilderness instead.

The shower scene was beautiful, how healing water can be when we allow ourselves to acknowledge and own our emotions, seeing how they have created the foundations of who we are, yet knowing that we need to let them go, in order to grow.

It was my favorite scene to write and had me in floods of tears. I have faced addiction in my life, but nothing as extreme as Heroin. But I have known people, good friends, who've become heroin addicts. They are ostracized and demonized, but what no one will face is the societal conventions that push people with that tendency toward addiction. True it is a choice, I would never suggest otherwise. People who choose it are often prone to depression, or they're weak in regards to impulse control, but they can also be some of the strongest people psychologically, especially when they get over addiction. Anyway, it made me cry because I recognized it was just a deeply suppressed memory from an experience I had over ten years ago when I decided I would stop taking certain substances every week to modify my life and perceptions. That shower scene is just a buried memory that resurfaced through the writing, I didn't even remember that washing away and cathartic release of emotion until days after re reading this story.

I'm glad you enjoyed the story Aishlinn xxx