“I’m Kennedy” whispered the trophy wife beside her. It was 7am and judging by her brand name, post work-out attire, she’d clearly already been to the gym before she made her way to this tidy church basement. “You new?” she asked. Alissa nodded as someone at the front of the room continued to read something in a monotone voice. She heard something about “Steps” being laid out and periodically the people in the room would all chime in as if reading from a script that hadn’t been handed out.
“What’s your D.O.C.?” Kennedy leaned in to ask.
Alissa shrugged. She didn’t even know if she had a DOC. She’d been raised in conservative Christian home, attended private school, married a good Christian boy at 25 and until a few months ago had seldom had more than one glass of wine in the same month. Let alone the three in a night, like she’d been drinking lately. “I don’t know what a D.O.C. is” she whispered back.
Kennedy hiccupped and stifled the sort of giggle Alissa would have expected from someone ten years younger than herself, but not someone ten years older. “Your D.O.C. is your Drug of Choice. Not everyone who comes here has a problem with alcohol. Some do drugs, others have problems with food, gambling, even porn and sex. All 12 step programs are interchangeable in their major similarities.”
Alissa thought of her husband and his raging porn addiction. He’d tried every Christian book, church counselor, accountability program and type of meeting imaginable but never kicked the habit. She wondered if he’d ever even been to an AA meeting.
“Alcohol” she said firmly. “I definitely drink to much.” She didn’t want her new friend mentally lumping her in with all those OTHER people, especially not the sex and drug addicts.
“Okay, me too. Lets talk after” Kennedy said.
The guy on her left handed her a clip board where it appeared the fifty other people in the room had scrawled their names and a random date. Some dates were decades old. Most were recent. One was two days before. Wasn’t this suppose to be “Alcoholics Anonymous?” She couldn’t wrap her head around the signing in thing. She just sat there, holding the pen and staring at the sheet of paper until the guy who had handed it to her leaned over and whispered “You don’t have to sign in. It’s just for people who want someone to check up on them if they don’t show up for awhile.”
Alissa wasn’t sure how she felt about getting a call from one of these people. Many seemed very normal, there were clearly some wealthy corporate executives and a few other trophy wives in the group. She recognized them by their good posture, solid eye contact and power smiles. Slouching around her in the back though, there were people with vacant eyes who didn’t seem to want to be there. She wasn’t sure she wanted any of them having her phone number. She clipped the pen to the top without signing and passed the clipboard to Kennedy, who signed it and passed it along.
“Crap. I have to dash” Kennedy told her after the meeting. “I need to get home and make breakfast for my kids. I forgot it’s Sunday and that means pancakes!” As her only friend in the room dashed out the door, Alissa noticed several coffee pots sitting on the back counter. One was labeled decaf and it perched next to a nearly empty box of donuts. Sugar. Now we were talking.
She made her way to the counter where she was greeted by a warm smile from a lady in her 50’s behind the counter. She was putting out more powdered coffee creamer and tossed a plastic Costco sized can of Folgers coffee into the trash. “The donuts are fresh, but the coffee is just like you’d expect.”
Alissa wasn’t sure what she’d expect to get for a dollar. A basket had gone around after the clipboard and Kennedy has whispered giving was optional, but most people gave a dollar, to cover coffee and cups. Alissa didn’t have a dollar, she hadn’t brought any cash at all. “I got you” Kennedy said, dropping two dollars in the basket.
She thought about having a cup, just for something to do. She very rarely drank coffee at home, mostly because she didn’t like the jittery feeling it gave her and Carl hated decaf. The thought had never occurred to her to brew a pot just for the joy of drinking it. Coffee was terrible, bitter stuff. She figured people drank it if they didn’t have enough sleep to function in their day. She was raising three children and even though she was homeschooling them, she very seldom found herself to groggy to teach third grade math or sing “Twinkle Twinkle Little Star” or bake brownies.
She poured herself a cup of coffee and chose a small donut, then moved to the side so the massively tatoo’d girl behind her could refill her cup. When the girl was done she came and stood beside her and asked her in a bright, cheery voice how much time she had. Alissa figured she meant time to chat and shrugged “Probably 15 minutes. I need to get home and get the kids ready… for church.” The girl laughed and said “No I mean how long since you drank?” Suddenly nervous that maybe she wasn’t suppose to be here if she was still drinking Alissa counted backwards and said, “About six hours?”
Tatoo’d girl sobered and said “I’m glad you are here. Lets get you a one day coin.” She headed for a large file cabinet against the side wall and pulled out a fishing tackle box filled to the brim with carefully sorted coins.
“Uhh…. I didn’t bring any money…” Alissa hastened to explain she’d left home without her wallet. Tattoo’d Girl didn’t seem to hear her. “Do you have one to return?” she called over her shoulder as she opened the lid to the plastic box.
“Uh, no. I… never had one before.”
Tatoo’d Girl snatched a coin from the first slot and closed the box. “Is this your first meeting?” She asked, a smile returning to her face. Alissa nodded that it was. “Well here” she handed her the coin and said “This is a 24 hour coin. You don’t have to be done drinking for 24 hours. You can have a beer in the parking lot and then come in and take a 24 hour coin. It means you are starting fresh.”
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