Laura came from an upper middle class family. Her father use to go to the horse races to be entertained and get away from everything. He had invested in a few horses and bred them for racing also. So he would go to see the ones that he had bred and were racing occasionally.
When Laura was eight she went with her father to the horse races and fell in love with horse racing. She convinced her parents to let her be trained to be a jockey. So her parents took her down and found her a trainer.
Laura went regularly on the weekends to be trained as a jockey during the school year and spent most of the summer taking care of the horses and learning how to be a jockey.
When Laura turned twelve she began to grow and gain weight. Laura knew that one had to be a certain weight to race horses as a jockey so she began to worry and talk to the jockeys about it. An older male jockey gave Laura an amphetamine (speed) he used to keep his weight down.
Laura was still growing and gaining weight. She eventually learned to shoot up speed and became addicted. Laura had begun to loose interest in the horses. Her father was over six feet tall and she had inherited his genes for height. No matter how much speed she took she was going to be too tall and heavy to be a jockey because she had his strong bone structure also.
Laura eventually began hanging out with the counter culture groups. She began dabbling in other illegal drugs such as marijuana and cocaine. Her grades in school had started slipping.
By the time Laura was seventeen she had run into heroine and had started shooting it up. Laura did O.K. as long as she was dating an illegal drug dealer. But eventually he moved on to someone younger and less burnt out from the drug abuse. So there she was more resistant to heroine and more addicted. So she began hanging out on the streets hustling men for money trying to roll them or if she had to trading favors for money for her addiction.
She got busted finally with some small amount of an illegal drug and her family put her in a rehabilitation center. Her friend James who had loved her since she was a young girl around all the drug problems would come to see her at the rehabilitation center. Laura got out of the rehabilitation center and did O.K. for awhile. She rode her horses at home. Relaxed and felt better than she had for a long time.
Then one of her old street friends came by for a free meal and talked her into smoking a little marijuana. The next thing you know Laura was back out on the streets but this time she was determined not to get caught. So she hitched a ride to California and began hustling in various cities along the California coast. She had no one because even a pimp does not want a streetwalker addict because they bring no money home. She lived with whomever she could, wherever she could. She looked really rough when the retired alcoholic government worker ran into her trying to hustle him for a little drug money.
He looked at her and said, "Honey you need a shower and some food before anyone is going to find you attractive enough to spend any money on you. Why don't you come home with me and you can do that at my apartment."
Jack got Laura back to his apartment though she was weak. Let her fall asleep for awhile and then woke her to put her in the bathtub to clean her up because she smelled so horrible. He called his girlfriend. She and her daughter came over found some clean clothes in their closet Laura's size and got her cleaned up. After about three days they got her parent's name and called back to their home. They gave the number to James.
James called his grandmother and got money along with a check so he could afford to come get Laura. He came to the apartment and Laura was looking pretty good by the time he got there. They went out on the town to see a few shows and went different places. Eventually Laura found out that James had a check to pay their way back to Virginia and he needed it cashed. Laura knew a man who cashed out of town checks for a fee.
So James let her take the check.
Laura walked into the check-cashing place alone without James. When the money got into her hand she ended up walking out the back door and leaving him waiting outside.
Laura was never seen again by them.
Laura died about a year and a half later riding that white horse on the streets she never could quite get off of once she got on it no matter how much anyone loved her or helped her.
Before you take your children someplace or do something for them that they want think a minute about what you may be exposing them to. This should be considered especially if you are unfamiliar with the environment. Children should not be placed in an adult environment that is not designed for children or created for children and not geared for children. Laura's doting loving parents never once imagined giving Laura what she wanted would lead to a terrible end and death at age 24.
© 2003 Round Persons' Enterprises
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