Kapiolani Community College
Diamond Journal 2003Fall

Clear Enemy
Lorene L. Glisson

It was a busy and crowded Friday night at Scruple’s night club as my friends and I sat at the bar celebrating my friend Lehua’s 25th birthday when suddenly someone said, “What can I get for you ladies?” We looked up only to find that it was an extremely handsome bartender smiling, waiting for a reply. But if I had known how dangerous it could be to leave a drink unattended, I wouldn’t have ordered anything.

We were all at a loss for words when I instantly replied, “Yah, I’ll have a Bud Light and whatever they want.” My friends looked at me as if I were crazy not to have given him a second look, but I knew that if I had I would get into trouble with my boyfriend, so I paid no attention to what they were trying to say to me.

As the night went on, we danced, talked, and laughed, as we ecstatically celebrated our night with the birthday girl. I wore myself out with the non-stop “bootie” music dancing. I decided that I needed to take a break, so my friend and I went to the bar and ordered another beer. Then, I heard amongst all of the conversations, music, and dancing, a deep English voice ask, “Do you want to dance?” It was a young man probably in his thirties, fairly tall, and not particularly my type.

Tired and exhausted, I said with a smile, “No, thank you. I just finished dancing with my friends and I am just taking a break,” as I tried not to sound sarcastic and mean. The man smiled and walked away as if he weren’t bothered by the rejection.

It was about eleven o’clock when one of my friends ordered everyone another round of beers, but I had to decline because I knew that if I drank too much I would not be able to return to work the next day. Before we left that night, the girls decided to make one last toast to our friend, so we ordered shots for everyone. However, the bartender was very busy with other customers so we gave him our order and said that we would be back for it because we wanted to dance to the last song that the disc jockey was about to play. We asked him to leave it on the bar when he finished. We then headed toward the dance floor and danced till the sweat dripped down our faces.

One by one, each girl slowly left the dance floor and headed back to the bar to get her drink. I happened to be the last one left on the dance floor because some guy came around and put his body within our circle and I was the one to be left with him. I danced with him to be nice. Gradually I made my way off the dance floor, so we could make our last toast before we went home. I got to the bar, grabbed my drink, and walked over to my friends. They yelled and screamed at me because I had taken so long. By now the bar was filled with smoke as we gathered to bond with one another to say our last goodbyes. We each said some meaningful words to her, then brought our glasses together and swallowed every bit of liquor.

Soon after, as everyone made rounds to the ladies room, I suddenly felt as if I couldn’t see anything. My vision went completely black, probably for about a second. I assumed that maybe I had had too much to drink, but I knew that I had only drunk three beers and one shot. I knew that I wasn’t overly intoxicated, but something was wrong. I made my way out of the club where I found my friends waiting on a table that was just outside the door. At that moment I felt that I had to sit down, because I was feeling really dizzy, almost as if I wanted to throw up. My friend helped me over to the table where she allowed me to put my head on her lap while we waited for our ride home.

My friend pulled up with the car and at this point I felt very sick. I could not see anything or anyone. I had no control over my body. My friends had to carry me to the car. From this point on, I didn’t remember anything that had happened. According to my friend Tiare, I threw up in the car on the way back to my house, and she filled in more details later the next day.

We finally reached my house, but minutes before we arrived, my friend called my mother to let her know that she was bringing me home and explained my situation. My mother opened the door to find me all over the back seat, practically in my own emesis. Meanwhile, my friends tried to explain to my mother that I didn’t drink too much and that something was wrong. No one had ever seen me that way.

They carried me into the house and into the shower because my mom wanted to get me cleaned up. My mom said that it was as if I were dead. I didn’t move at all as they carried me while my eyes looked as if they were in the back of my head.

Once they got me into the house, my mother tried to take off all of my clothes to put me into the shower, which I assume she had a difficult time doing. She left me on the floor of the tub as the cold water ran down my body. She ran down the stairs to get my sister to help. When they returned, they found me flat on my back, as I sat in my own feces, urine, and emesis. My mother immediately yelled at my sister, “Hurry up, something is wrong. Help me pick her up!” They got me to my feet and tried to wash me up, but according to them, I wouldn’t let them do anything to me. My mother said that as she tried to wash my hair, I attempted to punch her. As I swung my arms through the air, they realized that I wouldn’t stop and decided to dry me up and get me into bed. The next morning, I woke up with a pounding headache. Every time that I tried to move, my head would spin which made me very dizzy. Suddenly, I looked at the clock and realized that I was three hours late for work. I immediately jumped out of bed, and literally stumbled over everything as I got ready and left. My mom didn’t realize that I had left for work until she came up to my room to see how I was doing. When she finally realized where I had gone, she called my job to tell my boss what had happened and to check me before I went on the floor.

When I arrived at work, I stumbled up the stairs to punch the time clock. I still felt very fatigued and nauseated. I punched in, put on my smock and went downstairs. When I saw my boss, I apologized for being late. When he asked me if I was alright, I explained that I was not feeling well, but I was well enough to work.

One hour had not passed before I felt as if I needed to throw up again, so I asked for approval to go the bathroom. I literally ran as fast as I could because I felt that I couldn’t control it, but I made it and everything came out. It was mostly liquid because I had no food in my stomach. I sat there on the floor in front of the toilet as my co-worker tried to comfort me while I threw up. After a while, nothing wanted to come out. It was more of a dry heave by now. My boss came upstairs to see if I were all right, only to find that I wasn’t. He called my mother and asked her if she could pick me up because he did not want me to drive home in that condition.

My mother arrived at my job fifteen minutes later and decided that she was going to take me to the doctor. When we arrived at the doctor’s office, my mother explained to Dr. McNally what had happened the night before. He immediately wanted to take a blood test. He told my mother to take me home and let me rest. He was going to call us within the hour to tell us what it could be.

While at home, I slept. I felt as if I had been run over by a car. Then the phone rang, and it was the doctor. He told my mother that my blood test had shown that I had a drug called Rohypnol, also known as “Ruphies: the date rape drug,” in my system. He explained that someone could have put it into my drink while I was at the club, and said that I wouldn’t have known about it because the drug is colorless and tasteless. He was very glad that my mother brought me in because after thirty-six hours, the drug would have been undetectable. I was very upset that someone would try to hurt me with such a violent drug. The doctor told her that it could actually kill someone who had been given too much. My mother said that it explained my behavior of that night and at least we knew now what had made me so sick.

After that night, I realized that I needed to be more careful about where I am and to whom I talk. It made me very scared to know that I could have been taken advantage of if my friends had not been there to help me. Nowadays, whenever I go out to a bar or any establishment that serves alcohol, I am very aware of the things that I drink. I also make sure that I don’t leave my drink unattended for a second, because after that night, I know now that I would never want to meet my silent deadly enemy again.