Margin Notes

I am not a wasted person. I am not prowling the streets. I am not an addict. I am a girl spinning her locker combination. I am a girl who got a B on her math test. I am a girl who has two holes on the inside of her arm, but they do not tell the whole story of me.

Mickey Catalan is famous in her hometown for being the star catcher on a softball team that is supposed to make history this year. But just before the season starts, Mickey is in a car accident that leaves her with three screws in her hip, intense pain, and a prescription for OxyContin. And so begins a story all too familiar due to the current opioid crisis.

Before the accident, Mickey thought she knew what pain was. Her father had an affair and now has a new wife and baby. She rarely felt comfortable with people and always struggled to find the right thing to say. But this pain is so intense that she starts to take more OxyContin than she should, and then more, and then more…because what she comes to realize is not only do the pills alleviate her pain, they make her feel good. And with them she can train harder and recover faster and get back to where she needs to be – crouched behind home plate.

The fact is though, OxyContin is expensive. And hard to find. And nobody wants to share their “stash”. But there is something less expensive, that is easy to find, and that many are willing to share. Heroine. As a reader, you wonder if there is any way to stop this downward spiral that so many find themselves trapped in.

This book is a gut-wrenching account of how addiction slowly builds and how, once it exists, feeding that addiction will cost a person everything.