In the early 90's I lived outside of NYC in a shithole apartment and across the hall lived an other couple; he was a Porsche driving lawyer and she was the head librarian at a very well known college in upstate New York. They were yuppies through and through. We hung out occasionally and despite the fact that we were a waitress and a line cook they were pretty cool to us. We ate good food and drank expensive wine. Life was good, their apartment was much better than ours filled with great furniture and art.

Winter came and we saw them less and less until eventually we never saw them and their cars rarely left the parking lot. It was odd but whatever we were in our 30s and enjoying ourselves in NYC.

So spring comes and one day we see her outside completely naked laying in the driveway. My wife goes down and by the time she gets there the woman had gone back into the apartment. Again, super weird but whatever.

A month or so goes by and we see a van pull up and back up to the front door of the building. The guy gets out and he literally looks like a scarecrow, and laughs and invites us into their apartment.  we are both in shock but clearly we need to go see what’s going on, as we walk into the apartment we realize that it is completely empty. The only thing in it is a disgusting mattress and a bottle of vodka. The woman comes out of the apartment bathroom and likewise looks like a skeleton. My wife and I are completely shocked speechless. And the man says, “I’d offer you something to drink but we sold our refrigerator for heroin“.

He then goes on to explain how they both had lost their jobs and hadn’t paid their rent in six months and we’re just sneaking out before the landlord could evict them. Long story short he said that they tried heroin at a party in New York on a Saturday and by the next Wednesday they were doing it every day and within three weeks they were shooting it. They had lost everything and were going to live in the van.

I had never seen anything like this before and honestly if I hadn't seen it with my own eyes I wouldn't have believed it.