The Popular Depression is a book I wrote in my first year of college.
It was inspired by a cigarette pack on a coffee table that I noticed at a house party.
My eyes were drawn to the Health Canada warning on the box of cigarettes.
I think the statistic about tobacco-related deaths was supposed to be the scary one. But, for some reason, I was more alarmed by the fact more people died by killing themselves than by getting into car accidents.
I never did anything with the book I wrote. Looking back, some of the amateurish writing makes me cringe. But, the concept behind The Popular Depression is an important theme for us to think about.
Here is the twenty-first chapter from The Popular Depression.
Chapter 21
After spending a week at home in his room, catching up on homework, Ethan is now allowed to go back to school.
He told Diane that the drugs weren’t his.
He also told Diane that he’s never done coke in his life.
Though only one statement was true, Diane believed her son on both counts. She tried phoning the school and explaining that Ethan was framed; however, administration informed her that unless they could find the culprit who planted the drugs in Ethan’s locker, they had no choice but to suspend Ethan.
The days went by at a snail’s pace. Often, Ethan would find himself re-reading chapters of his Physics textbook because he would flip through the pages without comprehending the words.
Ethan doesn’t know who could have accessed his locker. The only person in the school who knows his combination is Liberty, but there is no chance that she would do this.
Ethan arrives at Catholic Central 10 minutes early. As he walks into the school, his mind is racing. He is determined to solve the mystery, because if he can determine who framed him—and if he can prove it to the school-board—then he will be given back his spot on the varsity basketball team.
He approaches his locker. His eyes scan the area, looking for a clue, anything. He takes a hold of the combination lock and checks it for any damage. No such luck—it’s in mint condition. It looks as though no part of his locker door has been tampered with either. He matches the three coded numbers up with a line on the lock and pulls downwards. The lock opens. Ethan pulls the lock off of the hook and opens the metal locker door. Sitting on the middle shelf sits a note. The note was not there last week when Coach Fox searched his locker.
Ethan,
For once, you’re not going to be the one who has it all.
Before you read any more of this note, stop and remember this feeling. The feeling of having your dreams stripped away.
Your time has ended; my time has come.
Now that you’re kicked off the basketball team, I will no longer be in your shadow.
I really thought you were smarter than this, Tate. Everyone on the team knows not to do drugs, let alone to store them in their locker. Shame on you.
Thinking about running to the principal and showing him this note? Before you do that, let me point out some things that will save you from wasting your time. I’ve had this whole thing planned out before the school year even started. Believe me when I tell you that you have no proof of me planting the drugs in your locker. I have taken many precautions to ensure that you will not be able to bring me down with you.
So now you’re thinking: even if you’re not able to prove that I planted the drugs in your locker, you can show administration this note and they will realize that you got framed.
Wrong.
What’s to say that you didn’t write this note yourself, Ethan? And if you do show administration this note, they’re going to resort to a drug-test for proof. Uh-oh, someone I know has cocaine in their system. You wouldn’t want your dear mother finding out the results of that test now would you? Even if you want to be on the team bad enough that you are willing to tell your mom that you experimented with cocaine, you have nothing. You have no way of proving that the cocaine, which is in your system, was inhaled before basketball season started, because you had it only a week beforehand.
So now you’re thinking: if you’re going to go down, you might as well take someone with you. So you go ahead and tell administration to drug-test me.
Wake up, Ethan. I have never done cocaine in my life. It was a lie so that you would do it.
There is no Gordon, my mom never got remarried.
You feel sick to your stomach yet?
Good. But I’m not finished. I feel like I owe you some kind of explanation. You’re probably wondering why I did all of this. You might be confused because you thought our team had another shot at provincials. I’m going to let you in on a little secret, Ethan. I would rather be the high scorer on a losing team than be a lowly nobody on a winning team.
Sounds kind of greedy right?
If you think so, you’re a fucking hypocrite.
Remember Jasper Place?
If you wanted to win that game as a team, you would’ve passed the ball off. But you were scared. You were worried that the spotlight would be stolen from you. You knew Coach Fox’s play would’ve worked, but you couldn’t handle winning the game that way.
So before you get mad, before you start hating me, just realize that you and I aren’t so different, Ethan. The only real difference is that I outsmarted you this time.
I hate to end our precious friendship, but I hope you understand that sometimes people must make sacrifices to achieve their full potential.
You should make it out to a game sometime.
P.S. You really should be careful when opening your locker. If someone was to get close enough behind you, they might be able to determine your code.
Standing in front of his locker, Ethan’s fingers tense up and the note falls out of his hand. It hits the floor. Ethan stomach clenches and his head begins to spin. Everything makes sense. Jared not drinking at the sketchy party because he knew that he was going to have to drive later. Gordon: a name that Jared had failed to ever bring up in the past. Jared being so eager to supply Ethan with drugs the next day, not even asking for payment. The lingering presence Ethan felt behind him just before Jared invited him to the Halloween party.
Everything Jared said in the note is right. There is nothing Ethan can do. Jared has clearly thought out all the angles. Ethan can’t even show the note to his mom. He’s never even told Diane about drinking, let alone snorting cocaine. Plus, he already lied to his mom when she made him promise that he had never been involved with drugs.
Ethan feels empty. Everything has been taken from him. He remembers the Halloween party and how all eyes were on him. Why? Why would anyone in the world want to be him right now? Ethan would rather be anyone other than himself.
Ethan bends down and picks up the note. He re-reads it, trying to find an error, trying to find a mistake that Jared didn’t account for.
It turns out to be a waste of his time and only makes him more mad. He reads the line, “I hope you make it out to a game sometime,” one more time and then slams his locker door shut.
Ethan makes a decision.
If no one else can harm Jared Winston, then he will.
The first bell rings to indicate the start of class. Ethan knows that Jared is typically a few minutes late for Math each day. The hallway clears, and Ethan waits just outside the Math room.
After five minutes, Ethan considers the possibility that Jared will be a no-show. Just before he is about to enter Math tardily, he sees Jared coming down the hallway. Ethan walks toward his nemesis.
Jared doesn’t seem nervous as he gives Ethan a big smile.
“I heard about what happened, bro. Cocaine’s addictive, you really should never have started,” Jared says fearlessly, walking straight towards Ethan.
Once Ethan reaches Jared he grabs him by the collar of his Lacoste shirt and slams him into the nearest locker.
“You think you’re pretty smart eh, Winston? Well we’ll see how well you play basketball after I’m finished with you.”
Ethan attempts to punch Jared in the face; however, Jared manages to swing his head to the left and avoids Ethan’s fist. Ethan’s hand drives into the locker door. Jared then pushes Ethan off of him. He grabs Ethan’s neck with his right hand and trips him to the floor. As he is held down, Ethan has no way of maneuvering Jared off of him. Ethan is surprised by how much stronger his former teammate has gotten since the last time they fought.
“First off, there is no way that you can hurt me Tate,” Jared says, still holding a motionless Ethan. “Secondly, I easily made sure that you weren’t on the basketball team. What makes you think that I wouldn’t hesitate to guarantee that you are no longer in this school? All it takes is one more slip-up with cocaine, Ethan.”
Ethan looks up at the person whom he believed was his friend. Now, all that Ethan can see in Jared’s eyes is evil. Jared’s merciless greed has been a factor in everything that Ethan has lost.
Still holding Ethan, Jared concludes, “If I was you, I’d accept this whole thing and never bring it up again. You don’t want to fuck with me, Tate. If you think things have gotten as bad as they can get, you’re wrong. It can always get worse, Ethan. Don’t forget that.”
Jared releases his hold on Ethan. He then stands up, gathers his belongings, and proceeds to Math class. Ethan stays on the floor.
“How was your first day back from the suspension, Ethan?”
Ethan didn’t talk to anyone other than his teachers the entire day. He felt like an outcast. During lunch period, he went for a cruise by himself. The afternoon went by slowly and his social studies teacher assigned a huge project with an unrealistic due-date.
“Good,” Ethan lies.
Sadly enough, though his day at school was dreadful, it is somehow better than the current environment at home. Ethan is hiding so much information from his mother that he can hardly look himself in the mirror. He has to be careful and make sure that he doesn’t leak out anything that he’s been hiding from her. Diane is currently the only person in Ethan’s life who is on his side. Ethan could lose that support if Diane found out about the cocaine.
“Well wash-up for supper. Cindy has dance at 4:30, so we’re going to have an early dinner tonight,” Diane explains.
Standing in the kitchen Ethan is fidgeting.
“Actually,” Ethan says. “I left my social binder at the school… I should really get it because I have tons of homework tonight.”
“Can’t you go get it after supper?” Diane asks.
“Well I’m not really hungry right now either,” Ethan explains. “Just save me some leftovers in the fridge and I’ll eat when I get home.”
Diane nods her head.
Ethan slips out the front door, shivers from the cold wind, shuffles through the snow to his truck, gets in, and then drives away in the opposite direction of the school.
With one hand on the wheel, Ethan digs into his pocket for his cell-phone.
The urge has finally gotten too big; Ethan needs to escape from everything.
He scrolls through his contacts list until he finds the name he is looking for: Vincent Young.
Vincent was a close friend of Ethan's over the past few years, but their friendship began to deteriorate when Vincent got increasingly addicted to drugs. Ethan would always tell Vincent he was making a mistake; Vincent would always tell Ethan that he knew that, but didn't care. He would also tell Ethan that it was going to be, “The last time.” But it never was. Vincent dropped out of school just before completion of junior year. Ethan hasn’t talked to Vincent in months. But now, as he dials the number, he isn’t just calling to check up on Vincent; rather, Ethan needs a favour.
“Hello?”
“Hey Vincent, this is Ethan Tate calling.”
“Ethan! Dude, I haven’t talked to you in ages. How are you man?”
“I’m doing alright, buddy. How are you?”
“I’m keeping it together . . . working a lot lately.”
“Ah.”
“So what’s been going on with your life? You and that Liberty girl still together?”
A brief pause.
“No, not anymore. We broke up a couple months ago.”
“Oh, I’m sorry to hear that man.”
“Thanks.”
Another brief pause.
“So what’s up?”
A longer pause.
“Well, I was actually wondering if you could do me a favour?”
A shorter pause, followed by a Vincent chuckling.
“What could I possibly do for you . . . the guy who has everything?”
Ethan wonders how and when he got stuck with this label of having it all.
“I’m looking for some cocaine.”
Possibly the longest pause.
“What?”
“I need some cocaine, Vincent.”
“Ethan, you can’t be serious. Trust me dude, you do not want to mess with this stuff, you’ve got too much going for you.”
Ethan rolls his eyes.
“Listen Vince, you have no idea what I’ve got going for me. I’ve lost Liberty, I’ve lost my spot on the basketball team and I’ve sacrificed almost all of my morals in the last few months.”
“How did you get cut from the basketball team?”
“It’s a long story. Listen, are you going to help me out or not, because if you’re going to say no then I will just phone up someone else to hook me up,” Ethan says.
Ethan can hear Vincent breathing on the other end of the phone.
“I’ll supply you with the coke on one condition: if you promise me that you know what you’re getting yourself into.”
A brief silence as Ethan considers this.
Vincent goes on, “This ruins lives, dude. Every day I wish I never started. I’d hate to see you, a guy who has so much potential, ruin his life too.”
The honest words out of Vincent’s mouth catch Ethan off-guard.
“There’s a good chance you will get hooked. You better damn-well be ready to deal with the consequences,” Vincent concludes.
Ethan pulls his car in front of Vincent’s house.
"I'm sure."
Previous Chapters:
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20