How It All Goes Down
January 14, 1992
- Charlie goes to the library to do research. Not for a school project, though. He's researching the long-term effects of LSD usage.
- One of the books tells him that some people take LSD and never come out of their schizophrenic state. It's like the roach motel of drugs—you check in, but you don't check out.
- That piece of information makes Charlie really paranoid.
- It doesn't help that he wore the suit Patrick got him for Christmas. Everyone at school is making fun of him.
- Charlie decides to start smoking cigarettes, and he gets his first one from Patrick.
- Sam helps talk Charlie through what she calls "the trance" (3.2.25).
- Once the world stops moving around him, Charlie is able to focus on school and, as he puts it, "put [his] life back together" (3.2.27).
- After getting good feedback on his The Catcher in the Rye paper, Charlie receives a new book from Bill: On the Road by Jack Kerouac.