Chapter Fourteen
On a Saturday in September 1954, Richie Rand took his first drink with Frank Fagan. He was eighteen and a senior at Arts & Crafts High. Frank was the neighborhood failure, a high school dropout who lived a few doors from Richie. Margaret had gone away for the weekend and left Richie on his own. Allen had done his best to convince Richie that Frank was a loser and he should stay away from him. Nevertheless, Richie ignored his best friend’s advice. Before he finished that first glass of cheap whisky in Frank Fagan’s basement, he knew there was no turning back. The slow burn of the liquor going down his throat and the euphoria that followed hooked him. The two young men spent that afternoon and evening drinking and flipping through girl magazines. It was dark when Richie slu
