Page 228 - Some Dance to Remember

198 Jack Fritscher

If gossip gets around a gym that Mr. Physique over there, benching
450, with twenty-inch arms, drinks whipped tuna from a blender once a
day and swallows 30 mg of anabolic steroids, every muscle-crazed man in
the place will figure if one can of tuna and 30 mg of Dianabol does that
for him, then they’ll catch up and even pass him by drinking three cans
of tuna and popping 90 mg of steroids.
“That’s why half of them are crazy,” Kick said. “They believe any-
thing. They think bodybuilding is witchcraft. If they could only find the
right ingredient, the right pill, the right coach, they’d be Mr. America.”
With the gay gyms came the steroids. Dianabol was as popular on
Castro as cocaine and MDA. Ryan wanted nineteen-inch arms like the
two husky dealers who drove up from El Lay to peddle their little blue
pills on Castro. He wanted to beef up for Kick. He fantasized they could
lock together in mutual musclesex. His heart pounded in fascination of
the potential.
Steroids were Eden’s apple.
“They’re poison,” Ryan said. He spoke out against his own temptation.
“These days for a competition bodybuilder,” Kick said, “there’s no
other way.”
Kick was telling him something.
“You mean you have to start?” Ryan asked.
“There’s no other way,” Kick said.
“You’ve done okay so far without them.”
“We want to take muscle as far as it will go.”
Ryan tried to adjust his Attitude. He read too much. Steroids lower
the immune system, cause cancer, turn the liver to pudding. “You’re sure,”
he said.
“We can visualize every night, but there’s only so much muscle mass
we can conjure.” Kick was confident. “I know this doctor in El Lay. He’s
into sports medicine. Steroids are okay under medical supervision. He’ll
monitor me. I’ll drive down there once a month. He works with profes-
sional bodybuilders. He knows what he’s doing. I know what I’m doing.
I want you to know everything that’s going on.”
“I’m not sure,” Ryan said.
“You want us to win, don’t you?”
“Of course.”
“Then it’s muscle as far as it goes.”
“I don’t want anything to happen to you.”
“Trust me,” Kick said.
“I’ve always trusted you,” Ryan said.

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