We were stretched out on the couches in the Le Bistrot Infernal, taking turns to suck the smoke from the communal water-pipe. The cool vapours worked their way into our lungs, then into the blood and (finally) the brain, where they cooled like a lizard around the medulla oblongata.

Ahab exhaled and, as the smoke curled to the ceiling, asked me, "So, when did you first get turned on?"

"Turned on?" I asked. "What do you mean?"

"This," he said, gesturing with the bit of his pipe. "This life. The drugs."

"It was by accident," I replied. "I was at a party in the Low Life. The alcohol was flowing freely, and I had drunk enough to float Noah to Mount Ararat. So, when this girl came up to me and whispered in my ear, I wasn't going to turn down the invitation."

Ahab sucked on his pipe and chuckled. "So, what did she do?"

"I followed her upstairs, to the second floor rooms. You know - the rooms where Mother Mei holds sway? She led me into one that was draped in silks. You could see the light from the neon sign outside, but it was filtered. She laid me down on the bed, then sat down next to me. I could smell the perfume of her body through the stink of stale incense.

"I reached out to put an arm around her, pull her down next to me. She resisted for a moment, then rolled around. In her hand was a bowl full of pills. 'Here,' she said. 'Take this.' I asked her what it was, but she just put one in her mouth and bent down to kiss me, pushing the pill into my mouth with her tongue.

"It was the first time I had taken acid. The world around me seemed to melt. The light from the neon sign flowed across our bodies like cold molasses. When she touched me, it was like static electricity. As we made love, our bodies merged so that we shared our pleasure, reflecting it back towards each other in a sybaritic crescendo. And, as I looked up to the ceiling, the gods applauded.

"And it lasted all night."

Ahab raised himself up on one elbow. "All night, eh? So, what happened when you came down?"

I grinned. "What makes you think I ever came down?"