Weeping addicts

"The weeping addict... experiencing the loss of a substance" is a recurring figure that runs from Erdedy onward. It is initiated when Erdedy weeps "hard for two or three seconds," then can't restart it — a precise image of grief that won't come on command. The type then recurs across the recovery world: addicts "almost... cryng," Poor Tony weeping, weeping over a "torn blue ankle," Tiny crying, and "Hal the almost-addict almost cries." The thread closes on ambient grief — "faint sounds of early-morning weeping in certain rooms" — the sound of a whole house mourning what it has given up. Modest and cumulative, the motif keeps the substance-loss at the emotional center of the recovery scenes, insisting that sobriety is first of all a bereavement.