the coke-hydrolysis tell, and Green who knows it cold
R. Lenz’s mouth writhes and he scratches at the little rhynophemic rash and sniffs terribly and complains of terrible late-autumn leaf-mold allergies, forgetting that Bruce Green knows all too well what coke-hydrolysis’s symptoms are from having done so many lines himself, back when life with M. Bonk was one big party.
Context
The addict's disguise fails against the fellow addict's eye: Lenz's writhing mouth and sniffing and the allergy alibi are transparent to Green, who did too many lines himself to be fooled. The passage does the theme's quiet work in one clause — the recovering man carries the exact expertise that lets him read the using man, "back when life with M. Bonk was one big party" placing Green's own habit in the elegiac past tense the whole scene keeps returning to.