Page 215 - The Big Book of Alcoholics Anonymous

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WOMEN SUFFER TOO

Despite great opportunities, alcohol nearly ended
her life. An early member, she spread the word among
women in our pioneering period.

hat was I saying...from far away, as if in
W a delirium, I heard my own voice—calling
someone “Dorothy,” talking of dress shops, of jobs
. . . the words came clearer... this sound of my own
voice frightened me as it came closer... and sud­
denly, there I was, talking of I knew not what, to
someone I’d never seen before that very moment.
Abruptly I stopped speaking. Where was I?
I’d waked up in strange rooms before, fully dressed
on a bed or a couch; I’d waked up in my own room,
in or on my own bed, not knowing what hour or day
it was, afraid to ask... but this was different. This
time I seemed to be already awake, sitting upright in
a big easy chair, in the middle of an animated con­
versation with a perfectly strange young woman who
didn’t appear to think it strange. She was chatting on,
pleasantly and comfortably.
Terrified, I looked around. I was in a large, dark,
rather poorly furnished room—the living room of a
basement flat. Cold chills started chasing up and
down my spine; my teeth were chattering; my hands
were shaking, so I tucked them under me to keep them
from flying away. My fright was real enough, but it
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