Trainspotting

Chapter 7 returns to Mark’s point of view. He is awakening from the haze of a high in another person’s apartment. It’s the sound of screaming that brings him back to earth. Mark is still high, and it takes him time to process what’s happening, but it’s clear something is seriously wrong. Simon emerges from another room in the apartment and “his voice reminded us ay the demon’s in the film The Exorcist. It shit us up” (52).

Lesley, the woman whose apartment they are in, just found her baby girl, Dawn, dead in her crib: “Ah can feel death in the room before aheven see the bairn. […] That wee. So fuckin small. Wee Dawn. Fuckin shame” (52). It appears to be a “cot death” (55), meaning Sudden Infant Death Syndrome. The junkies react in mixed ways. Some suggest they should stay with Lesley, while others believe they should leave.

Simon seems the most shaken up of all, which at first confuses Mark. Then, he realizes that Simon is the father of baby Dawn. Simon claims he will get clean. The chapter concludes with Mark deciding to cook up a fresh hit, and the dead child’s mother, Lesley, asking if he can prepare one for her as well.