Staring at all the green bundles, ... Joey felt suddenly...

Staring at all the green bundles, ... Joey felt suddenly overwhelmed by the challenge of hanging onto it. The idea of finding that much money was proving to be more thrilling than the actual experience, much as the highs he got by shooting speed had long ago stopped living up to his expectations. The hard truth about life, which most people learned but that Joey had not, was that things had to be earned to be fully enjoyed. Success, accomplishment, the admiration of the world -- these were all things that could not be faked, or purchased with a needle or a windfall.