Writer Series: Openings #2

I've mentioned before how great I think Denis Johnson's "Jesus' Son: Stories" is. The opening I am posting for this installment is from a short story called "Work." For writers in particular, I think just the opening paragraph shows how a talented writer can make prose both entertaining and potent. Johnson came to fiction from poetry and that lineage is evident throughout the collection. BTW, Jesus's Son is also a movie, starring Billy Crudup. The movie averages four star reviews at Amazon, but I wouldn't go that high. I felt the movie played too much to the humorous side -- and there is wonderful humor in the stories -- while marginalizing the darker side. But then, Johnson has a cameo in the movie and I assume he approved of the tone, so what do I know? Anyway, check it out:

I'd been staying at the Holiday Inn with my girlfriend, honestly the most beautiful woman I'd ever know, for three days, under a phony name, shooting heroin. We made love in the bed, ate steaks at the restaurant, shot up in the john, puked, cried, accused one another, begged of one another, forgave, promised, and carried one another to heaven.