Nic’s relapse and disappearance after his first long period of sobriety

Nic’s relapse and disappearance after his first long period of sobriety turns an apparent stretch of hard-won independence into another family search. After seventeen months off meth, Nic stops answering his father, David Sheff, and disappears; the phone trail that leads from Sacramento to Reno and Billings ends with word that he is in San Francisco and high. The episode’s force lies in the reversal: the practical gains and recovery routines that seemed to mark a new life cannot reassure his family once Nic vanishes.

Sobriety and the fragile promise of independence

Nic’s disappearance follows a period when his recovery had begun to take visible, ordinary forms. He had opened a bank account, obtained a secured credit card, saved money, bought a used Mazda and later a new bicycle, and moved into an apartment. His room was rented from Ted, the longtime sober sponsor of Nic’s own sponsor, Randy. These steps did not make his days easy: Nic was lonely, worried about the future, and still experienced intense cravings. When the end of a new relationship with Z. left him near tears, he called Randy instead of turning to a dealer, drug-using friends, marijuana, or beer. Randy took him on a three-hour bike ride up Temescal Canyon, twice, and afterward Nic sounded elated.

In September, Nic celebrated a year of sobriety, a milestone his father regarded as more consequential than an ordinary birthday. A month later, however, Nic stopped returning calls. In their last conversation, he had admitted that he was still reeling from the breakup and could not stop thinking about Z. His silence therefore follows a known emotional blow, but the text does not show David Sheff discovering the relapse at once. Instead, it makes the interval of uncertainty central: the father recognizes that something is wrong while resisting the explanation he fears.

The silence and the search

David Sheff struggles to identify what has changed. Nic had seemed enthusiastic about his life, had a good job and supportive friends, and was biking and writing. He attended Alcoholics Anonymous meetings, including meetings at Herbert House, where he saw Jace and other friends. With Randy, whom his father understood as possibly Nic’s closest friend, he was working through the twelve steps, including self-examination, atonement, and the character-building Nic had described. These signs of stability make the disappearance harder to interpret, not less alarming: none can tell his family where he is or whether he has relapsed.

David Sheff first asks Vicki to check Nic’s apartment. Nic’s roommate has not seen him, and his bed has not been slept in. At Promises, a coworker reports that Nic has not appeared for two days. Friends have heard nothing; one had arranged to meet him for lunch and a bike ride the previous day, but Nic never arrived. David Sheff calls the police to ask whether there has been an accident and contacts hospital emergency rooms. Vicki drives to the Santa Monica police station and files a missing-person report. The attempted checks accumulate without producing an explanation, while the absence becomes concrete in a succession of missed obligations, an empty bed, and unanswered calls.

A phone moving across the map

Unable to reach Nic, David Sheff repeatedly calls his cell phone and hears the same deadpan voicemail greeting. A customer-service operator for the family’s shared wireless company cannot provide the recent call information he requests, but says she can check whether the phone is connected to the network. She reports that it is accessing a tower in Sacramento. No one David Sheff calls knows why Nic would be there or can name a friend there. Two hours later, the operator calls back: the phone is still on, but now it is in Reno.

The location produces an explanation that is possible but unconfirmed. A police detective tells David Sheff that Reno is a meth capital, which could account for Nic’s presence, though the father recognizes that Nic would not need to travel there to obtain the drug. He also clings to the counterevidence: Nic has just celebrated seventeen months off meth and works at a rehabilitation center helping addicts. The phone’s movement offers data without security. It places the device in successive cities but does not establish who has it, what Nic is doing, or whether he is safe.

The operator calls again the next morning with another location: Billings, Montana. David Sheff tries to imagine a plausible reason for the journey and, in the absence of news, fears that Nic may have been kidnapped or killed. He calls the Billings police and the Federal Bureau of Investigation. The search is driven by an expanding geography and a shrinking ability to distinguish evidence from catastrophe: the phone is active, but each new location creates more questions than answers.

Confirmation in San Francisco

After further efforts to reach Nic, David Sheff asks the wireless operator to disconnect the telephone, saying that it appears to have been stolen and thanking her for her help. The apparent end of the phone trail does not end the search. David Sheff and Vicki continue making calls, hoping for any news, until Vicki contacts Z. She has recently heard from Nic: he called her from San Francisco, and he was high.

That report confirms the relapse the family had been trying not to assume. It also makes clear that the phone’s earlier route across Sacramento, Reno, and Billings had not resolved the essential question of Nic’s condition; confirmation comes instead through the former girlfriend whose breakup preceded his silence. The event ends with news of his location and drug use, not with a reunion or an account of what happened during the disappearance. For David Sheff, the return of information brings no relief proportionate to the fear: Nic is somewhere known, but the cycle of hope, uncertainty, and renewed alarm has begun again.