Travel Down The Road Of Heartache – Chapter Five

“So, it was a drug deal gone bad?”

“Seems so.  I never knew Gary was into any of that.  I mean, I had no clue.  All we ever did was shoot hoops after school, hang out with girls, work…there was never any of that other stuff, you know?”

“I understand, Abel.  Believe me I do.  I saw things like that all the time when I counseled youth in some ramshackle after school youth program in Carolina that the government set up thinking it would help.  Bull.  All it did was give the kids a chance to swap stories and compare notes.  Did we do some good?  Being honest, I suppose so.  I know after I graduated from Bowling Green it paid the bills for a few months while I figured out what I was going to do next.  More coffee?”

Travel Down The Road Of Heartache – Chapter Three

Ann Carlson was not the world’s greatest mother.  Oh, she had love in spades but it takes a bit of practical knowledge to make the world go ’round when kids are sick and have thrown up everywhere, or are scared in the night and just need the right word pulled out of nothing to make the demons go far, far away.  She got better at raising little Abel as the years went by, but her method of child raising at first was a combination of Lucy Ricardo, a well-worn copy of Dr. Spock, and whatever bits of self-help she could glean from neighbors and the odd passers-by.  Walter did his part – when he was around – but his work called him, and the never-ending chase of the almighty dollar in order to provide for a family was a hard and relentless taskmaster.

Travel Down The Road Of Heartache – Chapter One

It wasn’t always like this, the man thought.

At one time he had a home and a wife and a good job.  A steady but unspectacular existence that paid the bills and kept up some semblance of appearances.  Weeks on end followed by weeks on end bought a stream of peace of mind that stretched out into the horizon, and beyond.  It was the American dream, really.  Comfort, predictability, and a calm that came with every breath.

Then one day his wife said she had had enough.  Bored, looking for more or some such collection of reasons that were hatched in a brain not his own.  Within a month, his job was downsized as a result of policy created in a far-off and disconnected from reality fantasy land where do-gooders reign and the masses are left to deal with and survive in spite of them.