Chapter Beginning

By the time the officer got to him, he had been drinking for over three hours. Three hours, he had been drinking. Drinking alone in the office of his father’s shop after closing for the night, downing a bottle of whiskey before getting into his jeep and trying to make the drive home to where he would drink more, drink until he couldn’t remember, drink until he passed out. Oh how he had loved her! The shop was an auto shop his father owned; facing the main highway through town. The curtains were pulled down low, the lights were off; the desk in the office pulled back from the windows so no-one could see him. He sat there watching the traffic, and he drank. He watched the gas station across the street, and he drank. Both were busy with couples going out for the night, friends meeting up, couples holding hands, laughing and having the gleam of excitement that people have when setting out on a Friday night. He watched this and he drank. He drank the two beers he had stashed in the shop refrigerator, and then he downed a bottle of whiskey he had bought from old man Charlie’s liquor store up the street. He had endured more than any man should have. At twenty the pain was too much. He was not going out, he had seen too much, been through too much.