Total pages in book: 69
Estimated words: 62430 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 312(@200wpm)___ 250(@250wpm)___ 208(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 62430 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 312(@200wpm)___ 250(@250wpm)___ 208(@300wpm)
Maybe today was the day. How much longer was I going to continue scraping by? Where was the joy in life? It seemed everything was so much harder than it should be. Just getting out of bed seemed like a monstrous chore; getting to work required chemical assistance. I was tired of life, tired of myself, tired of waking up in the morning to another day.
I lay there feeling sorry for myself for a long time. When my body started to crave the high, I fought back. I didn’t want to continue on this way. Everyone at work kept pushing me to go into rehab. Maybe that was the answer. Lord knew I couldn’t come clean on my own. Maybe it really was time to seek professional help.
I changed out of my stained clothes, choosing the cleanest outfit I could find. My room smelled horrible. I needed to clean it, to pick up all the trash and scrub the floors. But I couldn’t find the energy or the focus to begin the task. Instead, I set my sights on something that was even more important: researching rehab programs.
I hadn’t paid my cell phone bill in a couple of months, so all I could do with the burner phone was play a couple of downloaded games. I stuck it in my pocket anyway. It served to mask the severity of my problem. If people saw me on a phone, they would automatically assume I was normal.
The library had free internet—I could just check in there and look up recovery programs. I got in my truck, an old pickup I had bought off a friend in recovery almost five years ago. For some reason, even though I had made millions of mistakes, I had never been caught. I flew in under the radar where the law was concerned. I should have gone to jail a million times, but luck was always on my side.
I was actually sober this time, if you didn’t count the leftover fuzziness from last night. I drove carefully, forcing myself to pay attention. The library was on Main Street, and there was plenty of traffic on a Saturday afternoon. I eased into a parking spot, turning the engine off. Inside, the library was quiet, with the exception of a read-aloud program for preschoolers.
I slid into one of the cubbies for internet browsing and logged on using my library card. It was funny—no matter how far down in life I fell, I still managed to keep that library card. It was one of the few things in life that were really free and helpful. I typed in “rehab” and the name of my town and got a few hits.
The closest ones were in Nashville. One I had heard of in my brief flirtation with sobriety. One was a religious place. I wasn’t sure how I felt about that. There was a third attached to a hospital, and that one seemed to be the best bet. At least there, if I had any troubles, there would be doctors available. I took a picture of the address and stuck the phone back in my pocket. If I could only find the courage to drive myself there, maybe things would turn around. But first, I had to talk to my boss.
2
GINA
My tabby cat stretched and purred beside me, nuzzling me awake. I reached a weary hand to scratch her ears. I called her Evil, and there was a whole backstory that went with that. Evil was destined to take over the world; she was just taking a minor hiatus to live with me in my Nashville apartment. As soon as she was tired of belly rubs and canned cat food, she was going to rise up and rule over us all. She already ruled over me, I thought sardonically, struggling out of bed.
Evil demanded to be fed, but I ignored her for a minute. Served her right for planning world domination. Despite the fact that I was currently single, there wasn’t a single thing I felt was missing in my life. I had a hard time of it growing up. My mom and dad divorced when I was three, so I didn’t really remember them together. My brothers and I bounced between them. When my mom lost her apartment, we went to live with Dad. When Dad got married again and his new wife imposed rules we weren’t used to following, we went back to live with Mom. She was in and out of rehab, and we stayed with our grandparents.
I went to four different high schools in four years. My younger brother Lincoln, joined the military right out of high school and we hadn’t seen him since. My older brother George, wasn’t so lucky. He got caught up with the wrong crowd, became addicted to oxycontin and then heroin. I watched it change him. He went from a sweet little kid to a thief and a liar. I never knew what he would steal from me next. I locked up all of my valuables, any cash I had or jewelry Dad had given me. If I forgot something even for one day, it disappeared, and I never saw it again.