Hometown Legend Read Online Free PDF Page B

conspiracy, and out I go
     again. This here, this is almost a relief.”
    “This here?”
    “What’s happened to her now, which is what I came to tell you. See, I’ve had her in and out of alcohol treatment centers,
     nothing permanent. Expensive. Where I taught school they wouldn’t cover it because they called it a preexisting condition.
     It never helped anyway. When she wasn’t drunk she was crazy, so I never got a break.”
    His voice was shaky and he drew in a breath. I wanted to cry too, but I didn’t figure that would help. I didn’t know what
     he was looking for, but it didn’t seem like sympathy.
    When he got himself together, he said, “I don’t mean to put her down, Sawyer. I’m just trying to tell ya.”
    “I know.”
    “I still love her. I don’t even know why. She’s given me no reason for twenty years, but I was raised that you love your wife
     and you keep your commitments.” He shook his head. “Course I always thought I could love her through this and get her better
     too.”
    “Maybe someday.”
    He looked down. “I’m past hoping,” he said. “Anyway, this last year I can’t keep her sober. Somehow she always finds booze.
     Lies, negotiates, finagles, you name it. Typical stuff, they tell me, but I’ve never seen anything like it. I finally got
     a doctor to tell me she’s a full-blown alcoholic and could kill herself if she keeps drinking. Insurance where I am still
     won’t cover it, but God gives me this idea. At least I think that’s where it came from. I was praying and pretty soon I get
     this idea, so two and two equals four or whatever. I call Weeks Bay County and find out I worked at Athens City long enough
     that part of my pension includes coverage for this kind of a thing. Only hitch is, she’s got to be treated here. Somehow there’s
     a spot for her at Fairhope Rehab, and I’m in the car with her the next day, driving all the way from KC. Had to have her doped
     up and restrained just to get her here. Now she says I must hate her and want her dead so she hates me and wants me dead and
     she never wants to see me again if I don’t get her out of there and all that.”
    “A nightmare,” I said.
    “A relief,” he said. “God forgive me, I need the break.”
    I kinda knew what he meant, but again, I was just listening, not trying to advise him. “So, what’re you gonna do, Coach?”
    “I’m gonna do right by the woman I love.”
    It sounded so strange it was almost funny. After what I’d just heard I didn’t know whether I was supposed to laugh or cry.
    “I’m serious,” he said. “I’m going to find a room, get me a job, visit her every day whether she wants me to or not— I mean,
     I’m not gonna make a scene, just be faithful and be there so she can never say I wasn’t. And I’m gonna try to make a life
     for myself.”
    “Doing what?”
    “I was hoping you could help with that.”
    “Me?”
    “You said you’d do anything.”
    “But—”
    “You run the biggest business in town.”
    “Coach, I—”
    “I’ll do anything, Sawyer. I’m not proud. Put me on the line. I might not still be strong enough to be a turner, but I can
     cut or sew or whatever you want.”
    “Coach, I’ve laid off two hundred people since you left town.”
    He smiled a sad smile. “That’s my fault too?”
    “It’s just, how do I justify hiring on somebody new when so many old friends have had to move away cause I didn’t have a spot
     for em?”
    He stood quickly. “I understand,” he said. “Really, I do. I don’t know what I was thinking. It’s not like you owe me anything.
     I’ll find something.”
    Now I was standing. “Coach,” I said, forceful as I could muster, “I want you to do me the favor of sitting yourself back down.
     Now, I mean it. I can’t imagine telling you what to do, but you came in here willing for me to be your boss, I need you to
     listen to me for just a second. Please.”
    Coach sat back down and I moved around to