Month: October 2016

A Letter

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Dearest Sister,

I want you to know that I am responsible for your bills and credit cards being credited to a zero balance from time to time over the last 10 years. I haven’t been a good brother. After dad died and I left, I had an interesting life. I never stopped caring about you.

I did the job on your first husband’s car. I’ve been keeping an eye out and found out he had been striking you more often as weeks and months passed. Once I learned you went into the hospital, I came out and did it. I found the point on his path to work and set his brakes to fail going down that hill by the curve. I gambled the life of oncoming traffic, but got lucky with only him taking the hit.

I’m sorry how bad that hit you, even though he was being a terrible human. I thought you would be happy to finally be free. Your son seemed to begin developing normally after that, so I can only assume he was being abused as well.

I also am the cause for your boss at the insurance company being found in the alley downtown. I monitored communications in your building and could see how stressful he made life for everyone at his own benefit. The people above him hated him and loved you. I knew if he died, they would instantly throw the whole building at you and give you what he was making. I also knew you would be a far better leader than he was.  I just wish they paid you more. I know times get tough, even with a better salary.

Things are going to get bad in this country, and I have arranged for you to be able to live somewhere safe.  Only if you choose to. And if you choose to, it will all be taken care of. Don’t worry about it.  I know it sounds strange, but it will make sense soon enough.

Sorry I couldn’t see you again.

Love always,
Jarrod

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About James

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I was asked recently how old James is. He’s 25. Here’s some timeline for him, involving the book.

From 16-17 he worked fast food. He had a second job as a stock boy at a grocery store. At 17, he met someone who worked in a distribution center. He went there from 17-23. He butted heads with somebody and quit.

23-25, he worked at Toys R Us. Then, the story starts. I suppose he has to have turned 26 in the story at some point but I did not find it important enough to comment on.  In my opinion, it’s quite meaningless in the story.

The reason he lived with his grandpa is because he got in a huge fight with his mom, and left at 18. Other living arrangements didn’t work out and he ended up at his grandpa’s because he helps them with errands from time to time and isn’t home enough to be much of a bother, anyway.

I couldn’t write Grandpa or Grandma’s reaction about the truck because the rage was off the scale and it hurt my heart writing the grandparents in that light.

Part of why some things, like the grandparents’ reaction, didn’t get written, is because the book moved so fast from the time that happened, through the partying, the transition and the training before returning to the surface. I wanted it to reflect how life is. Things happen and before you know it, looking back, a lot of stuff just didn’t get said or done because everything happened too fast.

Sometimes you only see or remember things in retrospect, which I also didn’t give the character time to do. Once he started his job in Arizona his life was so completely packed with taking care of business at work, trying not to be a failure, that nothing else could really be added or thought about. That includes his time with Isobel, overall. And just as he started getting a lot more time with her, either everything would pick back up, or the ending happened. That’s life, sometimes.

If you have any other questions, please feel free to contact me.

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