The Little People(pg. 6)

     I was dad's shepherd, I monitored everything, watched him so he wouldn't hurt anyone or mostly himself. Once he was so mad at me he chased me around with an ax, I doubt he had the strength or courage to physically hurt me but still I kept my distance, he would tire quickly. Lord, this went on so much it was almost routine until he had convulsions coming off the booze, then it turned deadly, once he almost choked to death by swallowing his tongue, I stuck a pencil in his mouth once while he was shaking, it was like a King's Island ride, but far scarer this was my dad's life. He went through Hell and back, I really got to know him better and many times took up for his drinking, all my sisters thought dad was just a drunk, they really never knew how he suffered and what he endured, mom did, but she grew very tired of babysitting a sick child.  
     My mother eventually had dad admitted to Our Lady Of Peace, a hospital for alcoholics and the mentally impaired. Dad hated that place, he called Bobby his brother, my dear hero, to come to pick him up, and like the saint Uncle Bobby was, he always obliged, Uncle Bobby was involved too with health problems, he was burnt from head to toe by an explosion at Louisville's G.E. plant back in the 1970s, but he was tough like all the Hardesty's were, he loved my dad so much, and I loved him back for it, and he was the greatest uncle in the world too. 
     Dad eventually came home again, like always, promised to stay on the straight and narrow, but like clockwork on the calendar of the third month he'd break over. Once mom took him all way to Danville to see some psychiatrist, the shrink loved dad, told my mother that he was an extremely intelligent person, and we got the call one night that dad's shrink went home and blew his own brains out. Tragedy has many stories but always has only one end.  
     I finally found a job at a local beer distributor and worked now 40 hours a week, I could no longer watch dad with safe vigils, there's a time for all things and all things come to an eventual end. I enjoyed my job, but the pay scale didn't quite fit the work, I worked my tail off, and really had nothing at the end of the week, but saved money by living at home. 

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