Gilded Guilt(page-5)

     Robbie’s mom was a staunch Catholic and she only read one lousy book in her entire life: The Holy Bible. She was a very strict mother with draconian means of getting her point across the bough, she believed a God controlled everything and everyone, though, this God never once answered her prayers of desperation as poverty ravished her family her entire life, where is her God, now? Robbie never forgave her for one incident that was many to follow;  he was an altar boy at a small parish called St. Thomas, a small simple-minded congregation of faithful believers, they lived exactly 3 miles away, a three-minute drive but she insisted he rush to her demands and pulled Robbie away from watching the University of Louisville playing in the Final Four where Louisville had the lead over UCLA with only seconds left and Terry Howard was at the free-throw line where he never missed a free-throw all year long, this game would've been over in less than a minute too, but his mom saw what this game meant to Robbie, she just yanked him away, it was 45 minutes away from mass service, with a 3-minute trip, he begged her to no avail, and the University of Louisville ended up losing to UCLA, Howard missed a free-throw, his first one all year that would have secured that game with only seconds left, Robbie sat in the sacristy of the church pondering if his beloved team would be playing in the very first NCAA Final, but enters his old coach John E. Cissell, laughing because he was our rival, University of Kentucky fan, and said, “Terry Howard missed the clinching free-throws!” Robbie’s heart dropped to the floor, and he immediately had pure contempt for his hateful mother for the rest of his life, her evilness cost them the win because Robbie brought U of L's team luck prior to every game he watched on television. 

     Robbie also had disdain for all his greedy sisters too, their henpecking and badgering of him grew to a boiling point many times, but he kept his composer always, he never struck any one of them but Robbie was a great boxer, he shadow-boxed, hit the speed bag, lifted weights, and ran 2 miles every day, he was 22 & 0 at the local cutthroat bar called the Cabin Inn which many called the “Stabbing Inn” because of the many stabbing and brutal fights that often occurred there. Robbie witnessed one fight there one night, where a Fort Knox Army soldier whom his friends say was a Golden Glove. But, one certain whiskey-drinking older man who had a reputation for cutting up people, started a fight with the Fort Knox soldier and it drew the entire audience outside.

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