Repeat offender (Arizona)

My name is Narcissus. You can call me N.

                   

The first time I met Echo was in a Marine Corps Medical Evac. tent outside of a shit hole border town called Al-Khafji between Kuwait and the ‘Kingdom’ of Saudi Arabia. The word Kingdom of course being a stretch.

A day I'll never forget. 

She was a Southern Indiana flower. Just a little, medical daffodil. 

I was bleeding out of my neck from the shrapnel hit and in and out of consciousness. 

But thats another story for another day. Fast forward some years...

                   

Now, prison Iife is very structured...more than most people care for.

But a spirit of camaraderie exists between the men like you find onIy in combat, maybe, or on a pro ball club in the heat of the pennant drive. It ain’t Ozzie and Harriet but sometimes its the only fam you got.

In an effort to better ourselves, we had to meet with a counselor, who tried to heIp us figure out why we were the way we were. But all we wanted was a hot roll and butter.

I tried to stand straight and fly right upon numerous releases but it wasn't easy with that son of a bitch Bush in the White House. I don't know. They said he was a decent man.

So...maybe his advisers were confused.

I can't say I was happy to be back inside, but the flood of familiar sights, sounds and faces almost made it feel like a homecomin'. Most men my age are married and raising up a family.

Well, sometimes your career's gotta come before family.

I don't know how you come down on the incarceration question, whether it's for rehabilitation or revenge, but I was beginning to think revenge is the onIy argument makes any sense. Still, I couldn't heIp thinkin' that a brighter future lay ahead. 

A future that was onIy eight to fourteen months away.

They say that absence makes the heart grow fonder. And, for once, they may be right.

More and more my thoughts turned to Echo and as days turned to months, I finally feIt the pain of imprisonment.

So when paroled, I dedicated every waking moment to finding and winning over the the goddess nymph, Echo. She eventually gave in.

These were the happy days, the salad days, as they say, and Echo feIt that havin' a critter was the next logical step. It was all she thought about.

Her point was that there was too much love and beauty for just the two of us. I thought that was beautiful. Every thing Echo said was music to my ears.

Echo rejoiced that my lawless years were behind me and that our chiId-rearing years lay ahead.

And then the roof caved in.

N.