English Comp.
Narrative Essay
John Thomas - a man of character and a flare for the dramatic patiently awaits his moment in time. Lonely nights at the local pub serve as the back drop for a typical evening. Cigarette smoke, laughter and the sound of bottles crashing together in the proposal of cheers fills the air. “What’ll it be Johnny? The usual?” asks Lenny the bartender with the unmistakable Boston
John Thomas had it all. He was a family man. He was a husband to a wife, Heather, who in the opinion of all John’s friends was the most beautiful woman in town. His friends would say, “How’d you end up with her Johnny? She could’ve done a lot better than you.” “I guess I just got lucky,” John would reply with a smile on his face. He was a father to a son, Tyler, who was the best hitter on the high school baseball team. He was a father to a daughter, Jenny, who was at the top of her 12th grade high school class. John had the nicest two story house on the block; the best kept lawn and the white picket fence that never seemed to lose the look of fresh paint. John had the typical 9 to 5; nothing special, but let’s just say he did pretty well for himself. He had a countless number of friends who came to him for advice or just for a laugh when they needed to be cheered up. John always had the right answer and he always knew just what to say. Everyone looked up to John for one reason or another. He was the envy of everyone he knew. But what they didn’t know is that John had a demon. Everyone has a secret, right? Well, John had his and little did he know that one day the demon living within him, the secret that he kept close to his chest would tear him apart piece by piece.
As a boy John would spend his days traipsing through the near by woods close to his home. You see, John’s father was an alcoholic. When he wasn’t drinking, John’s father was a different man; kind, gentle, caring and at times, humorous. But as we all know, alcohol can change a personality. After a few beers, which usually began no later than lunchtime in the Thomas household, John’s father became a different person. He became irritable, angry, and argumentative. All of this, for some reason, would be aimed right at John. So John would stay hidden; wondering around the woods, avoiding the inevitable clash with his father that would end with a bruise or two and subsequently a concocted adventurous story by John to tell his teacher and friends at school in an attempt to provide an explanation. Perhaps this is how John obtained his flare for dramatics. John never could understand why, but his mother never put a stop to any of his father’s drunken episodes. John would spend the rest of his boyhood days hiding from his father, taking the beatings and accepting it as his reality. John was a tough kid, but the life he lived would eventually take its toll on him. John became depressed; falling out of the social atmosphere altogether. Not because he was running out of epic adventures that would explain his latest injury (John had quite an imagination and his well of fiction never ran dry), but mostly because he was mentally destroyed. He was jealous of his friends and the normal everyday existence they were allowed to live. It was difficult for John to live a lie day in and day out. And although he made it look easy, a demon began to form within him.
One day while preparing to set off on yet another day traipsing around the woods, John looked into the refrigerator. He thought that maybe there might be a juice box and some leftovers from dinner the night before to bring along with him on the excursion. John found what he was looking for, but the demon forming inside of him also found what he was looking for. In the back of the refrigerator, hidden behind the milk were two cans of his father’s beer. John didn’t know how there could be any left from the previous day as his father never left any one can with even a drops worth of alcohol unconsumed. Nevertheless, there before him, were two cans of beer for the taking. The refrigerator door closed with two cans of beer that were there before it was opened, gone. John made his way out into the woods, found his usual spot under his favorite oak tree, popped open the first can of beer and tipped it back. He hated the taste of the beer, but within minutes of consuming it, John, his demon and the beer began to form a bond. John would eventually crack open the second beer and never look back. That day John found his escape from depression and a way to cope with his father. This is how John would handle the pressures of life from then on.
John would keep his secret close to his chest all through his adolescent years. As a kid he would collect all of his father’s empty beer cans and take them to the local corner store, taking whatever money the man behind the counter would offer him. John wasn’t old enough to buy the beer, of course. Now whether it was the demon doing the thinking, John himself or more or less a collaborative effort; John was very smart. He knew how to get what he wanted and what he wanted was alcohol. There was a bum who made his home behind the corner store. John worked out a deal with the bum. John would sell his father’s beer cans and have the bum buy the beer with the promise of a beer for himself. As John grew up he soon acquired a job bagging groceries at the neighborhood grocery store. He didn’t earn much, but John wasn’t interested in spending money on a night out with friends or dinner and a movie with a love interest. All he wanted was a way to numb his pain. John spent all of his money on alcohol and he was quite pleased with the beer being his only friend. John would eventually meet a woman, get married and establish a family. It’s hard to imagine how John kept his drinking a secret from everyone for so long, but when you’ve been in the game for as long as he had, keeping the secret had become second nature to him. Life was good and the exterior of the life
John had built seemed ideal, but something on the inside was stirring and reaching its inevitable collapse. All good things must come to an end.
With all the pressures that typical family life has to offer, John was relying on alcohol to handle the stress more than he ever had before. Stopping at the bar on the way home from work for an hour for a few Johnnie Walker’s and a chat with Lenny the bartender became two hours. The next month John would stay for three hours and then the next day, four hours. After a while, the harmless drink after a stressful day at work had become staying out so late that John didn’t come home for dinner; he didn’t come home to help Heather with the dishes or meet Jenny’s new boyfriend before their first date. He didn’t come home to take Tyler
Four years later, John Thomas – a man of character, a man that once had it all; sits at a bar, head buried in his hands with shame pouring through his fingers, facing his reality. Johnnie Walker provides some peace, but John knows his demon has taken over and the brutal truth that he has lost all control stares him right in the eyes. “You spend too much time in here, Johnny,” says Lenny with his unmistakable Boston
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