Chapter 1: Life

Well, it happened again. Just when I thought everything might finally be going my way, I lost everything.

My name is Andrew Williams but everyone calls me Andy. No, I am not that Andy Williams; we're not even distantly related. I am fifty five years old. Ever since I was a young boy, nothing ever seemed to work out for me. I had gotten into trouble before I was a teen. Nothing major really. I got lost within ten blocks of my house, watched as my clothes floated downstream while swimming, and getting a huge gash on my head from a piece of machinery I had no business being around. I had few friends because we moved around so much, being a military brat. After dad retired, we moved back to his hometown. Talk about culture shock! This place felt like it was at least twenty years behind the times. And talk about prejudices! If you were not born there, you were an outsider, and if you were of mixed ancestry ... well, you get the picture. Needless to say I was pretty much an outcast. I could count on one hand the number of friends I had for the next eight years.

I'm very ordinary in looks. At five foot eight and a hundred eighty pounds, I'm pretty average. With my dark hair, brown eyes, and tanned skin, I'm the guy everyone sees, but never really notices except that you can tell I'm not one hundred percent 'white'.

I got my first real job when I was twelve delivering the local paper. It wasn't a big route and took me less than an hour from start to finish. I remember the paper had held "new customer" drives every year, with the prizes based on number of new subscribers for the demographic area. My last year, I had increased my volume by fifty percent. Surely that would qualify for one of the big prizes! What I didn't know was that the paper decided to discontinue the contest that year. I was so shocked and disappointed at losing out that I quit the job.

My next 'real' job was at a convenience store. I enjoyed working with customers and even got flirted with by some of the girls that came in. That lasted until the owner decided that the location was too run down (it was a converted service station), closed it and demolished the building.

I did manage to get me a girlfriend. She was the sweetest and prettiest girl around ... well at least to me. We got together when we could, which was not often since we lived almost thirty miles apart.

After graduation, I joined the military, just to get away. After basic training, I returned and proposed to my girlfriend and she said Yes! I was the happiest man alive. We decided to wait to get married since she was still in school for another year, but we started planning. I set up an account for the two of us and started making deposits from my pay. After she graduated, I returned with the intention of marrying her and taking her with me. Imagine my shock when she told me that she wasn't ready to marry. I told her we could wait a while longer to which she agreed. I went back to my duty station, a bit depressed, but still hopeful. That hope was totally destroyed a couple of months later when I was informed by a 'friend' that she had married someone else. I was devastated.

So, there I was in one of the easiest places to 'hook up' with absolutely no desire to do so. I spent most of my free time in my dorm room, but could not get much peace and quiet. I decided to take up golf just for the privacy and serenity. One day while on the course, I met a lovely young lady and we started to hang out and golf together. She had an advantage over me since I was constantly distracted by the view. Just as I was thinking there might be something between us, she let me know that her father had gotten orders and she would be leaving soon. She told me that she hoped she could find a friend like me to golf with at their next assignment. I never saw her again.