Chapter 1

Okay, so this had to be the worst day of my life. I just received my divorce papers today, saying that Missy was no longer my wife. It would have have had to have been today that I received them. After all, it is my twenty-fifth birthday.

I called my parents, thinking I might go over and see them, but after mom had wished me a hurried happy birthday, she said they had to run since they had dinner reservations and then they were going to a play.

I called my sister, Patty, but the phone rang and rang and no one answered. I called my brother and talked to his wife, Anna, for a while. She said my brother was out of town on business and wouldn't be back for a week. After a while, she admitted that she and the kids had just been leaving to go to her parents place when the phone rang. I let her go.

I am ashamed to say I didn't have anyone else to call. I had lots of acquaintances at work, but no real friends. Yeah, there were a couple of guys I played golf with, but none of them would appreciate a call from me on a Friday evening.

I sat and looked at the phone for a while and decided I just had to get away from my shabby apartment. I didn't even bother changing out of the sport jacket and tie that I had worn to work. I went out and climbed into my four year old rice burner (Missy got the good car in the divorce settlement) and went in search of an early dinner.

Even the Szechwan Pork I had at my favorite Chinese restaurant couldn't warm me up. I sat there, picking at my food, while I thought of Missy and about my dead end job. I had always had such high hopes, now I wondered where everything had gone wrong.

Missy and I had been a couple since our sophomore year in high school. We had both been quiet, shy kids and it's a wonder we ever got together in the first place. Our romance progressed slowly and it was at the end of our junior year when we gave each other our virginity.

We were inseparable during our senior year and we arranged to attend college at the same school. We both had to live in dorms our freshman year, but we rented an apartment together for our sophomore year and we were married before we came back to school. I had graduated high school at seventeen and by going through summer sessions, inter-sessions, and carrying a heavy course load, I graduated from college when I was twenty.

After college, I started as a junior engineer with a company that was well respected in the factory automation field. Missy had one more year of college to complete after I had graduated, then she went to work for a large accounting firm.

It took me a year to be promoted to Controls Engineer. During my time as a junior engineer I was traveling to different jobs around the country about seventy percent of my time.

This was hard on Missy and me both, but I was working toward a good future for us and Missy understood. My boss kept telling me that when I was promoted to Controls Engineer, I wouldn't have to travel nearly as much. After my promotion, I still found that I was on the road about sixty percent of my time. Not a real big difference when you get right down to it.

I asked my boss right away how long I could expect it to be before I was promoted to Project Engineer. He said it would be at least two or three years. I guess that's when my depression about my work started to settle in. As the years went by, Missy became less understanding. During the last year before she left me, she became a real shrew.

I tried to find another job, but anything I was offered would have required me to move. Missy was enjoying her job and didn't want to leave it. Toward the end we fought almost daily. This beautiful, sweet, intelligent, sexy woman I had married changed into someone I almost hated.

Then she moved out. I felt like the bottom had dropped out of my universe. I wasn't getting along with my boss either. He had said two or three years for another promotion and it had now been four years. Add to that the fact that he suffered from a severe case of the "Not Invented Here Syndrom" and life at work was almost unbearable. Any design idea that I, or any of the other engineers for that matter, had was shot down because it wasn't his idea.

I finished my dinner and decided to walk in the park that was just a couple of blocks down. I was so out of shape that the walk down there almost did me in, so I found a bench and sat down to brood.

I don't know if I was even thinking as I sat there. It was more like I was just experiencing the despair that had been haunting me all day. At some point I know I started wondering if it was worth going on. If this was the way life was going to be, wouldn't I be better off just ending it?

I don't know how long I sat there. It had to have been hours though. "You don't look like you belong here, Mister," an obviously teenaged voice said.

When I looked up, what wasn't obvious was whether the thin, dirty child standing in front of me was a boy or a girl. "You're probably right," I said. "I just don't seem to belong anywhere else either."

"I know that feeling," the child said. "You really shouldn't be around here after dark. This isn't a very safe place to be after the sun goes down."

"What about you? Is it safe for you to be here?"

"Oh, I blend in. It's easy to see that I don't have anything anyone would want. After a while, most of them stopped noticing me at all."

"Do you hang out here a lot at night?"

"Mister, this is my home," the child said, throwing out his/her arms to indicate the whole area. "You are sitting in my living room. My bedroom is off a ways in a thicket. My kitchen is wherever I can find something someone has left behind."

"God, I'm sorry. I was just sitting here feeling sorry for myself and you have it worse than I do."

The child took a step closer then asked, "Why were you feeling sorry for yourself?"

I don't know why I did it. I had never really gotten over my shyness, so I always had trouble talking to strangers. For some reason I opened up to this child. I told him/her everything that had gone wrong with my life. Before I was half way through, he/she came over and sat on the other end of the bench from me.

I talked until I had run completely down then he/she said, "I'm Sam Wright. I can see why you'd be depressed, but let me wish you a happy birthday anyway,"

"Thank you, Sam. I'm Ed Hill. How did you end up living in the park?"

"Maybe I'll tell you some time," Sam smiled. "You know, you could actually look at this as a way to get a new start. Your ex didn't want to move, but now you don't have her holding you back. The only other thing you have holding you to the area is your family. From what you say, they're not very supportive of you anyway. If they were they'd realize what you're going through with the divorce and would have been there for you on your birthday."

"I guess you're right," I said doubtfully. "It's hard to think straight when you feel like your whole world has ended."

"Yep. I know what you mean. It's been almost a year now that I've been on my own. I just live from day to day, trying to find enough to eat. Trying to keep from freezing to death in the winter and trying to keep others from taking what little I have."

"Sam, it's obvious that you're a runaway. Where are you from?"

"I won't even tell anyone what state I'm from," Sam said. "I don't know if anyone is looking for me, but I wouldn't want to take a chance of having to go back."

"So, what you came from was worse than this?"

"Much."

We sat there for a few minutes more, then Sam said, "You really should get out of here, Ed. I'm going to have to disappear, myself. It won't be but a few more minutes before the losers strung out on drugs start to appear. Neither of us want to be sitting on a park bench when they show up."

"Okay, Sam. I've really enjoyed talking with you. I do have some ideas that I guess I'm free to try now. I need to talk them over with someone first."

"Well, I'm in this area from around four in the afternoon until dark. Maybe I'll see you again and you can bounce them off of me."

As I stood up, I reached for my wallet. I had some cash on me, so I pulled out a twenty and handed it to Sam. "I don't want your money, Ed," Sam said, refusing to take it.

"You may not want my money, but you need it. Buy yourself a good meal. You're a very smart young man, Sam. Think of this as my investment in your future."

Sam giggled, but took the money. "I'm a girl, Ed," she said and then she ran off. She disappeared before I could say anything else.

I walked slowly back to my car. I had a lot to think about. Sam was right. This was my chance to start over.

Even though it was a Saturday, I awoke early. I got up and fixed myself some coffee and a bagel. I took my breakfast out onto my postage stamp sized balcony and enjoyed a surprisingly warm early April morning.

When Missy had left and filed for divorce, I had gone to the phone book and started looking for an attorney. There were dozens listed in the directory. I looked through the pages and was repulsed by the glaring ads of most of them. I grew up thinking that doctors and lawyers shouldn't advertise. I automatically avoided all of them with big splashy ads. I discounted all that said they specialized in divorce or in injuries.

I finally saw a listing that attracted me. All it said, besides giving an address and phone number, was "Saul Levitz - Attorney at Law."

I called the phone number and talked with a nice lady who made an appointment for me to come in the next day. When I got to his office I was again impressed. The lady I had talked to was in her fifties. She was charming and offered me coffee while I waited.

Saul was what I had always thought an attorney should be, he was quiet and distinguished. He was probably in his early sixties, but he carried himself like a much younger man. After I was seated, he asked me what he could do for me.

"My wife has left me and has filed for divorce," I said as I handed him the papers I had been served. "I need someone to represent me."

He looked over the papers and said, "I'd say you do need representation. She states the reason for the divorce as irreconcilable differences, then suggests a settlement that would make anyone think she had caught you in a lover's arms."

"I can guarantee you that's not the case," I said. "We'd been married for seven years and I was completely faithful to her."

"Tell me, Mr. Hill, do you want an equitable settlement, or do you want to roll over and play dead?"

"I don't want a divorce at all," I said. "Is there any way we can prevent it from happening?"

"I'm afraid not. In this state, if one party wants a divorce, it's going to happen."

"Well, in that case, I guess I don't want to be taken to the cleaners."

"Good choice. I know her attorney. I shouldn't say this but he's a shyster, an ambulance chaser. If she went to him, there's probably a reason. I'll give him a call and hint that we're having a private investigator check into her activities over the last couple of years. They may decide on a more reasonable settlement."

I was stunned. Had Missy been cheating on me? I was still out of town a lot, so I guess anything was possible. After I had left his office, I was too depressed to go back to work, so I just went back to my apartment and thought about what Sol had implied.

It was three days later when Sol called me at work and asked if I could meet with him, Missy and her attorney the next day. I agreed that I could.

The meeting went a lot better than I dared hope. Missy's attorney did all of the talking for her. He agreed right off that we'd each keep our own 401K and our IRAs. She wanted the house, but Sol hung in there and her attorney finally agreed that she would pay me for my half of the equity in it. Sol proposed we should each take what debts we had initiated. Missy protested, but Sol just sat there and looked at them. Before long they folded. I was magnanimous and agreed Missy could keep the good car as long as she finished paying for it.