IT'S NOT OKAY!
Chapter 1
"Thomas, stop it! Stop it! You're hurting me! Get your damn hands off me!" Jessica pleaded, wrestling tirelessly to break free of Thomas's unbreakable grip.
Jessica and Thomas were husband and wife of nearly three years. Both in their late twenties, they had been intimately involved since high school — inseparable sweethearts. After years of dating, they made it official, exchanging vows at the marital altar.
Unfortunately, theirs had taken a turn for the worse — a pivotal point for them both. Their marriage was now, without question, on the brink of collapse. Both Thomas and Jessica had been sacrilegiously unfaithful. Their marriage turned rocky after their very first anniversary, when Thomas suddenly became a verbally, emotionally, and physically abusive husband toward the woman who used to be the only goddess in his universe.
A series of misfortunes followed right behind their wedding. Perhaps that was why Thomas morphed into such an abusive person toward his wife of three years.
Thomas had been laid off from two menial jobs, both paying minimum wage.
Thomas had worked full-time at a local Publix supermarket as a bag and stock boy. The general store manager, Mr. Freeman, laid Thomas off when business slowed, promising to bring him back when it picked up. But an economic downturn in the first quarter of the new fiscal year changed Mr. Freeman's mind. After assessing the company's finances, he decided to replace Thomas with after-school student workers — two kids doing the same job at half the price in half the time. The students worked the busiest hours, three to ten p.m., smiling and joking with customers, while Thomas's morning shifts covered the slowest hours. It was simple math: cut the payroll, keep the shelves stocked. Downsizing wasn't popular, but it was common sense in a tight budget season.
So Thomas found himself in the long, jam-packed lines of the unemployment office. Fortunately, he landed another job at a small, self-owned oil lube and quick tire-change shop run by a man named Mr. Adkins. It paid $7.25 an hour — federal minimum wage — full-time. It wasn't what Thomas wanted long-term, but he had experience as a backyard mechanic. His father had taught him the basics: oil and transmission fluid changes, spark plugs, filters, standard tune-up procedures. Thomas knew which wrenches to grab and which products held up.
Months after Mr. Adkins hired him, Thomas was out of work again. The little shop couldn't compete with the big-name auto repair chains, and the industry kept getting more complex — new systems, new tools, expensive retraining the small shops couldn't afford. Between the competition and the costs, small local repair shops were bullied into closing their doors for good.
All of this fed the troubles in Jessica and Thomas's marriage.
Jessica, a budding nurse's assistant at an elderly care home, was now the breadwinner. She felt a marital obligation to keep food on the table until Thomas got back on his feet — a temporary duty, or so she told herself. The stack of bills claimed its own section of their dinner table, and sorting through them each month was a nerve-wracking burden. Desperate, helpless, and alone in those dark times, Jessica reminded herself that their financial and physical struggles didn't have to mean failure — for her, for Thomas, or for their marriage. She had been raised to weather any storm and to stand by her husband no matter how violent it got.
To ease the financial strain, she took on side jobs — hairstyling and manicures. She did all the heads she could and applied as many sets of nails as she possibly could in her spare time. She was a self-proclaimed beautician and nail technician, and she was getting good at both. Regular customers booked appointments, and she hustled up enough cash each week for gas and lunch money — for herself and for Thomas.
Thomas tried to make use of their spacious garage, doing odd jobs and uncertified quick fixes on neighbors' cars. The community called him a shade-tree mechanic. At least he worked for himself, he often thought — a self-gratifying justification. The only problem: the work was slow, unpredictable, and unpromising. Sometimes business boomed; other times it stalled. Cash only touched his hands when someone's car acted up and needed a technician who halfway knew what he was doing. The long intervals between jobs meant only small, sporadic amounts of cash flow for his drought-infested pockets.
Life seemed hideously against Thomas. Everything that had briefly gone right now, all of a sudden, went horribly wrong. He began indulging immeasurably in the unpleasant life of alcoholism. It started as a euphoric escape from his unrewarding reality. Lacking the mental toughness to cope with his financial failures was destroying not only his liver but his marriage. Thomas got lost in his many empty beer and liquor bottles. The alcohol provided a momentary release from life's pressures — but once the high wore off, he was sober again, and all his problems stared him right back in the eyes, leaving him just as empty inside as the bottles he'd devoured and thrown against the back wall of their kitchen.
Jessica often found herself his living target. Thomas vented his wrathful frustrations on the woman who used to be the love of his life. Realizing the pain he'd caused left him miserable and apologetic for his alcohol-induced attacks. After sobering up, he would remember that he had once again reacted with unacceptable violence during his explosive episodes. Blinking in and out of coherence, regaining his faculties from his blackened mental state, he realized he had slipped back into the same monstrous character he helplessly became whenever he drank his evening case of malt liquor and two pints of cheap whisky — his reality relievers.
Thomas struggled with alcohol abuse, substance addiction, and manic depression brought on by unemployment. Admitting a serious problem like alcoholism is the first step toward recovery — but failing to act on it is another matter. Thomas refused professional counseling or therapy to free him from the grip of this deadly disease, which was gradually costing him his life and his three-year marriage.
After mentally processing what he'd done, Thomas unclenched his calloused hands from around his wife's long, slender arms. Jessica's tall, lanky body collapsed to the floor. She buried her head in her lap and sobbed uncontrollably. Thomas, at a total loss for words, just stood there speechless, towering over her like a giant madman. He reached out to her in a familiar gesture of regret for his barbaric actions.
Jessica tilted her body away, purposefully turning her back on this violent, so-often abusive man she called husband.
"Thomas, just go, please! Leave me alone, Thomas! Please, just go and leave me alone!"
That is the opening. The sample continues free — take it with you.