I’ve been told I’m not updating often enough, so I wrote a short story for you:

A Childs Bedtime Story
by Tone Parsons

When Jimmy was a small boy, life was amazing.

Of course, times were tough back in the suburbs of Pittsburg. His father had been laid off after 15 years at the steel mill and was reduced to doing odd jobs as a handyman while his mother helped make helped ends meet by doing laundry and alterations for families more fortunate than themselves.

While times were financially hard on the family, they were rich in so many other ways.

After his layoff, Jimmy’s father filled the days with activities designed for a father and son. Fishing in the creek, hiking in the woods. He built Jimmy a fort in the back yard out of old plywood and pallets. His mother would bake him cookies and read him stories while she waited for the laundry to finish. Of course, Jimmy would help his mother with the laundry whenever he could and often went along with his father, running for tools, cleaning up, and doing anything else that would help. He was a small boy, but made up for his size with the amount of love in his heart.

As Jimmy got older, he did whatever he could to help the family. He mowed lawns and got a paper route. While he put most of the money into the family fund, he kept a little bit on the side, building a few thousand dollars by the time he was 18.

Jim, as he liked to be called now, took that money and became the first person in his family to attend college. He worked extremely hard at his studies and graduated 4th in his class with a degree in accounting.

That winter, his mother was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. Jim did everything that he could to help, but his parents didn’t have insurance and the medical bills became too much to bare. In a desperate attempt to keep his parents from losing their house, Jim turned to an acquaintance for help.

This acquaintance introduced Jim to a man named Roland. While Jim detested the idea, he agreed to haul 18 kilos of cocaine from Pittsburgh to New York.

He hadn’t made it 30 miles before he was pulled over by the State Patrol. When they found the drugs, Jim tried to explain the situation, but because he didn’t know Roland’s last name, and the man who had introduced them had disappeared, the police put it all on Jim’s shoulders.

Because of the financial strain of his mother’s medical bills, Jim wasn’t able to make bail. His mother passed away on the morning of the trial. He was convicted and sentenced to serve 25 years in the Pennsylvania State Penitentiary.

Prison didn’t go well for Jim. He made several mistakes early on, accepting cigarettes and favors from other inmates, accumulating quite a bit of “prison debt”. When he wasn’t able to repay this debt, the other inmates beat him severely and forced him to become their bitch. Each day brought new terror as he was ordered to pleasure other inmates, sometimes 3 or 4 per day.

After 4 years of torment, Jim was killed by another inmate over a pack of cigarettes.

No one came to his funeral.

– fin –

There… are you happy? No? heh 🙂

FINE…. then perhaps this will cheer you up:

There…. are you happy now? WHAT DOES IT TAKE?!?