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Overview
Product Details
| ISBN-13: | 9781468508109 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | AuthorHouse |
| Publication date: | 12/07/2011 |
| Pages: | 224 |
| Product dimensions: | 6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.63(d) |
Read an Excerpt
The Nome Man
By Raymond J. Howlett
AuthorHouse
Copyright © 2011 Raymond J. HowlettAll right reserved.
ISBN: 978-1-4685-0808-6
Chapter One
I find myself standing here at the edge of a deep, dark, icy, seemingly bottomless abyss. Deciding whether I want to turn around and continue to try to deal with the problem at hand, or whether I should just step off the edge, and end it all right here and now. While I contemplate this, as being possibly the last step in my life; I start to ponder about how this all began, and how I ended up here in this dilemma in the first place.I guess if I look back at where it all began, I would have to start at when I was born. No, no, I take that back! I think I would have to go back even further than that. Not that I'm blaming him for any of this, because it was not his fault, nor the fault of anyone else. It was just a sequence of events, at the times and the places, which led up to this point. I would have to say it started with my father, back when he was young, and just beginning to grow up himself. It was not something that he could have ever foreseen, or ever realized that it would have happened to him. It was actually, an aspect of an element, which at the time, was just starting to be explored itself. So, in reality, nobody ever could have known; that in time, this would have happened to me.
While I try to decipher all of the thoughts that are rushing through my mind at this moment; let me see if I can put this problem that I have, into a perspective that will explain this whole mess.
First off, my name is Eric Razorman, and I must say, that I am in quite a predicament. Like I said, it was not of any fault of his own, but it started back when my father was around ten years old.
He was born on August 21, 1931, his name was Maximillian Razorman, and he grew up in the time during the great depression era of America. At that time, his father, whose name is Ben, was working as a laborer in a steel mill in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Ben stood 5'11" tall and weighed about 275 pounds. He was about average height, but he was a stocky man. He had a wide chest and broad shoulders, but a small beer belly to go with them. With the exception of a small portion of fat on his frame, most of his body weight was of muscle.
Max's mother, Loretta was a petite 5'5" woman that weighed in at about 115 to 120 pounds. She worked as a cleaning lady in a hotel until she became pregnant with Max, her first child.
After Max was born, his mother stayed at home to raise him.
She had two more children after Max. The next child was born two years apart from Max, and his name was Stanley. The last child was born a year and a half after Stanley, and his name was Matthew. When the time came for Matthew to start school, Loretta decided to go back to work as a seamstress in a sewing factory. At this time, Max was in the fourth grade at the age of ten years old.
While the two parents were both working during the day to make ends meet; the children were in school learning about reading, writing, and arithmetic.
Max had light brown hair and baby blue eyes. At the age of ten, he stood about four foot three inches tall and weighed around 95 to 100 pounds. He was pretty much the size of an average boy his age. He was reasonably mild tempered, and it would usually take a lot of pushing him around before he would get angry.
His clothes were usually hand-me-downs; and if he did get any new clothes, it was because some of the clothes that he had worn were so worn out, that they were falling apart from being so old. He always wore a pair of black cowboy boots every where he went. They were his favorite shoes, and the only time he didn't wear them was when he either went swimming, or he had to put a dress pair of shoes on to go to some special occasion that his parents took him to.
Sometimes when his father came home from work, he would go back out to a local bar with some of his friends or work buddies. At times, his father would stay out until two or three in the morning, and then come home drunk. Depending on what mood he was in when he came home, he would either, go right to bed, or he would get angry about something, and wake everyone up. There were even times when he came home drunk, he and his wife would get into an argument, and he would slap her across the face. He never hurt her bad enough to put her in the hospital; but sometimes he would put enough bruises on her, to make her wonder why she was even staying in the same house with him. It was getting to a point in his life, where this was becoming a routine habit. He would go to work in the morning, after work he would go right to the bar, and then come home from the bar to abuse his family.
On the weekends, since he didn't have to work, he would get up in the morning, drink a couple cups of coffee, sit in his rocking chair, and listen to the radio most of the day. Then after he ate supper, he would go out to the bar and drink until 2:30 in the morning. Of course, when he came home from the bar, he would either go right to bed, or cause a ruckus with the family.
One day while Max was in school, he walked into the classroom, and sat down in his chair to start preparing for the class. Another boy, named Jason, was one of the bullies in the class, and he started harassing Max. Max tried to ignore him throughout the class, but Jason continued to badger him. When the class was over, the teacher told the class that he was going over to the principal's office during their recess time, and if he wasn't back by the time they were done with recess, then they should come in the classroom, sit down, and start working on the homework that he gave them from the earlier class. The children were dismissed from the classroom at that time, so they could go out for recess. While they were out playing at recess time, Jason and two other boys tracked down Max and started harassing him again. At one point, Jason and the boys got distracted by a couple of girls on the playground, and Max was able to get away from them for the remainder of the recess time. After recess was over, the children went back into the classroom, sat down in their seats, and most of them began working on their homework. Max was one of those kids that sat down and started working on his homework. He wanted to try to finish it in class, so that he wouldn't have to do it at home. If he finished it in class, he would be able to go out and play when he got home, instead of staying in the house and finishing up the homework.
While the children were working on their homework, the teacher was still over in the principal's office talking to him about some of the curriculum. While Max was sitting at his desk, Jason walked up behind him and cuffed him in the back of the head for no apparent reason. Max was tired of being harassed, and he figured that evidently ignoring the bully was not working, so he stood up from his seat, turned around, and walked over to the kid.
As the boy turned around, he said to him, "Why did you do that?"
The boy then replied in an arrogant voice, "Because I felt like it."
Max looked at him for another second and then he punched the kid right in the eye. Jason staggered back a step and stood there for a few seconds. He was caught in complete amazement of the fact that Max hit him in the face. Then Jason came back at Max swinging his fists. Max ducked down, charged at him, grabbed him around his waist, and wrestled him to the ground. As the two boys were scuffling in the back of the room, the teacher walked into the room and saw the two boys fighting. The teacher walked to the back of the room in a fast pace, grabbed both of the boys at the same time, and pulled them apart.
The teacher asked the boys what the fighting was all about and who started it. Neither one of the boys would say a word about what had transpired.
The teacher escorted both of the boys down to the principal's office, and both boys were suspended from school for two days. The principal tried to call the parents of both of the boys, but he was only able to contact Jason's mother. The principal told Jason's mother to come down and take him home from school.
Since Max's parents were both working, and not at home, the principal told Max that he would have to stay in the principal's office until school was over.
After school was over for the day, the principal told Max that he could go home. The principal also told Max that he would have to tell his parents to stop in and see him before Max could return to school. As Max left school and started walking home, he was contemplating how to tell his parents about how he got suspended from school. He was also wondering how they would react when he told them about this problem.
Shortly after Max got home from school around 3:00 P.M.; his two brothers also arrived home from school a few minutes later. As the two boys came in the house and saw Max sitting at the table looking sad, they both asked him what the problem was. He answered both of them with the same answer, "Nothing". Then they turned around and went into their bedroom for a while.
Loretta, his mother, came home from work about 3:30. She came in the door, took her coat off, and saw Max sitting at the kitchen table. As she looked over at him, she could see that something was bothering him, because he had his head down and a sad look on his face.
The other two boys came out to the kitchen from their bedroom, when they heard their mother come in the door. They both walked over to her and ask her what was wrong with Max. She told them she didn't know and that they should go out and play in the yard for a while. The two boys heeded her advice and went outside to play.
She came over to the table and said, "Max, what's wrong?"
Max replied with a quiet tone to his voice, "Oh, nothing".
Then she said, "Come on Max, I know something's wrong, what's the problem?"
Max replied with a somber voice, "Well, I got suspended from school today."
Loretta reacted in an astonished voice, "What do you mean, you got suspended from school?"
Before Max could even explain why he got suspended, his mother queried him again, "What did you do that you got suspended from school?
Max then responded, "I got two days suspension for fighting with another kid in school."
He paused a minute and then said, "You will have to go to school to talk to the principal about this, because he said that I won't be able to go back to school until you talk to him."
Loretta then replied, "Oh, I will go to school to talk to him alright, but you will not be going out of this house for a week! You are grounded for a week, and when you get home from school every day, you will come in the house and stay in for the night. You are not allowed to go out and play with your friends until next Monday."
She then looked directly at Max and said, "Do you understand what I'm saying?"
Max answered again in a depressed tone, "Yes Mom, I understand."
She turned around, started walking in towards her bedroom, and said in a disgusted tone, "Boy, I'm sure your father will just love to hear about this when he gets home."
When Max heard her say this, he came back in a frightened voice, "Mom, please don't tell dad about this!"
She replied, "I'm sorry, but I have to tell your father about this, or otherwise, I will be the one in the dog house."
Around 6:00 that evening, Max's father, Ben came home. He got off work around 2:30 P.M. and visited the neighborhood bar for a few hours. This was becoming a typical event, after his day was finished at work, and a sequence of events that were very common to Max and his mother. When he arrived at home in a semi-stupor state, he came in the door, set his lunch box on the kitchen table, walked into the living room, turned the radio on, and sat down in his rocking chair. Shortly after he sat down, Loretta walked over to the chair, and told him what had happened with Max at school. He stood up from the chair and yelled for Max to make his presence known to him. As Max came out of his bedroom, Ben told him to come over next to him. Max walked over slowly and stood in front of his father.
Ben said in a somewhat slurred voice, "So, I understand that you got two days suspension from school for fighting with some kid?"
Max dipped his head down and said in a low shy tone, "Yes sir".
Ben grabbed a hold of Max under his chin with his left hand.
He lifted Max's head up, so his eyes met his father's eyes, and he said to him in a mean sounding voice, "Boy, you better look at me when I'm talking to you, do you hear me?"
Max answered timidly, "Yes sir".
Ben then said, "Why were you fighting with this kid?"
Max replied in a timid voice again, "Because he was picking on me all through class and I got tired of it."
Ben came back saying, "Well, did you kick the boy's butt?"
Max answered, "No sir".
Ben looked at him for a second, and before Max could finish the rest of the sentence about being interrupted by the teacher, Max's father pulled back and punched him in the nose. From the force of the punch, Max staggered back against the wall, and slid down the wall onto his butt. Max's nose started to bleed profusely, as he was sitting there on the floor, with his back against the wall. When Max realized that his nose was bleeding, he pulled a hanky out of his right back pocket and held it over his nose. Ben walked over to him and stood there looking down at him.
As he stood there for a few seconds looking down at Max, he then said in a nasty voice, "You better stop the bleeding yourself, because I am not taking you to the hospital for it. Maybe the next time when you fight with someone, you better make sure that you kick their butt, or otherwise you better not come home. If I ever hear of you getting into another fight again and you don't kick the piss out of the person, and you come home afterwards, then I'm going to kick the piss out of you! Do you understand?"
While he was holding the hanky over his nose, Max replied in an angry muffled voice, "Yes sir!"
While this was taking place, Loretta came in the room when she heard all of the commotion. She stood in the doorway of the living room, quiet and helpless, while her husband was yelling at Max. When he struck Max in the nose, she wanted to go over and help him, but she knew that if she would try to help Max, then Ben would turn his anger towards her.
As she watched the blood gushing from Max's nose, she couldn't stand there any longer without at least trying to help him.
As she started to walk towards Max, Ben looked over at her and said in an angry voice, "Don't touch him! Let him alone! He needs to start standing on his own two feet! He doesn't need someone babying him all of his life! He needs to learn how to be a man!"
Loretta turned around, looked at Ben square in the eyes and said with a loud voice, "He's an eleven year old boy! He's not a man! Besides, smacking women and little boys around, is that what you call being a man?"
Just as the words came out of her mouth, Ben back handed her across the face, and she fell to the floor. As Max was sitting there trying to stop his nose from bleeding; and he saw his father smack his mother, he wanted so badly to stand up, and try to stop his father from hurting her. He knew that if he got up and tried to stop him from hurting her, then he would probably get punched again, so he just sat against the wall holding his nose with the hanky.
After striking her, Ben stood there looking down at her for a moment, and then he said, "Now, if you want to stick your nose in my business any more, then maybe I'll have to punch you in the nose too! And don't even think of taking that boy to a hospital for his bloody nose either, or I'll also bloody your nose, and then you'll have a reason to go to the hospital. He can just sit there until it stops bleeding on its own. Maybe the next time he gets into a fight he won't come home a loser."
After he said that, he turned around, walked back over to his rocking chair, sat down, and continued to listen to the radio as though nothing had happened.
Loretta got back up off the floor, looked over at Max for a second, then turned around, and went out to the kitchen to start making supper.
Ten minutes after Loretta went to the kitchen, the two boys came in from playing outside. As soon as they came in the door, Loretta told them both to go wash their hands for supper, and stay in their bedroom and play until she calls them for supper. She figured that this way, if the two younger boys stayed in their bedroom, then maybe they would avoid having any problems with their father. As the two boys walked into the living room to go to their bedroom, they saw Max sitting on the floor, with blood all over his shirt, and holding a hanky on his nose.
(Continues...)
Excerpted from The Nome Man by Raymond J. Howlett Copyright © 2011 by Raymond J. Howlett. Excerpted by permission of AuthorHouse. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
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