Showing Up

A few years back, I was in Dutch Harbor, Alaska where I had been sent to meet a hydrographic survey ship. The ship was delayed so I wound up waiting there with a lot of time on my hands. There's no phone listing for Alcoholics Anonymous on this small island in the Bering Straits, and I found myself wandering around looking for a bulletin board where there might be a meeting announcement posted. As I was walking near the docks, I saw a guy with a seabag in one hand and wearing a T-shirt with "Easy Does It" emblazoned on it. "Boy, am I glad to see you," I said. "I'm a friend of Bill W." The poor fellow looked perplexed and as I was explaining that I was a sober member of AA, I realized that he had a can of beer in his other hand. He explained that he had been given the T-shirt after a visit to a detox in Anchorage, but he had no interest in talking about it to me and was immediately on his way.