What Might Have Been

Many years before I entered the rooms of AA for what I hope is the last time, I knew of this drunk who hung around the neighborhood. His name, everyone knew, was Ronnie. The story went that he had been in AA for some time, off and on. He always went out. Ronnie's "out" was in the streets. Many streets. He was seen all over the place--standing, sleeping, staggering, hand held out to shake or in the hope someone would give him a buck or a quarter.