Under a Sixty Watt Bulb

By 1981, I was defeated by a life of drinking and debauchery. I was a worn out husk of a human being. I had no moral values left that I could live up to. Fear ran my life, as they say—and thirst. It drove every move I made. I wasn’t even aware of the thirst because I lived within it. I kept pouring in what it demanded. I lived my life from liquor store to liquor store.