26. Danger

The next day I could hear the group discussion from my office.  Norman was looking for someone more credible than DUI Dave to say the accident wasn’t so bad. 

Terrence said, “About ten years ago Michael Jackson dangled his baby over a fourth floor balcony.  A year later Steve Irwin fed a huge crocodile while holding his infant son. People were furious. Driving drunk is like dangling someone four stories up over hungry crocodiles.”

“How the hell do figure that?” DUI Dave demanded.

“You’re drunk brain thinks you have a grip on the situation.  People in other cars are like little kids who’ve been put in danger through no fault of their own. People in bad accidents get torn up like they’d been attacked by crocodiles.”

“Life is dangerous,” Dave said. “People need to accept that.”

“I accepted facing danger when I chose to join the Marines.  I resent people putting me in danger without my consent. When you drive drunk, when you buy illegal drugs, you make whole neighborhoods more dangerous.”  

Today I won’t put people in danger.

Sober Not Somber © 2015 by Ken Montrose

(Just a reminder: Sober Not Somber is a work of fiction.  Any resemblance to anyone you might know is purely coincidental.)