45. Dump Trucked

While I was still in Ms. Rella’s office, fighting with the copier, Norman shuffled in with his head down. He said, “My wife is kicking me out of the house. She can’t forgive me for what the accident did to our son.  When I told my sponsor, he said I should ask Ken about the dump trucks.”

My heart broke for him.  I said, “We order loads of garbage in our addictions. The garbage is the consequences of our bad decisions.  If we’re lucky, the dump trucks hauling our garbage get lost on their way to our door.  Sometimes we get away with things that could have destroyed our lives. Other times the trucks arrive long after we get clean.

I added, “The garbage you ordered before you got sober has found you. I know you feel dumped on, but it could be worse.  Imagine you got sober only to discover you were HIV positive, or you had a lump in your breast you never noticed because you were high for most of ten years.  Imagine you killed someone in a blackout and after five years clean, the police were able to track you down.”

“So what am I supposed to do?” he asked.

“To stay clean, you gotta keep cleaning up.  And you have to stay clean, and not order any more garbage.”

Today I will stay clean, I won’t order any more garbage.

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.)