"The Road Back" Part XII              "The Plot unfolds"

Sam slid back in his seat, and after a deep drag on his cigarette, said. “Once upon a time…”

He started to reach for Sam again. Sam put his hands up. “Ok, I’ll give you the Reader’s Digest version.”

He snubbed out his cigarette and sat back. “Well, I had been going to AA about six months before you showed up.” He paused. “That’s the truth,” he mockingly said, “I was serious about it until right before you showed up.”

He paused. “Then everything went to hell.” He took another drink. “My wife was suspicious about my girlfriend, and Diedre, my girlfriend, was starting to get demanding.” He shook his head. “I started to think about how to get out of this situation.”

He smiled. “And then you showed up at the meeting, talking about how you had to quit because of the blackouts you were having.” He paused. “It was perfect. You now gave me a way to take care of my problems.”

He shook his head, now really wanting to have a drink. “It's crazy,” he said, shaking his head. “All this is because of my blackouts?”

Sam laughed. “It was perfect. You even mentioned that you couldn’t remember what happened during those blackouts, which would sometimes last 3-4 hours.”