My Hometown Chapter One

by Christopher F. Mills AKA

My Hometown Chapter One

by Christopher F. Mills AKA
Published by The Moving Map Motion Picture & Storybook Company
Copyright 201 by !he Mo"ing Map#C.F. Mills All rights reser"ed$ in%luding the reprodu%tion in whole or part in any &orm. First edition published on Mar%h 1'$ 201

(mashwords )dition *oin the &uture+ ,ead )le%troni% (hop (mashwords !he best store on the net to dis%o"er -our ne.t great e/oo0

Journal Entry Friday Mar%h 1$ 201 Woke at 7am after six hours. Took the dogs and cats outside. It was very foggy and beautiful, with the pine line in fog. I thought of her. How she would like it. Tired and cold and sad and wondering what I would do with it all. What to do. It does seem as if there is nothing to do. I am at the apex of poverty, except that I know, it could get so much worse. I have so much, even without having everything, nearly. I must reali e that my wealth and greatness of life is within me no matter my outward holdings. !aterials, these are endless, practically. The wealth is in the soul and mind, and in the belief and the dream, of the man. I went to "ason and #ebbie$s to call about the food stamps. The lady thought I was lying about having no money and no means to make money. %he said I would have food when the letter came, though she could have made it happen today. &een without food for a couple weeks nearly. 'xcept for this and that. I called xxxx. (nd it was rough the first two hours or so. (nd then I had a change. )or I reali ed, I *ust cant help but love her. I tried as best I could not to. &ut its no use. I must do it. I must love her. (sked her if she would be mine soon. %he said she will. &ut she does not want to be married to me by the state. I told her she must have read the book I put out last night. What book+ %he said. We talked for about six or so hours, until the phone went dead about ,-.. I biked to the tobacco shop for a free cigar that /aylee said she was holding for me. (nd back home. How empty it all is, but I struggle and put in my soul the dream and hope needed. 0ery tired. !arch 1, I put out The Theory of the Ironic. 2eceived fifty downloads in a day. #ecent. )or %mashwords. Without setting it out on any sites. !arch 33, 4.3, Tuesday The gas was cut off on !onday. Woke today at six or so. ( beautiful day. I worked on the 5ld man in the !oon until 6. finished. 7ight exercise out in the back with the dogs at one to two. To 5ffice #epot to make the covers so I can show people. Then to books a million, where I walked around with #ustin for an hour or two, till the sun went down. (lways loved that bookstore, and especially when the sun goes down and it gets dark. Those big windows in the front, the effect it makes, and *ust all the books and the ambiance of it. &ut lots of sadness, too, for I can remember all the years of

my life there these past 4. years or so that I have been going there, and it is *ust all emptiness and poverty and it really is a heavy burden I carry around with me. I am sad to the core about two things8 my own life. (nd my love for xxxx and both weigh me down constantly and both threaten to break me constantly. (nd both are impossible things to beat. I cannot go back and make a life of a life gone and a life lost. (nd that goes for her, too. 'ven if she came now and we were happy the next fifty years, I was no part of her life in all the previous years and it *ust breaks me in all the ways it can and does and I have to try my best now to get beyond all of this and find some hope about something, because it can and will only get much worse, even if it gets better. I can only grow older and weaker and all of that now. I miss life. much. I miss hope. (nd all that I have missed, it is such a heavy burden to look back on my life as it has been and there are *ust no words for it all. To *asons but they werent home, by (shley$s laundromat to use the computer but it wouldnt work, watched fast cars on the ipad. The young man there, such life. %uch ignorance, and it is so true, that ignorance is bliss. Ignorance is what makes the young so naturally happy. !uch of it. then to the dollar store for bread and home. Mar%h 12$ 201 wed. Woke a bit after sunrise. Tired. Worked all day on the 5ld !an in the !oon. 9ame up with more, when I thought I had finished. It needed it, made it right. 0ery tired and broken all day. &ut always and constantly doing all I can to break the brokenness and tiredness. If this damn thing would kill me, then I wouldn$t be so damned tired all the time. (t four I looked out and checked on Ivy, who had been laying by the window for hours, since I had gone out earlier in the day and let them run some and then put her back on her chain tied to the weight. %he was there. Twenty minutes later I could not see her. Went out looking, the boy told me the pound picked her up. (sked &arbara to take me up there. They were closed at ,-., but a woman was out talking with her friends. 2ude right off. Ivy$s chain was hanging over her shoulder, I asked her why that was. :It becomes public property...; I told her it might be right for her to put it back in a public property place then, she had no right taking it home with her. This caused her friends to start sassing. Worried about the chain. Why would she take it if she thought I would be getting ivy back... so worried about her. I made myself finish the book and went to "ason<s to download it. I am done with this writing for a while. This book has been a labor. 0ery hard. 0ery sad. I wrote it from the memory of my great love for xxxx, and not for the fact of it. I knew )riday night, after our long talk, that I could not believe in

her anymore. "ust too much, too long. 5r too little too long. Too little and too much of so much. I couldn<t believe a word she said that day, that was anything related to love. (nd there wasn<t much anyway. (nd )riday night, when I went to the roof and saw that sunset, how sad it was, knowing that it was done. That is what I perceived about it, about her. (nd then that night, I had the last thought about us. (nd I have been working on that last thought since. I think this last book will do something now. %oon. We will see. Mar%h 1'$ 201 !hursday '2'pm. =p by first light. To the dog pound by >-.. they were rude. They all came up, after I asked to see her. %he was so scared. I asked the young man if I could go in and see her. I held her in my arms. %he was so happy to see me, but before that, she didnt recogni e me, and the look on her face.... back up front, they all were there to face me and one said, :?ou are cruel for what you did@; what did I do+ (nd she said something about the large chain they took her in with. The one I told the woman last night to :!aybe you could Aut it back in a public property place then, if in fact, it is no longer my personal property once it$s confiscated.; she was taking it home for herself, see. Then to the municipal, where I talked to the :0iceB!ayor;. I had good feelings from him, but they were not well founded, evidently. Then I tried to sell the ticket to wonder. (nd I made about 4. or so over the next several hours, but ran into a lot of people saying no, and I got the most negative impression from them, and finally I asked a man why he would not give me a dollar for this and he said he felt I was hustling8 taking advantage, not on the up and up. (nd I wondered about that, how he could think that, when I have all this proof of work accomplished, and ready to be read. It made no sense. (nd of course, pre*udice and ignorance never does. There is no arguing with all that. I have the ticket to wonder, the three full scale cover copies and the one full scale copy of all my covers, all laminated. The proof of the writer is there in all that. (nd then there is thisC I was asking a single dollar, which covers cost of the ticket, plus -7 cents.... what a fleecing. Was I born under an unlucky star+ no. I was born in &ossier 9ity. Went to the pound by four. The man who oversees the pound has eyes as cold as a fish. &ut beneath there lurks a something. %omething politely vicious. I saw it earlier and it was proved now, when he gave a poor man and his poor dog no single break, based on no reasonableness to speak of. 5ver to the pound, where I got a list of the charges and the knowledge that in three days time, she becomes their :Aroperty;. 5ne of

the charges is the chain I had her on. The chain, a chain I use for keeping safe my bikes and lawnmowers, is theirs, they said. I wonder how they sleep at night, being legal thieves of a poor man$s property+ How do they reason that kind of thing out in the first place+ Is it not reason that they use, but sub*ective, personal gain+ I could look, and find, a precedent for a power structure to use discretion and charity for a hard case like me and Ivy, but why+ When the precedent for that discretion and charity are within the confines of the &lack &ook called the &ible, the very book the lot of them read from on %undays and listen to the preacher preach from, which calls for such in the first place. (nd even if they were all atheists, this discretion and charity and goodwill exists within the minds of any human being who is tame and reasonable and good. (nd it does not, in those who only act like it. :This is not fair, I want that to be known and understood. This is sure not fair.; I said to the man with fishBcold eyes, and his cronies looking on with *udgmental eyes. :5kay,; is all he replied. It meant nothing to him, that it was not fair. He merely stated this was the norm and that was that. (nd if this, gentleman and ladies, is the norm, then what we have is a system not dependent on free men meeting and coming to fair terms, but on some few men making their own terms and riding roughshod on any who they feel the liking to ride so on. Do sirs. Do ma$ams. There is nothing fair about any of it. I asked &illy, my >. year old friend who gave me the rides this evening to the pound, :&illy, help me out. Eive me an ob*ective opinion. !aybe I am not seeing it fair and sFuare for our girl Ivy. GI say :our; girl, because Ivy and &illy love each other, too.H Is it :cruel; to have that 33 pound chain on our fortyBfive pound Ivy, who happens to be strong as a little ox+; He laughed, :If it is cruel, she don$t mind it. Dot when she can *ump that fence with that chain like it$s a ball of string.; What that label and charge of 9ruel is is a way to demoni e me. It is a charge of cruelty that cannot be refuted, except to those who cannot be fleeced by a simple label. It automatically sticks, you see. It automatically labels. (nd most times, it works. (nd with most people, it works. If, in fact, the one they charges as a criminal, dog or man, is, in fact, not criminal, then they must figure a way to make it seem so. (nd they sure do. &oy, they do. I have detailed files.... #o you catch my drift+ If they cannot make me look bad, in a matter like this, then it is they who are the bad. (nd they can easily make me look bad. They *ust say it. )ind any reason at all to say it and hinge it

on that reason. It makes them look good. It makes the other look bad. Aolitics 3.3. &een going on since the first age. If Ivy was a vicious dog, they would have ground to stand on, if reason is where they stand. If Ivy upset the neighborhood on a constant, chronic basis, they would have grounds. &ut none of that is true. Ivy shakes the hand of every boy and girl, man and woman, she meets. Ivy has nothing but love in her heart. The only person who has called in about her is xxxx, who I once gave a kitten to and asked her not to sleep with the kitten, as I wished the kitten not to be smushed to death. This upset the young woman. This same young woman I called childish a while back, when that is how she was acting. Dow the emotion of hate has worked itself into the eFuation. (nd somebody always has to pay for that. %he called in on !onday, !arch 3., and said Ivy was in her trash and strewed it everywhere. This was a blatant lie, as Ivy was in my home the entire weekend and up to Wednesday, when I let them outside for a few hours of sun. The only time she was outside of it was when I let her out to do her business, and I was with them all the entire time. There are, in fact, two other known dogs that strew trash these days. &ut I don$t believe it happened even by them. I believe it was a direct lie given by the childish grown girl. I asked her mother if they were the ones who called and she said the daughter did, because they %(W Ivy strew the trash. He said she said, but I tell you the truth, it was not Ivy. That was a boldBfaced lie. I told the mother thisC :The 7ie you set against me will go back to you. ?ou cannot lie about an honest man and it not be a curse you give yourself.; (nd with that spoken, I walked off. %he walked out and attempted to say something else. I didn$t care to hear it. I reiterated what I told herC :"ust remember, a lie is a curse you give to yourself. ?ou might sure hurt the one you lie against, but that lie will come back to you.; I said this as I walked off. The cop comes up a bit later. He said she said I saidC :There would be a reckoning.; (nd I repliedC :( reckoning, huh+ Well, I suppose. &ut all I said was that their lies were curses they gave to themselves.; He smiled and shook his head in agreement. I told him I was proud of him, for it was evident by his facial gestures and his words he didn$t believe them and believed me. (bout time that happened.... (bout damned time.

March 13, 5 3!pm going to "en# thi" to Mi"" Maggie at The Time" #ear !iss !aggie, This is a story about a vicious dog and the cruel man who loves her. We are both criminals, *ust ask anybody who needs it to be so believed.... ?esterday, Wednesday, !arch 34, I was watching Ivy, my criminal dog, as she sat in the sun under my %ilver 7eaf !aple. %he was on her &IE, H'(0? (D# 92='7 9H(ID and soaking up the sun. I would take a break from the writing to look on her and the other two. %he layed there for several hours. (nd when I looked again, at about ,36, I guess, she was gone. I immediately went outside and looked for her. The boys were playing basketball. :?ou looking for your dog+; :?eah.; :The pound took her.; %o I got on my bike and rode over to !rs. &arbara$s and asked for a Fuick ride to the pound. There I saw they were closed, but a worker was standing outside talking with friends. I went up and she was *ust as plain about her rudeness as she could be. &ut nothing direct or untoward. I inFuired about Ivy and she simply stated I could come back at >am. It was then I noticed a peculiar thing. %he had Ivy$s &IE, H'(0?, (D# 92='7 chain draped across her shoulder. Aoor woman. %he is a small lady and certainly that chain must have been an incredible weight for her to carry on her shoulders, all the way home, in fact, which was where she was evidently taking it, as the IIIIIII 9ity #og Impound 9ompany had already closed its doors. (nd this is sureC Ivy weighs no more than ,. or 6. pounds, but you can bet Ivy is a lot stronger than that woman is on her weakest day. ?et here this poor soul was, with that &IE, H'(0? (D# 92='7 chain, draped over her little shoulder. J I see. This woman is maybe five feet tall and *ust as small. !aybe there is a total of 1. or 7. pounds of muscle in all that. &ut she didn$t seem to have much of a problem with that &IE, H'(0?, 92='7 chain. &ut maybe she was *ust being a trooper about it. (fter all, she needed that chain, which in some odd way of reason or unreasonableness, had become her own personal property. Dow that is some prestidigitatorial kind of magic, don$t you think+ When is it not right, and when is it dead wrong, to take a man$s personal property and make it your own+ GTalking about the living, breathing,

emotional flesh of a beloved dog, or the cold steel of a chain.H We call a man a criminal and put behind bars for stealing a pack of gum, and yet some people are allowed to take whatsoever they wish, as long as the state has given them the right+ When did the state become our enemy in such a doorBtoBdoor, direct and incontrovertible manner+ If you do not think this is thievery, then how would you define it+ I asked her why she had the chain on her person and was evidently taking it home. %he replied it had become the property of the city. I replied that didn$t make much good or right sense, but if so, maybe it would be more proper if she put the city property back in a building owned by the city, and not take it home for personal use. The look on her face, and the face of her friends, went from indirect rude to Fuite direct and without misunderstanding rude. I began walking off. The women with her shouted at me as I did so, calling me cruel about the chain and a few other things I didn$t think it important to hear. The woman worker said something and as I got in the truck I told her maybe she should get her friends under control. In a magical vortex of word, I, the labeled criminal and owner of a criminal dog, had somehow *ust called a thief a thief, in a nice way, mind you. (nd it went all over them. The next morning I was stood before by the workers there and one of them looked at me with fire in her eye and pointed and said, :?ou are cruel for what you did@; I believe her name is "udy, but I cannot be sure what her name is right now. Here we go again. I have heard such before in this fell city. I wondered what she could be talking about. !aybe Gas I had thought before in matters like theseH she had fingered the wrong man. &ut no. In her own mind at least, she had the right man. 9ruel me. ( man who feeds his dogs and cats, all of them thrown out by the fair citi ens of this fair neighborhood, before he feeds himself. ( man who has decided to let his electric be cut off so that he could take his animals to the vet when they needed it. !any times, in fact. ( man who loves anyway those who crap and pee up his home and cause him trouble. I am cruel, if a person will decide to redefine the word. (nd they do. They sure do that. %he said something about a H'(0? 9H(ID. I see. ?ou see the underlying story going on+ They do not do what is good and noble and right. They do not do what is reasonable. They do not use their stateBgiven powers to administer *ustice, but A5W'2. (nd when it is shown to them that *ustice and fair play is what they do not do, when

it is thrown in their faces, however slightly and with respect given, they then begin the branding and labeling. These people have to go home and tell their children to live and act right. &ut since they do not do this themselves, they must and will make a criminal of any who even remotely label them as such. :Why are the laws so strict and the fines so high, for such minor offenses+ Where does this make any good or rational or righteous sense+; I asked this of the woman secretary at the city council building this morning. :Have you heard of the story of the girl who had her face ripped off+ Took a hundred stitches.; ?eah. I have heard of those stories. (nd for dogs who do those things, there is usually a swift *ustice. GThough it is the people who make those dogs that way....H (nd if a dog has displayed its penchant for doing such, then I could understand. &ut when a dog like Ivy, who could, but refuses, to do such, is given the same treatment, then why don$t we *ust have automatons and robots control all things+ What would be the difference+ Why do we need to pay people, with expensive pensions and perks, when a robot could do the very same *ob+ Ivy has been to this place of hell once before. (bout two years ago. (nd they picked her up in the exact same place they did so this time. !r. &illy$s driveway. That time they had to call her down from under the carport. "ust like this time. %he is no runBabout, and even if she was, she would pose no threat to any human being, unless it is threatening for them to meet with an automatic truster of them and licker of their hands. When I went back to see her today she did not recogni e me at first. Her ears were lowered and there was fear in her eyes and all about her body there was a brokenness. (nd yet they call me cruel... I have never seen her like this. I asked if I could get in and hold her and the fine young man said yes. (nd I did what I always do with my favorite girlC I picked her up and held her in my arms and how happy she became. (nd then the woman who was soon to call me cruel, with the aid of that labeling, pointy little finger, told the young man to get me out of there. Thanks 9ody, for letting me hold my girl and by that, both of us know some little comfort in this hell of a day since yesterday. Do human being could ever catch me in a lie to any other human being. There is no lie in me about anything. I do not fear men, their powers given by state or Eod, nor their opinions. I have dropped tears about this. I have feared this matter. I fear for her life and I fear for my love of it, that it may become forfeit, from un*ust and ignorant persons

who would destroy her life and make mine even less than it is today. %ubmarginal, I am. 5f the poorest of men, I am as poor as any of them. I am not ashamed of that. I earned my poverty the honest way. I have lived with a sickness that refuses to kill me, but makes easy, normal living completely impossible. I generally look younger than my years, but I don$t know why, considering all the sleep I have lost from this painful illness. (nd in the past seven years I have lived without the capacity to find a single *ob. I have made it, until recently, by grace of Eod, but lately the grace of Eod has been testing me even further. (nd I am sure grace will be found. Eod will provide. He always does. He always will. Erace will find its way, be sure of that, friends and those who are not friends. &e sure of it. It is what I have always said about it. (nd I do not lie. It has been hand to mouth for Fuite some time now, since false charges, over a period of years, set my life in a seeming downward spiral. &ut in this time has been the flowering of my work. I have always been the hardest working poorest man you probably could ever meet. I do not remember the week in my adult life when I have not put in, at the bottom, fifty hours of labor and at the top 34., sleeping *ust long enough to rest some and get back to it. Writing works designed and hoped to become inspirational for people is no easy thing to do. I have done it all, and it is the hardest thing to do, especially when there is very little of the inspirational in your own life. Writing of wonder so others may know wonder, when there is very little that is wonderful in your own life, is the hardest of things to do. #oing it hungry and sick and tired constantly *ust adds to the struggle. &ut I have done it, because I will end my life beating this city. &eating this fate. &eating poverty itself, all levels of poverty. I will end my life having given to this race of man a blessing, no matter how many little devils attempt to curse this life. &ut sometimes I am made to wonder why I have put such effort into giving back to what has only in*ured me constantly. Was I born under an unlucky star+ Do. I was *ust born in IIIIIII, 7ouisiana. :They have the power, 9hris. (nd if you don$t ma$am and sir them, if you don$t bow your head and do everything they say and give any kind of lip, they do all they can to make your life a living hell. I have seen it grow this way for a long time now, but it has always been that way, as long as I have been around.; !r. &illy said that today. He is >.. I repliedC :&ut the power, in the end, is in the people. (nd they *ust don$t know it8 and when they do, are *ust too afraid to live by that. %omebody has to stand up sometime for some thing. (nd I have to stand up for our

Ivy.; I saved her when she was *ust a puppy. The neighbors had her tied to a tree. It was during a thunderstorm. %he was *ust a baby. and the rain and the wind and the thunder scared her. %he was trying to get away. I heard cries, as I worked here in the study on works of literary art this city and its people could care less about. I went outside and saw her hanging from the tree. I ran and took her down and I can still see the thanks in her eyes that I did that. %he had climbed up into the tree and then fell over the limb and her short leash had caught on the limb and she dangled like a wet puppy, and slowly and surely would have been strangled. &ut she wasn$t, thank Eod. (nd there has been five years of wonderful life for her to know, and to share with me, and to give to me sustenance of soul and spirit when no other would. I know I have few friends in this world, but in Ivy, I know I have a perfect friend. %he does love me, and I do love her and there has been no ill words or emotions between us. %he is a smart girl. too smart. /nows how to *ump over or crawl through any fence. Too well. 'ven with a &IE, H'(0? (D# 92='7 chain tied to her collar. I met you, !iss !aggie, about half a year ago+ 5r was it a year+ I was trying to get my works known any way I could. ?ou told me the paper only writes on published works. That there needs to be a story to it. I told you I had a story. I told you I would bring you one sooner or later. This is a story. It is hastily written. I am tired. I could do it better. &ut there is no time. They told me I have three days before Ivy becomes the A25A'2T? 5) TH' 9IT?. Three days is their idea of *ustice and fair play given, among other such. ( hundred dollars from a man who owns six of them, is their idea of fair play and *ustice. &ogus, arbitrary charges and fines is their idea of it. Had a man in the employ of the city call for me8 asked them if I could do community work to work off the fine. No. we don't do that. What do you do, exactly8 if you really think about it.