A Minor Storm

by J. David Osborne

But I drank too much beer that night like most nights, knowing that the next day I’d have some time off, and I’d be able to catch up on Netflix or maybe even read a book, and I promised myself the same way I did at the end of every work week that I wouldn’t let the bitch inside of me fuck this whole thing up. The coward, the weak man, the person who I knew I truly was, I kept him locked up and out of sight and over the weeks I talked about cars with Charlie and god knows what with Shane and sometimes I drank so much beer that I texted people I shouldn’t and then I woke up and in the shower I told myself to feel no shame, that I forgave myself this one transgression, because overall I had been paying penance for who I’d been, and there’d always be slip-ups. Two steps forward, one step back.