This morning the phone rang at 6:00 a.m.
That’s rarely good.
“Hello?” I say warily.
“There’s been a tragedy in our family.” It’s my mother-in-law. Truth is she sounds sexually excited.
“Who? What happened?”
“Jamie died this morning.” Jamie is my wife’s 20 year old cousin.
“Heroin?”
“Yes, he overdosed.”
I’m relieved it’s just Jamie.
“I’ll get my wife.”
I go back to sleep.
I’m not surprised or disturbed at all.
Jamie and his brother Tom live in their grandparent’s house. Their father lives in that house. Their mother is the town pump a few town’s south of here.
Their father is hard working, but spoiled the kids rotten. They’ve been in and out of trouble for the last five or six years. They were never told “no.” Never learned discipline. They ran wild. Nobody did anything. Jamie’s father has bought Jamie 4 cars in as many years. he kept wrecking them, his dad kept buying new ones.
They were allowed to go out whenever they wanted. There were no controls.
Two weeks ago, the State interveened with Jamie and sent him to rehab. Last night he talked to one of my wife’s aunts and she said that he sounded drunk. But she didn’t do anything.
The house is now a potential crime scene, sealed off. Relatives are crying and screaming in the local hospital like the ignorant white trash they are. Jamie lies on a cot, mouth agape, so much meat.
His brother is the bad one. Jamie wasn’t terrible. He was clean cut, and could act fairly normal. He had redeeming qualities. I wish it was the brother instead, and it probably will be, soon.
I thought, and at several times had said aloud that there was nothing wrong with Jamie that I couldn’t solve in 20 minutes behind the woodshed.
I remember at a family picnic about 5 years ago. Jamie coming to me in near tears. Some kid had pushed him during touch football.
“Who?” I said. I don’t like bullies.
He showed me. The kid was half his size, and just playing the game.
“Push him back,” I said.
Jamie looked at me with disbeleif. This child has never done anything for himself. He has been coddled and handled, never had to face a consequence or a responsibility. His father gave him money. His father gave him other things as well, saying that better he gets it from me, than on the street.
Nobody ever said “No.” to this kid and made it stick.
I see this death as being squarely on the shoulders of the father. He should go to jail, and he may, being complicit in what happened.
So you’re dead now Jamie. Unfortunately, your death is as senseless and devoid of meaning as your life.
Your father seemed to get a sick pleasure out of the sympathy and attention you and your sibling’s problems accorded him.
This is clearly where this thing has been going for the last few years, and I hope he gets satisfaction from this attention.
I for one won’t be attending the wake, or funeral.
I don’t wish to dignify this pathetic little atrocity.
Godspeed.