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August 17, 2005
Watch out for the trees. Seriously.
Tom Bartlett was happy. He was so happy, that he wasn't even going to have a drink. He knew that he had been drinking heavily these past few years, but he couldn't help it. His job as caretaker of the orange groves had been a very trying one. Over the last five years it had become a nightmare.
Above is an excerpt from the 1975 short story "Juiced Again" by one Robert J. Hustwit. It’s amazing how many parallels there are between my life and that of the fictional Tom Bartlett. We’re both lushes. Both of us are hated by other people -- and we, in turn, hate them right back. And, most importantly, both of us are haunted by the death of the Lucas boy.
Unlike the fictional Tom Bartlett, however, I don’t expect to meet an untimely end at the hands (branches?) of angry, supernatural orange trees. Please note: For those of you who are unschooled in the subtleties of literary theory, let me point out that the title "Juiced Again" has what we English majors call a "double meaning."
Posted by teb at August 17, 2005 09:18 AM