They say there are people in the hills who have spent their whole lives without ever leaving the area. He ended up working at a roadside bar that was frequented by miners who had lost their jobs. When he was told I had finished college and moved to Washington, D.C., he invited me to drive out to see him, if I wanted to. I rented a car for the day, before I was to start work in Washington. I had been encouraged by my mother.
Mom often quotes the Bible.
As I left the sprawl of my new city I wondered what we would talk about, my brother and I. We have never really been together as adults. He left home shortly after failing out of college. After that his life seemed to go steadily downhill. He became an alcoholic. He was arrested for debt, for driving while intoxicated, for starting fights.