Ha'penny For Your Thoughts

 

 Yeah, Wow. Speaking of slaps in the face, I ran into an old friend whose daughter was setting the world on fire with her swimming ability. First smashing local school records then going all-state. Got a full-boat ride to UCLA. Two months into the program she calls home to tell her dad (my friend) that she was pregnant. Party over. She moved back to Redding, had the baby (a boy named C) and started drinking like a fish. Within 2 years she was a full-blown 300-pound vodka sponge, in jail. In and out of rehabs, on and on. My friend (G) took full custody of C (his grandson) and got the boy through his formative years. He called me once to ask if I had a wheel for C's MTB. Someone stole it from his bike while he was in class at Chico State. Last Spring, I saw G at the local Farmer's Market. I asked him how it was going. He told me he'd had a heart attack and was lucky to be alive. I asked about C, and he told me that he OD'd on street heroine. Party over.