August Whitlock

A Bit of Tragedy August Whitlock

A Bit of Tragedy is an off-beat humorous but sobering story about the life of Daryl Cross, a minister's son, as he recounts his last three months of his drinking life. Careless drinking had pushed him into a whole new level of alcoholism, and he was becoming so sick with the disease it pushed him to a point where he had to make a decision between life and death. As an alcoholic, bad decision making had built up over time too that kept him drinking when dealing with relationships with those in his world. Drinking had also kept him blind to what was happening around him during his drinking years that eventually turned his life upside down when he learned he wasn't who he thought he was but someone totally different, and the story ends on a small twist of a mystery. He went out drinking one Friday night after a silly fight with his wife and that long night ended when he was arrested for DWI. Unknowingly he was born into a new level of alcoholism, hallucinations and irrational thinking had settled in and his wife, Karen, kept him at bay from her when she suspected he had an affair with a strange woman in the parking lot of a bar. Then her friend, and his best friend's wife, Betsy, used his confusion he was in to seduce him and alcohol to keep him silent. The second time they had an affair Karen caught them. That put Daryl in trouble with his family when Karen reported the events of their recent lives to them at dinner that sent Daryl into anger and hopelessness and more drinking. His brother David blamed him for their dad's death after a quarrel between their families at their last dinner, and the problems with David and Daryl continued that pushed Daryl over the edge of madness when they finally clashed over Daryl's wife, Karen, and David finally revealing who he really was; his family has been hiding from him for years.