Each Day Already is a Challenge

He did it again

My brother, that is. Sigh.

Bill is an alcoholic and homeless.

He was the smartest of all of us, but chose to quit school in March of his senior year in high school. Drugs and alcohol became his way of life. Now, he can only afford - somehow - the alcohol.

Beer companies don't tell you all the horrible things that can happen to someone who chooses to drink morning, noon and night. Bill's body is a mess. His liver and kidneys don't work well anymore. He often has to go to the hospital just to have his fluids drained. He looks like he's pregnant. And his belly button is herniated. It's an ugly growth that looks like another body apendage. He's often able to drink because he bets new bar customers that he has an extra male part. That's what it looks like.

Bill started lying as a kindergarten kid. He used to tell our mom that kids gave him toys when he came home with his pockets full of trinkets that were not his.

His lying continues today. Last week he called his daughter and told her he was in the hospital to have his gall bladder removed and was finally having an operation to remove/fix his herniated belly button. She called one of my sisters, who passed on his (supposed) number in his hospital room.

Both of my sisters tried calling that number and it just rang and rang. Odd for a hospital room phone to just ring and ring. Bill's daughter showed up at the hospital and discovered that he wasn't there and had not been there.

She searched bars Bill is known to frequent and found him. When she confronted him, he said, "Your mother owes me $300." His daughter told him not to ever contact her, her brother or her mother again.

This has been a mild winter. But there have been harsh winters when Bill has lived in cardboard boxes, in abandoned cars and in abandoned buildings.

I wonder what makes people turn to drinking this way. I wonder what makes people lie to the ones who really care. I wonder...