Sparrow Swift
#7
Sparrow Swift Wind
More
PT Pulp stories of personal sovereignty by
Allan
R. Wallace
Chinese
Proverb:
Of all 36 ways to get out of trouble, the best way is
-- leave.
Don't
wait for someday.
I'll see you in Stopover.
Published
by Allan Wallace
Using Smashwords
copyright ©
2011
http://cyberhug.me
License
Notes
This book is licensed for your enjoyment. If you’re
reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased
for your use, then please consider purchasing your own 99 cent
download. Thank you for respecting the artistic works of this author.
These entertaining bimonthly ePulps are fiction: people, places, times, and events. It's a coincidence they resemble last night's nightmares and today's fondest daydreams.
Table of Contents
• Chapter 2: Getting To Know You
• Chapter 4: Freedom Means Responsibility
You escaped the womb to freedom, then someone grabbed your heel and slapped your butt. They've been trying to do the same thing over and over again your entire life. You learned to ignore and forget. Until the next time some authority grabbed your heel and raised his hand. The first time was for your own good. The older you got the more often you were told it was for your or someone else's good -- and the less often it was. Now when someone smilingly reaches for your heel it's almost always for their own good. Some heel grabbers will imprison, financially drain, or kill you.
Twenty years ago I found Bill at a group of men meeting in California. He was divorced and the judge had nailed him with heavy child support and alimony. All the men in the group had been through the same meat grinder, in the same local court. There is nothing unusual in this story so far.
But Bill was ordered to send his child support to the District Attorney's office to be forwarded to his wife. He received a bill in the mail, and another bill in the mail. and more bills in the mail. He had a bill for child support of his children and for alimony. He got a bill for alimony. He got a bill for child support of his children He got separate bills for each of his children. When he protested, his salary was attached and fifty percent of his gross income was subtracted before taxes, FICA, etcetera were withdrawn for the full amount. His ex-wife received $50.00 per month from the District Attorney. When she protested with Bill, the $50.00 a month stopped.
They complained, and Bill was listed as a dead-beat dad -- even though he sent most of the little he received in his check directly to his ex. He loved his kids, the money stolen from his check certainly wouldn't feed or cloth them when it stopped at the DA's office. He talked to attorneys: he had little money, and every dad-bummed one of them said "You can't fight city hall -- any judge will throw out of court a suit against any district attorney." He sent letters to everyone and anyone in government and sat on hold for hours waiting to talk with a representative or state senator. He was labeled a dead beat dad, no votes in helping him. Bill was the first person I heard use the phrase, "phone call placed on terminal hold."
Three times over a decade or more he, or his small group of similarly distressed dads, got someone important to investigate. Each time they received an insultingly small rebate of their overpayments, the payroll attachments remained but were slightly reduced and billing stopped -- there was no paperwork except a new judgment sent to their work places. A month or two latter attachments increased again under court order. No further help arrived from that once helpful quarter, the investigator had been assured by the DA that errors in the billing system had been corrected. Back to terminal hold.