Dale Cornfield injured his back on the job. He was a construction worker. Thankfully, he wasn't paralyzed. While he was recuperating, he had to stay home all day with his narcissistic, nagging wife Sylvia. Despite him being injured, she still yelled at him, calling him good-for-nothing, a worthless POS, lazy, etc. She didn't care. She would bully & pester him about taking out the garbage, cleaning out the bathtub, cooking, picking up the kids from school, you name it.
Sylvia would always yell at him, saying that he's over exaggerating his injury, on purpose, just to get people to feel sympathy for him, or as an excuse to not do what she wanted him to do. Eventually, he got sick & tired of biting his tongue & started arguing back.
Dale got sick & tired of her nagging, so he tried to go to his brother Owen's house, & he discovered that she locked all the doors. Locked that poor man inside of the house, so that he couldn't escape, despite his construction experience. He wondered what she did to make it to where he could not unlock any doors. It was increasing his pain to try to open the locked doors. One of the doors got jammed, & he nearly re-injured his back even worse. By that time, he was mostly healed, but still had some minimal pain. He didn't care. He waited until she was asleep to bash 1 of the living room windows open with a hammer to escape, & he hurt his back even worse. After that, he discovered that she hid the car keys.
He said, "Fxck it! I'm getting the HELL on out of here." He carried those heavy bags onto his shoulders & injured back, limping. Someone passing by in an older model Pontiac Firebird offered him a ride. He accepted the ride. The driver struck up a conversation.
"My name is Nolan Underwood. You got a load there. Why are you walking around with all those heavy bags, my dude? That doesn't even make any sense. Why didn't you call a cab?"
Dale responded, "I injured my back at work, & my wife trapped me inside of the house & hid the car keys. I don't have any money."
Nolan said, "What a fool you are, bro! Why did you let her dog over you like that? You ought to have more common sense. Now, where am I taking you?"
Dale said, "By my brother Owen."
Nolan was like, "No, you're NOT going by your brother Owen, because I got something better for you."
Dale was too exhausted & medicated to fight or argue back. He called Nolan a douchebag jerk, under his breath.
Nolan said, "What?"
Dale replied, "Nothing."
Nolan told him, "That's what I thought."
(Dale always had difficulties with assertiveness & dealing with being punked around.)
They arrived at Nolan's house, got settled & then went to bed. Nolan cuddled up in bed with his wife, Paige.
Nolan & Paige both went to work. The day was normal. Paige usually gets off earlier than Nolan. Nolan works longer & later hours. Dale was allowed to stay at Nolan's house & rest.
Paige cooked some soul food for dinner. She wanted to make everything special & sexy for her husband. Nolan came home from work, seemingly in a normal mood. Paige had no idea that Nolan was angry because he didn't get the raise at work that he was promised. Nolan used Paige's schizoaffective label as a weapon against her.
Paige hugged & kissed him, telling him, "Hey, baby. Dinner is ready." Once she tried to pamper him, he snapped on her like a turtle, & she wondered what she did or said wrong. When she asked him, he said, "Look! I already had a hard day at work. I ain't the one to piss off today!" When she asked, "What's with the attitude?" The response was, him pointing in her face like a disobedient child & saying, "Start your shit! You hear? Start your shit! & watch I have them come pick your ass up & lock you up in the mental institution! & I will MAKE SURE that you'll never be able to get out! Now, pluck my nerves today!"
Then, the argument escalated & got physical. Nolan said that she's dangerous & not mentally capable of taking care of the kids, & then made threats to call CPS & have the kids put in foster care. He didn't follow through with those threats, but the threats made her fearful & kept her in line.
The children, eyewitnessing all of that, were terrified. They were in the middle of doing their homework. Nothing but dysfunction, fighting, throwing things & yelling all night, throughout the middle of the night.
Dale overheard all the yelling & commotion. He went from one abusive, narcissistic household to another. He couldn't catch a break. He would've rather gone to his brother Owen's house, like what his initial plan was. Owen is single & by himself. No drama over there. So much chaos & confusion.
Dale had enough & tried to leave the morning after that. Poor man went to the Academy Sports & Outdoors, bought him a cheap sleeping bag, & then went to go live underneath the bridge to have some peace & solitude, despite his back injuries. He felt like homelessness was the only solution. He wanted to avoid the homeless clique & just roll solo. Fortunately, his homeless situation didn't last for too long. He began collecting unemployment checks, & he was able to file for SSDI. He eventually got another place of his own & divorced his wife. After that ordeal, he became a writer & started working on a novel, based on a fictionalized version of his life story. He had pretty good success with that novel, so he turned it into a passion. He turned it into a living. He went on to write more novels. He just wanted to live alone for the rest of his life. He didn't even try to get with another woman. He had to walk around with a back brace. He couldn't really drive a car, because it was too painful for his back.
Dale started to go for daily walks, & then afterwards, go to the local university to utilize their sauna & jacuzzi to relieve his back pain. He discovered that eating naturally & consuming anti-inflammatory foods & drinks helped him to be pain free. Before you know it, he was jogging & playing tennis.
THE END