In 1986, Victoria Arnold returned from Sweet Home Oregon after seeing her nephew, Shane, for the first time, only to learn her father, Lt. Colonel Brian C. Arnold, had died. When we buried the Colonel, Vicky took me over to Bill’s grave. We stood on it together, and laughed. Vicky showed me Bill’s missing middle name. Eugenia Arnold took ‘Brian’ out of her son’s name, because it was Brian’s life ambition to leave an indelible mark on his son, he going to great lengths to make sure William Brian Arnold was a chip off the old block – to the point we believed he killed his own son.

Here lie Abraham?

Months before, while living in a bad-ass hotel in downtown Oakland, I saw the movie ‘The Great Santini’. Earlier I was drinking with a very bad-ass black pimp with a scar down his cheek. I was a fearless drunk…