The Berry Patch and Beyond

by Jack Riley

Doing homework as a high school senior in 1968, Jack glanced at the TV as the numbers were being drawn. He d won the lottery. The draft lottery. This was his first hill on the roller coaster of life. Little did he know that seventeen years later he would hit the loop. The old TB hospital, now converted to a residence for the state s human services division, was 110 yards from one end to the other. Jack sat at the far end, on the graveyard shift, in the red glow of the exit sign. He had been told, The residents here are very involved developmentally and psychologically. He was about to find out just what that meant. Forty years after the fateful night of his lottery win, with many hills and loops behind, he cruised into the station none the worse for wear.

80 pages, Paperback

First published May 27, 2008