Leo Takes a Stand

I don't know what that son-of-a-bitch told you about me. I don't even know the guy really.
He just shows up sometimes, saying he knows what I need. Talking about he's gonna take care of me. Don't listen to him. Then again, he is pretty straight-forward. I think he'd give his life for me. I definitely have to say I trust him. Still, I don't know. He just showed up at my ex-wife's house one day, crying. Begging her to take him back. Like he knew her or something. I mean, I'm Leo. Wouldn't I be the one to beg her to take me back? Why would he beg her to take him back? To go 'back' to something, don't you gotta be there in the first place? I show up, and my wife is standing there looking at me, asking these stupid questions.
"You alright," she says.
What the fuck are you talking about, I say. Of course I'm alright.
My son Leo, he's Junior, says, "Pop, get the hell out of here, 'til you straighten up."
I'm going, "What the hell are you fucking fucks talking about? I'm straight! I just came by to say 'hello.'"
So, that guy messed it up, where I gotta stay about 150 feet away from my wife at all times.
I don't care what the courts say, she's still my wife. So, that guy screwed that up for me. Still, he's been there for me in some tight pinches. Taking over when my head starts hurting.

Okay, I'll tell you this before he comes back. I definitely believe there are just as many bad people in the world as there are good. Before this job, I was a licensed electrician. For about nineteen years I worked with the City, then with Com Ed (that’s Commonwealth Edison to
you non-Chicagoans). I knew a lot of people and made really good money. Then my head started hurting all the time, and I screwed up. I hit the booze. Things got pretty bad. I lost my family, my license. I was even in a shelter for about ten days. So I know what it’s like to be lost. And I know how to come back from that, too. I guess I could have gone back on the job, back to working with the Union, but I think that’s what got me in trouble in the first place—stress. My head would be pounding. Anyway, my son Leo and I have finally gotten to be pretty good friends, and we talk sometimes about how things were when I was drinking. He was just a kid, and God knows I wasn’t a great father then. He says the scariest thing for him was
that he might end up like me. You gotta respect that. Who wants to be like that? I never hit my wife or kid or nothing, but I broke furniture, crashed the car, yelled at them all the time, showed up at work drunk. When things were at their worst, I felt out of control, but in the beginning of it, I felt like I was a king. Like I had the world in a jug and the stopper in my hand. Like I knew everything. Which brings me back to my point about working this job and knowing how to come back from being lost. The key is for a man to admit that he doesn’t know a damned thing.

Okay, this fucker's coming back. I'll talk to you when the coast is clear.