I recently ran into Dwayne again in Nashville. He is the 49-year old gentleman who I talked to who wanted me to find his sister to tell her he was okay.
I talked to his sister about two or three weeks ago after meeting Dwayne one night. It took me about two days to find her, but I did find her.
She told me a story of heartache filed with mental illness, drug and alcohol addiction within her family. We talked about how Dwayne has never received proper help and how growing up was a battle for her.
In my conversation with the Illinois native, she described how her father use to make her and Dwayne fight in the front yard to provide him (the father) with entertainment. She talked about how her mother sold drugs and how that affected her for life.
I could go further into the details of Dwayne's life involving his sister, but out of respect for her I won't. She is doing good today and has not had contact with her brother in over 15-years for personal reasons. Those reasons make sense.
“I had noticed that both in the very poor and very rich extremes of society the mad were often allowed to mingle freely.” ― Charles Bukowski, author of Ham on Rye. Bukowski was influenced by the social, cultural, and economic ambiance of his home city of Los Angeles.