Some Call It Luck - Chapter 47

by Jim Wile

Background
A brilliant and beautiful but insecure, nerdy young woman befriends a going nowhere older alcoholic caddie. Together, they bring out the best in each other and collaborate on a startling new invention

(See the Author Notes for a description of the main characters.)

Recap: E.J. awakens the next morning to discover that all the events since the bridge game where he insulted his opponent and came home and got drunk had been a dream. He finally realizes the devastating effect that his addiction to alcohol is having on his life and vows to give it up cold turkey. This does not go well as he is overwhelmed by the physical symptoms of withdrawal, but has told no one what he is doing. He insults Abby at a bridge game and staggers five miles home, where he collapses in bed.

After a couple of days, he returns to caddying but is in no condition for it. He ends up passing out and collapsing into a bunker. Six hours later he wakes up in the hospital where he was taken after a 911 call. Abby and Kenny are there, and E.J. reveals that he had gone cold turkey a week before. Kenny informs him he needed to taper off, which E.J. didn’t know, having never quit before. Abby promises to come back tomorrow to talk to the doctor with him.

The conclusion of the chapter: E.J. Budrowski - September, 1987

A few minutes later Dr. Perrott came in. She was an attractive young doctor with a friendly demeanor. The nurse, whose name was Betty, also came back with a cup of some sort of liquid she told me to drink down and a pill of some kind. I didn’t ask her any questions about what she was giving me. I was very tired and didn’t feel so well, so I just did what she told me.

Dr. Perrott checked my vitals and looked over my chart. She examined me in various ways, including pinching the skin on my hand, to see if it would spring back—a test for dehydration. I was still somewhat dehydrated but better, she said.

Right then I told her about going cold turkey with the alcohol over a week ago, and she said it explained much. With this knowledge, she could now understand the blood test results and what she was seeing on my chart. She said that before I left the hospital—perhaps tomorrow afternoon or on Monday—she would talk to me about the proper way to withdraw from alcohol and would give me some information on where to go from here.

She said I needed to follow through with her instructions if I wanted to prevent a relapse in the future. She also told me it would be very beneficial if I had someone with me who could also listen to the instructions and help me to follow them. I told her I was determined to stay off alcohol for good and that I had a good friend who could be there with me to listen. She gave me a few pats on the shoulder and left.

Through the evening, I slowly started to improve and had a pretty good night’s sleep that Saturday night. By Sunday afternoon, I was feeling a whole lot better.

Abby came to visit me and brought me a bridge magazine to read if I felt like it. She stayed for about two hours, and during that time I told her everything about what had been happening to me lately. I told her all about the dream I’d had—about the putting lesson with Eddie to cure my yips, about the challenge to Fairbanks and the subsequent golf match where the yips came back, and how I had made that stupid bet and then missed with the Lucky 1 to lose it all.

It felt so good to get this all out in the open and to be able to share my feelings and my fears about my alcoholism, about my past, and about my future. Abby was terrific through all of it. She held my hand and cried with me at times and just listened, asking only an occasional question as I got it all out.

When I asked her if she would come to hear the doctor’s instructions with me, she of course said yes and that she would be with me through all of what would follow. I don’t know what I had done to deserve such a truly compassionate, wonderful friend, and I broke down at that point. She held me and rocked me as I just sobbed and sobbed.

Sunday night, nurse Betty told me that Dr. Perrott would talk to me at 10:00 the next morning and that if I wanted to invite someone to hear her instructions with me, I should let them know about it. After that I would be discharged from the hospital.

I called Abby, who was over at Kenny’s house, and told her about the meeting with the doctor, and she promised to be there to participate and to drive me home afterward. I thanked her and said I’d see her tomorrow at 10:00.

I won’t go into all the details of that meeting with the doctor and all the advice she gave me except to say that she strongly advised me to join an alcohol addiction management program. The most well-known was Alcoholics Anonymous, but there were other programs as well. Being around others who can share their experiences, and talking to those who have successfully stayed sober can be extremely beneficial to my recovery, she said.

Abby listened to all of it with me and promised both me and Dr. Perrott that she would be with me all the way. Dr. Perrott was very pleased to hear that. She told her what a fine young lady she was, and she told me how lucky I was to have such a good friend. I thanked her for all of her good advice and promised that I would follow it.

After that I was discharged from the hospital, and Abby drove us to Maudie’s where we had lunch. I was feeling good now and ate heartily. The worst part of alcohol withdrawal—the actual ridding the body of alcohol—was over. It was out of my system, hopefully forever, but this all depended on me to find other ways to cope with life’s challenges and not to give in to the likely urges to begin drinking again. I could do it. I knew I could… I think.

Very soon after, I began to attend AA meetings. There was a local chapter right here in DuBois. Abby came with me to a few of these meetings when she was allowed to, and she continued to be my bastion of support through all this time. I don’t know if I could have succeeded in staying sober without her.

I soon began golfing again, both practicing and playing matches. The yips never returned as Eddie’s dream tips became an established part of my putting. The matches went well, with me winning far more often than I lost. I took my money out from beneath the floorboards and opened up both a regular checking and savings account to put it in.

To be continued...

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Abby St. Claire: Age 21. She has just graduated from Penn State University where she was a math major and has decided to go for a masters degree there next year. She is intelligent and beautiful, yet shy and awkward with most people her age, having been picked on quite a lot while growing up. She works at the snack bar and as a waitress at Brentwood Country Club during the summers. She is dating Kenny who she met earlier this year and is a member at Brentwood.
Kenny Payne: Age 22. Abby met him briefly at a frat party in her senior year and was intrigued by him, then she sees him again when he walks up to the snack bar several months later. Tall, good looking, and an all-around nice guy.
E.J. Budrowski: Age 38. An alcoholic with a traumatic past (an abusive father and a mother driven to suicide) who is a caddie at Brentwood CC. One day he finds a dirty old golf ball on the edge of a pond that seems to have unusual powers, for he makes two holes-in-one with it. He and Abby become friends when she encourages him to take up both golf and bridge again after long layoffs.

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E.J.'s recovery continues in earnest

A chapter in the book Some Call It Luck

Some Call It Luck - Chapter 47

by Jim Wile

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