Down and Out

By Dan Beatty

From the author of Scared of My Own Shadow and Battle for My Spirit, Down and Out is a collection of short stories focusing on characters living on the outskirts of society. Dan Beatty has drawn from his 17 years as a Clinical Social Worker to produce characters who suffer due to trauma and unmitigated circumstances, desperate to find hope in a seemingly careless world.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Dan Beatty
• Release date: Jul 1, 2013
• ISBN: 9781301393060

Dan Beatty

Dan Beatty has relied on his 17 years of experience as a social worker and clinical therapist in Western North Carolina to breathe life into the many characters in his novels and short stories. He has meticulously developed his characters by spotlighting many of the topics that have plagued children and young adults growing up in abusive homes and challenging systems. From characters whose "home" is the street, a 6x8-foot prison cell, or the last stool at the end of a bar, Beatty believes that everyone has a fascinating story to tell, if only someone would listen.

Book preview

Down and Out: Four Short Stories

By Dan Beatty

Smashwords Edition

This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only and may not be resold or distributed to others without the author’s approval. Thank you.

Copyright 2013: Dan Beatty

Other works of fiction by this author:

Battle for My Spirit

Scared of My Own Shadow

TABLE OF CONTENTS

1. Bugs (1000 words)

2. Nothing in Particular (2000 words)

3. "Silence is Golden (2100 words)

4. As Strong as Your Drink (5000 words)

BUGS

Bugs are crawling on my skin again. Or so it seems. But I doubt anyone else can see them. Just me.

I’ve had this problem for years. It is not my only problem, of course. I have many.

But bugs on the skin are probably the most common.

Often they are red ants, or Stink Bugs or sometimes little cockroaches. Right now they are Milkweed bugs. A few have dropped onto the paper from the top of my head as I write this.

I’ve researched all different types of bugs in the past few years. I can identify most. Of course, there is a distinct difference in the world of science between bugs and insects. But I don’t need to get too technical here. I just call them all bugs.

My psychiatrist finally convinced me about a year ago that the bugs weren’t real, that they were just in my mind.

My fucked-up mind.

But then, about 6 months ago, I was smoking outside at my group home on an unseasonably warm October day, and hundreds of Boxelder Bugs started forming around me from the cracks at the bottom of the house. I just sat there, letting them walk and fly around, letting them land on me. They really looked interesting, so I just lit up another cigarette and watched them, knowing that it was just my mind playing tricks on me.

But then Fat Lou came out and said, Hey, what are you doing sitting there with all those bugs flying around you and crawling on you?

And I said, What, you see them?

And he said, Yeah, they’re all over the fucking place.

So I jumped up and started swatting at them, my cigarette flying out of my hand and burning my arm. I ran inside, slapping all over my body as quickly as possible.

So now I don’t know what to do when the bugs are on my skin. I don’t know if they’re real or not. I’m fighting the urge right now to squash the hundreds of Milkweed bugs that have taken over my space. The little fuckers. They invade my space, my privacy. They’re all over my journal paper. I can’t even read what I’ve already written without picking up my journal and shaking it ferociously every few minutes, scattering them throughout the room.

Most people say that heroin did this me, or meth. They say I did this to myself by taking these