The Depths of Shallow Living: The Buildup After the Breakdown.

By L.W. Fields

This is a poignant story of Isaac Porter, a man with all the trappings of success who struggles with the systematic dismantling of all he has accomplished. After a brutal injury, Isaac finds his life and all that he believed in coming apart. Isaac's video production company is the center of attention with budding artists trying to make it big in the industry. Isaac uses discernment and wisdom gleaned on the streets to identify true talent and navigate the risks of inner city culture. Although Isaac has been crushed emotionally and financially in love he continues to look for a meaningful and lasting relationship. This story depicts a man's turmoil and his overriding spiritual quest for direction and purpose. Isaac Porter learns to live by faith, which sustains him through the many obstacles and trials he faces. This is a heartfelt story of the many places and people Isaac comes across in his journey.

• Language: English
• Publisher: AuthorHouse
• Release date: May 6, 2014
• ISBN: 9781496909183

L.W. Fields

L.W. Fields writes with intrigue and vulnerability, taking readers on a suspenseful and emotional journey. His interwoven spiritual underpinnings provide a backdrop that assures resolution to the many conflicts presented in the story of Isaac Porter. The characters are human and fallible, but resolute and spiritually minded.

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© 2014 L.W. Fields. All rights reserved.

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Published by AuthorHouse 04/29/2014

ISBN: 978-1-4969-0919-0 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4969-0918-3 (e)

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O n or about April 17, 2010, Police were summons to the home of Isaac Porter by his ex-girlfriend, Juliette Abrams, at 2200 Greenwood Lane, Upberg, California for the second straight day. Mr. Porter was forced to allow her to removed items from his home, while officers stood by and assisted her in taking furniture, cars and documents. Although Mr. Porter cooperated completely with police and Miss Abrams the day prior, and was under no such orders to allow her access to his home a second day. The police officer who assisted Miss Abrams the previous day and whom was very respectful towards Mr. Porter, was off work this day, therefore an Officer Langley of the Upberg Police Department was on the scene and went beyond his authority by forcing Mr. Porter’s cooperation a second day. Officer Langley was small for a police officer. He was redheaded with an Adolph Hitler mustache, red eye brows and lashes. Mr. Porter remembered him from another time that he served a warrant at his home and arrested him and Juliette for Insurance fraud. Although they were not guilty of any crime, the insurance investigator was an ex-Upberg police officer. After the couple’s truck was stolen, when requested by the insurance company to determine the trucks value, Miss Abrams was asked to send them receipts to assist in making an evaluation. She accidently sent a receipt for an article that wasn’t on the truck prior to the theft. This caused an investigation from an overzealous insurance investigator. He was convinced that Miss Abrams was forced to commit insurance fraud by Isaac Porter. The policy was solely in her name and so was the truck but this created an atmosphere of suspicion that caused the insurance company to suspect fraud. After the insurance investigator appeared unannounced at the home of Isaac Porter and Juliette Abrams, she said something that incriminated them both. About a week later, Officer Langley and another officer appeared at the front door with a warrant for their arrest. While he was transporting them to jail, he made a cell phone call to the insurance investigator and ex-cop friend of his to say that he had them both in custody. He seemed to be doing a favor for the guy and ex-coworker. Mr. Porter could never forget Officer Langley’s face although he wasn’t sure if Miss Abrams remembered him or not. Mr. Porter felt that Officer Langley was motivated this day by his prior dealings at the same address.

Upon Miss Abrams removing everything she wanted, Officer Langley ordered Mr. Porter to give Miss Abrams the keys to the car that he was driving which was parked in the garage. Mr. Porter handed over the keys and made a statement, this feels like murder as he placed the keys in the officer’s hands. At that point, Officer Langley advised him to step outside of his garage after Mr. Porter was allowed to remove his personal items from the car. Officer Langley pointed to another officer who had just arrived and instructed Mr. Porter to speak with that officer if he had any concerns. Miss Abrams backed the vehicle from the garage, while other people there to assist her drove another vehicle that was also purchased by Mr. Porter. They now had two of three cars purchased by Isaac Porter, and a fully packed moving truck. The third vehicle they had already taken months prior and stored at Miss Abrams’ mother’s home. Miss Abrams had even packed and taken things that Isaac Porter owned prior to ever meeting her.

Once Isaac Porter realized the officer that he was attempting to speak to wasn’t very sympathetic, he turned and walked away attempting to re-enter his home again, but was apprehended by four police officers: handcuffed, and placed into a patrol car. This was done while Mr. Porter’s neighbors, ex-girlfriend, and the army of people that were there to assist Juliette Abrams looked on.

He was driven by Officer Langley to Barrow Head Community Hospital located in a neighboring city. The police officer never uttered a word the entire trip. He would only look at Mr. Porter through the rearview mirror with an evil smirk on his face. He was recording Mr. Porter’s every word and wouldn’t answer any of his questions as to why he was treating him in such a manner. Once they arrived, Officer Langley had Isaac Porter sit in what appeared to be a triage area. The place was cold and had a very bad smell. Mr. Porter could see from where he sat that Officer Langley whispered something to an Asian man wearing a white lab coat who appeared to be the triaging physician. The doctor then looked over at Mr. Porter with a most evil expression. The doctor approached Mr. Porter and his first words were, you need medication! Isaac Porter’s first words to the doctor were Can you remove the handcuffs? They are causing me pain. The doctor responded with, you take medication, we remove handcuffs! Isaac Porter then said then leave them on because I will not take any medication. The doctor then instructed other staff to hold him down as they pulled down his pants and injected him in the hip with a substance; however the handcuffs were never removed.

The substance made him drowsy but after a few hours staff entered the room that he was relocated to and began to gather. Mr. Porter struggled to stand to his feet while still handcuffed. There was an overweight Caucasian, male staff member who grabbed Mr. Porter by the neck. In great pain, he screamed for the guy to let go of his neck. Isaac Porter suffered from spinal stenosis and had severe nerve pain throughout his neck and back. With a nonchalant attitude, the overweight hospital worker talked to others in the room as he handled Mr. Porter as if he were an animal. He ignored Mr. Porter’s pleas that he was hurting his neck.

Mr. Porter was in a forward bent-over position while still handcuffed as the hospital worker held him by the neck. Mr. Porter was bent over at the waist with his hands behind his back and could see the man’s black tennis-shoes and smelled his musty body. Mr. Porter cringed in pain as the overweight musty hospital worker handled him with total disregard for his humanity. The pain was unimaginable as Mr. Porter tried to focus on the linoleum on the floor and not the experience he was having at that moment. The hospital worker laughed and continued to talk to the other staff while ignoring Mr. Porter’s screams of pain. Mr. Porter was repulsed by the man’s odor and the proximity of his face to the abdomen area of the man’s body. There was no one in the room coming to his aid. The helpless feeling drove an impulse of self-preservation.

Mr. Porter then, with no other alternative, cognizant and very mentally aware, bit the overweight hospital employee in the abdomen area as a last effort to prevent the continued restraining of his neck. Mr. Porter was fully aware and conscious of the fact that he was biting the employee while clamping down with all of the force he could muster. His thoughts were the employee could be later identified by a bite mark to his abdomen. Once bitten, the employee screamed out, he’s biting me and flung Mr. Porter by the neck to the floor. Other staff members pounded on top of Mr. Porter. He was injected with an unknown substance for a second time. This time, Mr. Porter went unconscious immediately.

Juliette Abrams was a very jealous person since meeting Isaac Porter. He had several indications of her extreme jealousy early on in their relationship but didn’t give it much thought. He could be out with some friends and would call home. Juliette Abrams would say that she was cooking dinner, and asked when would Isaac be home? He said to her that he wasn’t very hungry and she and the children could eat without him. Juliette and Isaac both had one daughter each from previous marriages. Later when he returned home and went to sleep, she searched his pockets and found a receipt from a local restaurant. She would then approach him the next day regarding the time that she spoke with him about dinner the previous day, and the time indicated on the restaurant receipt, which was an indication to her why he wasn’t hungry. She apparently felt that he was out having dinner with another woman, although the bill wasn’t large enough to be a dinner tab. Isaac had only had appetizers while watching a game with friends in the bar area of the restaurant. Isaac found her questioning strange, and had not experienced scrutiny on such a petty level within a relationship before. There was another time he had been prescribed medication by his doctor that enhanced the male libido. The doctor would only give four to six pills at a time. Isaac didn’t feel he needed the pills and had only taken them once. He felt they had very little effect and didn’t want his body to develop a need for the pills so he stopped taking them. Although, he told a couple of friends about the pills and they asked him if they could try one. He was traveling in the direction of one of the friend’s home one day, and thought he would take him a couple of the pills for him to try. As he traveled down the freeway shortly after leaving his home, he received a frantic telephone call from Juliette. She was almost in a panic as she told him that two of the little pills were missing. Isaac couldn’t believe that she was monitoring the pill count and knew when one was gone from the medicine container in which he kept them. He was really very puzzled, especially since he kept them in a container which contained other pills of the same color and threw out the original container. He did that because he was ashamed of being prescribed pills of that nature and didn’t want anyone to know. Although he did share the information with Juliette Abrams, he now was regretting that he had. He wondered if she was thinking he was on his way to have sex with some other woman. Her behavior was becoming increasingly stranger and more difficult to deal with. Isaac felt that anyone who monitored you in such a way, probably needed to be monitored themselves. It was his belief that hurt people, hurt others and scorned people, scorn other people. Although Juliette Abrams came from an abusive marriage with a drug abusing ex-husband by the name of Johnell Abrams, a tall, very dark man with bloodshot red eyes, Isaac had no idea how this affected her behavior until now. He was now more inclined to think that the cause of her behavior went further back into her childhood. Juliette Abrams’ mother, Joann Lucin, a short overweight lady who didn’t smile much and never combed her hair but wore a wig every day, was a scorned woman. Juliette Abram’s father, Jessie Lucin, had died years earlier from cancer, was a lifetime drug dealer who left their mother for another woman when Juliette Abrams was in high school. Juliette Abram’s younger sister Shalonda Jones was a married, extremely overweight, entitled acting lazy woman, with a personality similar to that of the mother, and brother Drew didn’t seem to care as much about the father leaving. It could have been because they were younger and didn’t notice the mother’s sad and lonely behavior, or they were easily bought off with candy and trinkets while visiting with their father and his new wife. The father had bought a new home with the new wife and seemed very happy after leaving his family. Isaac knew that Juliette was very close to her mother, and by being the oldest child of the family, felt a responsibility to be the mother’s advocate while visiting with the father. So she wasn’t very nice to the father’s new wife.

Isaac Porter was awakened by screams hours later to find himself in another facility. This place he later discovered was called Ridge Crest Regional Hospital in Bino, California. Mr. Porter was awakened by a patient who was screaming and yelling for the staff to stop what they were doing to him. Mr. Porter stumbled out into the hallway, fell to the floor and noticed several staff members exiting a room directly across from the room in which he was located. While sitting on the floor barely able to walk, he said to the staff members, Leave him alone. He said, That’s what you people did to me. An African American staff member, approximately six feet tall with a muscular build, walked over to Mr. Porter and said, That didn’t happen to you here. He went on to say, You arrived here about 4:00 A.M. this morning and were unconscious upon arrival, strapped to a gurney. He said that there was a write-up on him that indicated he was dangerous. Mr. Porter was confused and didn’t realize where he was, or what had happened to him while unconscious. The staff member asked if there was anything that he could do to assist Mr. Porter. Mr. Porter was immediately calmed by the staff members request to assist him. He asked the staff member if he could arrange for him to take a shower. Mr. Porter felt dirty and the place had a strange odor that seemed to penetrate through his skin. The staff member assisted Mr. Porter to his feet and they went into the room that in which Mr. Porter was housed. The staff member went to get Mr. Porter a hospital gown to change into once he had showered. When he returned, Mr. Porter told him the shower in the room did not work. Mr. Porter asked him if they had another room that he could use the shower. The staff member said that all of the rooms were occupied. He left briefly and returned to notify Mr. Porter that he had a bathtub located in a utility room that he could use. Mr. Porter was pleased with that suggestion and they walked slowly down the hallway. As Mr. Porter sat in the stainless steel utility tub, he wondered how he got there. How did he end up in a mental facility when he was seemingly just home sitting alone barefoot in his own house? As the water filled the tub, he stood up and began to wash his body with the products provided by the hospital staff. Suddenly, the door swung open and a female staff member, semi attractive woman with black hair stood in the doorway staring at Mr. Porter’s nude body. Mr. Porter faced away from the door because the back of the bathtub was closest to the door. With his soapy body dripping, he wondered how long would she stand there. She stood there for almost thirty seconds or more before Mr. Porter yelled out, this is an H.I.P.A.A. violation." All hospitals must comply with standards governed by the rules of Title 22 and, the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, or (H.I.P.A.A.). Most hospital staff is familiar with the H.I.P.P.A. policy and knew it centered on the patients’ rights and their privacy. Mr. Porter’s work of the past thirty years ensured that he was very versed in hospital rules and regulations. The female staff member smiled and eventually closed the door and walked away. Mr. Porter hurried to finish, sat down, rinsed off as the door swung open again. This time it was several male staff and the same female staff member. The original staff member who allowed Mr. Porter to use the bathtub was there in the doorway as well. They had a lengthy discussion that went on for three to four minutes with Mr. Porter regarding his use of the bathtub and utility room. Mr. Porter asked if he could have some privacy to finish his bath and offered to continue the conversation once out of the bathtub. As he washed up, dried off and put on the hospital gown, the original staff member came back into the room. Mr. Porter explained that he had every intention of filing a complaint with the appropriate governing entity once he was able. The employee told Mr. Porter that his supervisor was threatening to terminate his employment with the hospital for allowing Mr. Porter to use the bathtub. He went on to say that Mr. Porter could have committed suicide in the bathtub and its use by patients was prohibited. Mr. Porter told the hospital staff member that if they terminated him, that he would hire him to work at his broadcasting and audio production studio recently opened near his home.

Isaac Porter found it increasingly more difficult to remain in the facility and demanded they release him immediately. When Mr. Porter was at Barrow Head Community Hospital they had searched his wallet and found his medical insurance card while he was unconscious. That is when they decided to transfer him in the early morning hours to Ridge Crest Regional Hospital. Any facility that accepted his health insurance with room to house him stood to profit from Mr. Porter’s forced detention and would have no incentive to release him earlier than 72 hours. The police had placed him on a 72 hour hold and Mr. Porter was stuck there for at least that length of time. The black haired staff lady was upset after the bathtub incident and continually tried to get Mr. Porter to take medication when he complained of not being able to sleep. She was attempting to give him medication that would alter his brain functionality and possible cause him permanent damage. Mr. Porter declined all forms of medication and was only unable to sleep from the constant screaming and yelling by the patients within the facility. The lack of sleep and unidentified substance that was injected into his body on the first day was clouding his thoughts and had a lasting effect. Mr. Porter could only use the telephone on the wall to call his own cell phone voice mail trying to see if he had any messages from friends and/or family members. There were only a few telephone numbers he could remember. One of those numbers was of his close friend and coworker Patsy Crenshaw. Patsy told Isaac that Juliette Abrams had called her and said that the police had taken him away because he had threatened to commit suicide. It was a mystery to Mr. Porter how Juliette had even got Patsy’s telephone number considering they weren’t much acquainted. Juliette Abrams never tried to get to know any of Mr. Porter’s female friends. Mr. Porter felt even more violated knowing that the people responsible for him being detained in a mental facility was going to his friends and telling them that he had threatened to kill himself.

There was a staff member Isaac Porter had gotten familiar with by the name of Rachel. Rachel was a brunette haired lady of Native American decent. She was a spiritual woman who could tell that Mr. Porter was no psychiatric patient and she intervened to try and have him released. She went to her car and brought him a Bible to read in an attempt to keep him calm. She sympathized with him and could tell there was some conspiracy to punish him by the police and now the hospital stood to gain financially from keeping him there as long as possible. Rachel helped Mr. Porter to reach down deep and find a measure of faith. Mr. Porter realized that his current situation was totally out of his control. He was going to need to rely on his spiritual faith that everything was going to be alright. Rachel explained to him the way to prove to the staff that he shouldn’t be there was to cooperate and participate in the classes offered. Mr. Porter agreed with Rachel to cooperate and go to the various class sessions offered by the hospital. He felt that he didn’t need and shouldn’t be in a facility such as that. He was going to need a miracle to come out of that place with no psychological effects. Once he did finally speak in one of the class sessions, the other staff was amazed at the things that he had to say. At the end of one of the class sessions, a patient came over to Mr. Porter. She was a short stocky woman who looked down at the floor most of the time. She went on to say that she had never gotten so much out of a class session as she received from Mr. Porter’s speech. She said that she was moved in a great way and expressed that Mr. Porter could be a counselor and he should consider becoming one. Mr. Porter, while still searching for the reason this was happening to him was uplifted by her statement. They spoke for a while longer and she began to talk about her son. She said her son would be upset with her if he knew she was telling anyone about him. She said that he was ashamed of her and forbade her to speak to anyone about him. She said that he was a music producer and spoke briefly about his work. Mr. Porter notice the woman closely resembled a young guy he had recently hired at his production studio and asked the woman was her son’s name Andrew? She immediately looked shocked and cautioned that if her son ever knew that she had told someone about him that he would be upset with her. Mr. Porter put her at ease, and said that nothing is an accident. Every encounter is for a reason and not coincidental.

Isaac Porter began to interact with some of the other patients there. He met several interesting people and one was a Middle Eastern gentleman that Mr. Porter referred to as Mustafa. That wasn’t his actual name but Mr. Porter felt the name fit him. Mustafa was a well groomed man who whore a bath robe that resembled a smoking jacket over matching pajamas. Mustafa told Mr. Porter that he was a successful club owner of three or more upscale locations. He seemed to be the only person concerned about his personal upkeep. He would shave daily and comb his hair unlike any of the other patients there. He was a dignified man who spoke a lot about his son and wanting to see him. Mr. Porter spoke to Mustafa and became very fond of him. Mustafa explained the incident to Mr. Porter that led to him being in the facility. He said that he and his wife were separated. He said that he went to the house where the wife was living, asking to see his son. The wife denied his request to see the son and called the police after an argument ensued. He was detained and placed in the facility for a 90 day observation. There was another tall slender gentleman by the name of Mathew who wore glasses and seemed like someone else who shouldn’t be there. Mr. Porter had a conversation with Mathew to discover that he had just received a visit from his parents who informed him that he had been offered a job as Chief Executive Officer of a major internet investment company. He told Mr. Porter that he was going to have to rent out his recently purchased home and move to the northern part of the state should he accept the job offer. Mr. Porter took down Mathew’s personal information, telephone number and address, with a promise to visit him once they were both released. There were other patients there that Mr. Porter could not strike up a conversation with at all. One was a medium built African American man with a beard who never talked. He constantly paced up and down the hallway with a very mean look on his face. He often grunted and growled like an animal. Mr. Porter realized this guy was the patient that staff was restraining on his first day there when he heard the commotion and stumbled out into the hallway.

Isaac Porter eventually made a call to friend by the name of Jade Shaheen. She was a close friend and knew about his previous problems with Juliette Abrams and offered her support in any way that she could help. Mr. Porter asked if Jade could come and visit him. He requested some clean clothing and for her to bring a pad and pencil to write down a few things. She agreed and said she’d be there after work later that day. When Jade arrived, Mr. Porter was very happy to have an ally finally check on his wellbeing. No one else knew where he was, and those that did, Juliette Abrams had influenced them with lies and deception. He immediately put on the clothing Jade brought him. Some things he couldn’t wear because the staff had removed the drawstrings for safety reasons and they wouldn’t stay up on Mr. Porter’s body. However, he explained to Jade that those were the best clothing items he had ever received. He vowed to cherish them forever. He then asked Jade if she had brought the pad and pencil. She said, yes she had. He asked her to get them out and follow him around the facility. Mr. Porter began to point out conditions around the facility that would be considered health and safety code violations. He described the bathtub incident and the female employee who had violated his privacy. At a point while they were making their rounds, Jade noticed the staff watching their every move. After hearing the torturous acts described by Mr. Porter, she stopped writing and turned towards him. She said to him that maybe he should consider only concentrating on getting out of there and not making any waves that would give those evil employees any reason to escalate there negative behavior. From what he was describing to her, she felt concern for his safety. He explained to her the impact of being in such a place was having on his psychological wellbeing. He felt that turning a mirror on the system was his only way of remaining stable through such an ordeal. He further described the constant screaming and yelling of patients day and night. He told her about speaking in the classes and getting to know some of the staff and patients. He felt his reason for being there was to fight against a system that many are either too drugged up or mentally incapable of fighting against. She knew he had this knowledge based on the type of work he performed. She also felt better seeing the fight in his eyes and genuine concern for others although he was going through this terrible situation himself. She explained that she had to go now but would keep her notes until he was released. Before leaving, she noticed that Mr. Porter’s ear-ring was totally bent while still in his ear. She removed the ear-ring from his ear and took a picture of it with her telephone. She wondered what kind of force was used to cause an ear-ring to bend in such a way.

Later that night, Isaac Porter couldn’t sleep and went into the recreation room of the facility where there was only one other patient watching television. He put his head back and began to weep openly. He was reaching a point of becoming overwhelmed. Rachel, the staff member he’d gotten to know saw him and walked over. She asked him if he believed in God. He answered her, yes while never looking at her. She could tell that place was starting to break him down. She asked him if it would be alright if they prayed together. He said yes and she held his hands. She began to pray and ask God to give Isaac the strength to handle the things he could not change. Mr. Porter immediately felt better and thanked her. She reminded him of the