The Midterms

By Al Lucas

This is a book about politics and personality. The politics is the digital era and just how smart are we? The personality is Paul Undres as he anticipates the oncoming election of 2022. The two jive and groove in a sneaker culture that retails on Amazon and whether it is worth buying a candidate.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Lulu.com
• Release date: Sep 3, 2023
• ISBN: 9781312150980

Al Lucas

This is the original 1st person version called High Steppin' off da Crack, first submitted as a 3rd person account under the name of simply Hi' Steppin' years ago. This 1st person version is more in keeping with an autobiographical style while still using fictional names as characters and was created before the 3rd person version, but lost, only to be found later after the 3rd person publication. It opens with an emaciated man standing on the day of 9/11 in the VA lobby, awaiting hospitalization for crack usage. One bizarre incident after another occurs leaving his sanity no longer in question. Being a Vietnam-era vet, he is screened and then followed up by two psychiatrists of Oriental persuasion who treat him rather realistically, to his chagrin. He is discharged with a nursing plan to attend Avon Park, a renowned dual diagnosis center in Sebring, FL, but first must go to SafePlace, a transitional housing facility in Tampa to protect him from the dealers while he awaits an opening in Avon. First, however, Paul decides to go home and have one more bout with crack, to get the high he never had, using his car as leverage. It doesn't work out so well. He thus attends SafePlace without a car. It should be noted, he has read to one of the psychiatrists his ongoing novel and continues to read or have read to any and all its contents. One person, a roommate, at SafePlace is so moved, he blows his brains out. At Avon, he is assigned a class coordinator, Manfred Mundane, an ex-military pilot, who is unsympathetic about Paul's writing skills. Getting kicked out for bumming cigarettes, Paul comes home with new verve. He will in fact attend AA and does. He fights his way out of bankruptcy and foreclosure blindly with no help from family or friends and miraculously incurs twelve years of clean time. The book ends with a surprise, reserved for the reader. It should also be noted, the narrative weaves between Paul's acid days in Morocco and his current plight. His journal is in the past tense; the book's outcome, in the present with both coming to an end in Paul's bedroom where reality merges in a sexual farce.

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The Midterms.

By Al Lucas

Copyright © 2020 Al Lucas

978-1-312-15098-0

Imprint: Lulu.com

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored, or transmitted by any means—whether auditory, graphic, mechanical, or electronic—without written permission of both publisher and author, except in the case of brief excerpts used in critical articles and reviews. Unauthorized reproduction of any part of this work is illegal and is punishable by law.

Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

Other Works by the Author

The Step Series:

The First Step, Hi’ Steppin’

The Second Step, A Step Down

The Third Step: The Smoking Gun and the Coughing Nails, a Real Read Herring.

The Fourth Step, A Dream Amidst the Chaos.

The Last Step, The Trite World of Paul Undres, A Final Expose.

The Bon Mot Series:

Mister Bon Mot and the Election of 2016

Mister Bon Mot and The Meanings of Wife

Also:

Pan and the Pandemic

Al

Force Feed, Colors of the Cerebrum

Rhetorical Questions, the Socratic Method

Dwindling Supply, the Art of Aging

The Parrot and the Parakeet

Visit: https://lucaslore.com

The Midterms

1: Pre-exam Jitters

2: The Test for Paul

3: More on the Testy Resolve

4: More on the Citizen

5: Try Reading the Ballot

6: Dating

7: Separation

8: Starting Anew

9: The Crime

10: The Sentence

11: The Lines Are Drawn

12: The Lines Intersect

13: How to Screw Yourself

14: Chances

15: The Game On

16: The Seventh Inning Stretch

17: Next Season

18: Rhinos

19: Twisted Fragments

20: Communication

21: The Meaning of Life

22: The Fishes

23: The Very Next Meeting

24: Ruthie

25: Present Arms

26: Back to Basics

27: So What is Real?

28: More Data, More Feedback

29: The Seminar

30: Whose Balls Are For the Taking?

31: The Older You Get

32: The Fairies

33: The Storm

34: Making a Life for Himself

35: The Sexless Self

36: The Situation

37: The Situation Room

38: Running for Office

39: Jail Time

40: The Meaning

41: The Marrow

42: Class Reunion

43: Back to AA

44: Drying Up

45: The Speaker of the House

46: The Stock Market

47: Back to the Reunion

48: How to be an Ass

49: One More AA

50: Church and CSL

51: The Monk

52: Colonoscopy

53: Final Issues

1: Pre-exam Jitters

This is not a trivial college course paper. This is an articulation of what matters most to us on a national level.

Everyone is anxious. Will history repeat itself and the opposition party win big in the midterms or will the facts of life dictate a new beginning?

The facts of life are these: we selected an irreverent businessman to lead the Republic in 2016 over a lady whose experience in government was unmatched and underappreciated.

The pertinent fact is that governing a large nation with its many needs requires an appreciation of institutionalization by its commander in chief, who most recently underappreciated it and his constituents as well.

People just didn’t understand the nuances of constitutional institutionalization until the Jan 6 hearings with the misuse of classified data and the antics of four years of histrionics became educational.

But is the average American capable of learning quickly enough? 

That’s what makes everyone anxious.

2: The Test for Paul

The solution is a party that cares. A party that doesn’t care isn’t our concern. Yes, our founders were concerned, but they were thoughtful. They had fought off all the king’s men and it was basic frontier comforts to deal with . About rabble, both black or white, they were concerned, but they were also concerned about labor. The Constitution was a labor of love.

This book is about love, a welfare recipient, one who is a living example of creature comforts, who finally realized the secret of subjectivity,  doing what is important to the psyche, making his viewpoint stand the test of time while living a bland life. 

HIs name is Paul Undres. He is the character, the singular symbol that takes things seriously. He speaks for all recipients, not just the insipid. He is the heart and soul of the sixties where the welfare state got off to a good start with the Great Society, Medicare of the Depression Era notwithstanding. He is but one of the test takers.

So what was with a little drug abuse? What was it with a little bipolar depression that preceded and followed it? It’s common. What's with a little trauma that befell. It can be long lasting.

How many drugs can a man take before he’s had enough? How many drugs must an entire generation take before it realizes it's been misled? How many wars must be fought by a generation before its draftees rebel? How serious is any recent generation in living?

Let’s be hypothetical and say God is serious. That his wrath can wrap around any believer or that Jesus died for our sins.

Okay, unity takes us so far. So far. But rugged individualism is out too. Transgenderism is the breaking point of modernity. A life changing operation of that magnitude was unimaginable to a baby boomer like Paul, who simply wanted to enjoy everything, who was liberal, but my God…

Still, freedom of critical choice does not mean volleyball and swimming privileges with the girls more than with the boys. But this is not about watersports. It’s exam time. Get in line.

3: More on the Testy Resolve

Paul is a white man in a ghetto environment who had grown up mistakenly believing he was privileged.He ignored certain truths, or should I say he acted out on certain influences which he did not fully appreciate. So, when certain opportunities showed themselves, he revolted because they might benefit him. .

I speak in ambiguities for that’s exactly how Paul perceived them. He simply didn’t listen. Did he realize the consequences? No. It was simply the immediate feeling of having fucked himself. 

But if he wasn’t fit for a woman, was he fit for a man? No, he was seriously unfit.

He became glued to self abuse. He saw nothing to live for. He had ADD and he was depressed. He rarely felt any buoyancy. School was head on the desktop. He was not alone, even though he wanted it that way. 

Paul was supposed to be the commander, the man