Red River Falls Stories By soldierboy50401

[Ramesh_Rocky]

*****

KARMA IS A FICKLE BITCH WHO DOTES ON IRONY - AND OCCASIONALLY KICKS YOUR ASS WHEN YOU LEAST EXPECT IT
Friday afternoon at the Sheriff's office and I was going over finalizations to prepare our move from our cramped, antiquated offices and jails to the new Joint Public Safety Center as our combined Sheriff's office, security officer department, fire station and National Guard armory and other offices was being called. I was coordinating everything from new office furniture and equipment delivery, records, arms and munitions, evidence and, finally, transferring prisoners to the new jail. I was literally up to my ass in the alligators, as they say. Fortunately, things were fairly quiet in the New Year, thus far.
As I sat at my desk going blind on all of this, my phone buzzed. It was Karen Landingham.
"Yes, Karen?"
"Sheriff, your wife is here." Shit. I had my door closed and she probably thought I was busy.
"Please, send her in."
Shannon actually burst through the door, eyes red and swollen from crying.
"Sweetheart, what the hell is wrong?"
"Oh, Patrick! I'm so sorry to rush in here like this," she said as I embraced her.
"What is it sweetheart?"
"Patrick, I just got a phone call from your sister, Beth. It's your father."
I steeled myself to what came next. "What's happened?"
"I'm sorry, sweetheart, but he's in the hospital. He's had a massive stroke! He's in a critical care unit in Des Moines."
I struggled to speak. "How...how bad?"
Shannon hugged me and held me close. "I'm afraid it was very bad. He's lost the use of everything on the right side and he can barely speak."
Oh, shit. I had been able to reverse a lot of the damage over the past few weeks with all of the people I had hurt, shunned and pissed off over the last few years. Even Clarissa and I were on better terms than we had been in a long time.
But the one person I still had an extremely toxic relationship with was my father. And now, I suddenly had no idea whether I would ever get the chance to fix it.
KARMA IS A FICKLE BITCH WHO DOTES ON IRONY - AND OCCASIONALLY KICKS YOUR ASS WHEN YOU LEAST EXPECT IT.
The problem was that right now I couldn't figure out whose ass Karma was trying to kick.
My father's?
Or mine...
To be continued in "Murder in Mason County" later this year.
SB
P.S. - For those of you who found the info about Minister Louis Farrakhan incredulous...well, I did too. But you can find if by googling "Louis Farrakhan Dianetics" and it will bring up a whole litany of articles excoriating the minster.