The Chronicles

The Almost True Chronicles of Howard : And Other Stories

There was something fundamentally wrong with Howard. Nobody actually told him that he was defective in any way with the exception of his father or brothers who took exception to his smart ways. He, for all intents and purposes lived what he thought was a normal life except when he didn’t. He learned to compensate and lie. He learned self reliance and resilience. He learned to make do.

When Howard was nine years old he won two dollars at a bingo that was held at a community event during the summer that he was not living on the farm. It was one of the seventeen times that he remembered being happy and lucky in his life. At the time he had no concept of what happy was or what being happy meant. At the time of winning the two dollars he felt good for being able to participate in what normal people did and for following the rules and paying attention and actually being able to call bingo when he had all the chips set right.