True Love the Hard Way
by
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The day was March 28 in the year 2000. It was late afternoon, and the sky was eerily dark and ominous. The clouds in the western sky looked very angry.
As I looked up at the sky, it was spitting lightning every few seconds and in any direction I looked. The thunder was deafening; it rolled like timpani drums during the great crescendo of a large symphony orchestra. The difference was that they were the only instruments being heard over the great, deep whirring sounds of the tornadic winds. The whistling winds made a whirring eerie sound as they blew through the giant oak trees that had stood for over a hundred years.
In the distance, I could hear the sound of heavy rain beating on the rooftops of the buildings and the parked cars along the streets below. The wind succumbed for just a split second, and I heard the sound of large hail beating on the car tops and the roofs of the buildings.
Unfortunately, a lot of the buildings had glass siding. You know what that means. If it wasn't blown off the buildings, the hail would beat holes in it.
Cars passed by with all of the windows broken out.
Cars with no drivers lined the streets, while the owners scurried to safety anywhere they could find it.
Downtown Fort Worth was now a nightmare for everyone. The next two hours were unimaginable to the average person and especially bad to anyone who had never seen a Texas tornado. Those tornadoes played hell with buildings, cars, and people in their path. The Texas plains were a disaster for miles around. Fort Worth was in total chaos with the sirens of fire trucks, ambulances, and police vehicles wailing everywhere.
I ducked into the doorway of a large building that happened to be nearby. It appeared to be my best chance of saving my hide. The wind whistled around the corner of the doorway, whipping the rain into my face with the force of number-two buckshot being fired from a twelve-gauge shotgun.
The stinging hurt so bad that I huddled up in the corner of the doorway in a fetal position with my back to the street, hoping to stop the beating I was taking and the pain.
The next thing I remember hearing was the wailing of the National Weather Storm warning sirens. They were always blown when a storm or tornado was approaching.
The glass was falling and being blown into the doorway where I was hiding. It was getting worse with large pieces of glass paneling that covered the building being blown off. It was falling toward the ground and into the doorway where I was trying to hide, hitting me in the back. They were being broken into millions of pieces. The wind was blowing them into my face and body, cutting small places in my skin.
Pieces of roofing came next. Large sections of the roofing broke loose, and the decking came down with it. Next came the limbs from trees, hitting the side of the building and splintering into a million pieces.
What the hell! All of a sudden I couldn't see. I couldn't be blind. My eyes were feeling no pain; I didn't understand what was happening to me. There seemed to be a vacuum all around me. I could hardly breathe. All I could hear was a giant roar. It sounded as though a freight train was coming right over the top of me.
The sky had turned totally black, and large hailstones were hitting me and all around the doorway. Damn, now I was getting hit by some of those baseball-sized hailstones. I didn't know how much more of this I could take.
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About the Book
Professor “James R. Dixon” became a street person after family problems with his wife’s infidelity. He goes out to have a drink. He ends up 10 years later a derelict on the streets of Ft. Worth, Texas during a Texas Tornado. He is rescued after the storm and taken to the hospital. His friends talk him into getting on the TV show So You Want To Be A Millionaire. His adventures are very eventful.
Professor and friend Pug arrive in New York. Professor wins the Big Prize and is seen on TV by his mother and children. They contact the Professor and it leads to a Family Reunion. Professor and Pug meet ladies which they marry in his mothers home in Chicago. After the wedding they take the money back to Ft. Worth and they help everyone who has helped them over the years.
About the Author
Ray Carpenter has had a very unusual and eventful life. Sports in High School plus Pilots License at age 16. After High School he entered the Navy the day after graduation. He was first assigned to Naval Intelligence in San Francisco, CA. later reassigned to a Special Services U.S.O. Entertainment Unit singing and acting as Master of Ceremonies..
After the Navy he worked a while as Disk Jockey and Sports Announcer and attended college. He worked in construction, later married, and moved to California where he went into the Funeral business with his father-in-law after graduating from the Los Angeles College of Mortuary Science. It was there that he met and became friends with many people since his firm was one of the District Deputy Coroners of Los Angeles.They handled the Coroners Cases until the Coroners Doctor could come to the Mortuary. He has also been a Special Agent for two Insurance Companies and Regional Mgr. for one company. This meant that he met and became friends with people from all walks of life including Street People. Some of those people he met and became friends with are those people characterized in this story.
Now he is 77 years of age and happily married to his wife Faye of 32 years. He loves life and all it has to offer. Each day is a new experience for him. He is anxious for the sun to rise so he can find what new things it has to offer.