Inspired by the song, "Prodigal Father" by John Flynn.
Thanks to Crkcppr for his early read and Todd172 for beta reading.
Thanks always to my Sweet Inspiration blackrandl1958 for her encouragement, advice, and of course, her editing.
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John and Gail were both from broken families, with all the heartache and hardship that implies. Even before the divorces, they were forced to endure the accusations and recriminations their parents threw at each other. It was a rare night to go to bed and not be woken up by yelling or the sound of smashed crockery.
They found solace in each other's arms, and dreaded when the time came to return to the war zones that were their homes.
"Promise me, John," Gail pleaded, "that our home will never be like that, that whatever happens you will always love me."
"Of course, Honey," John replied.
It all came to a head shortly after their high school graduation. John had recently turned eighteen, which was the signal for his parents to divorce. Considering the acrimony of the last few years the divorce was relatively amicable, but still stressful for all concerned.
For all the pain of John's parents' divorce, it was a pleasure cruise compared to Gail's situation.
Her father broke his wife's jaw, putting her in the hospital, him in jail and leaving Gail to fend for herself.
Gail was a mess. They had both planned on going to community college, but that was now out for Gail, and she would soon be losing her home. She had to find a job.
"What are we going to do, John?" she cried into his shoulder.
"Don't worry, Gail, we'll figure it out," he said with more confidence than he felt.
The bad news kept coming.
Even with the alimony and her job, John needed to get a job to help his mother out, putting his dreams of further schooling on hold.
John and Gail were well aware of the failure rate of couples who married young. They only had to look at the wreckage of their own parents' marriages to confirm the statistics.
They knew that they were different, however, that their love was one for the ages. They were special; they were in love and true love conquers all.
Without fears for the future, they decided to marry their fortunes together and had a small ceremony at City Hall.
At first, they floated on a sea of love, in blissful ignorance, but reality soon came crashing in on them.
Love cannot be eaten; love can't pay the utilities or put gas in the car.
They both were industrious and worked hard, but good jobs were scarce for young inexperienced workers. They persevered and soon established a stable, semi-comfortable home.
Unfortunately, the kind of jobs they got weren't they type that careers are built on, and John had to change jobs often, preventing him from building up the kind of seniority on which job security is built. Nevertheless, John was a hard worker who gave his all to whatever job he had.
Then came the news; Gail was pregnant! John was going to be a father! Despite their concern about the loss of Gail's income, their joy at their impending parenthood completely overrode it.
They both worked as much as they could, setting aside money for when Gail had to stop working.
Almost to the day of their son, Mark's, birth, John lost his job, but was fortunate enough to land another right away.
Mark was only eighteen months old when John was called into his supervisor's office.
"John, there's really no easy way to say this," Bill Riley said, "but things have slowed down quite a bit and as the newest hire, I'm afraid we have to let you go."
John was in a state of shock. Not at the firing; that was old hat to him now. The difference was that he had a child now. How was he going to tell Gail that he had lost his job?
He wasn't quite ready to face Gail with the news, and stopped at Kelly's Bar & Grill for a cold brew. He knew that couldn't be a long-term solution, so he drained his glass and went home to Gail and Mark.
Gail knew something was wrong when she saw John trudging up the walk, hours early with his head hanging down.
"John, what's wrong?" she asked sitting beside him as he sat wearily on the couch.
"I got laid off... again," he said.
"Oh, John!" she cried, "What are we going to do now?"
"Do? I'm going to do what a husband and father is supposed to do. Get a job and support my family."
"Of course, John, I didn't mean to doubt you."
"I know, Gail, I know. It's just that it's so frustrating. Sometimes I regret not waiting to get married. Maybe I should have gone to Community College first."
"Don't you go blaming yourself, John! I think I had something to do with that decision," she said, rubbing seductively up against him. In a few moments they forgot all about their troubles, at least for one evening.
Unfortunately, one night of hot sex couldn't solve all their problems, and the next morning, John filed for Unemployment, swallowed his pride and applied for food stamps.
He spent the rest of the day pounding the pavement looking for a job without success. John returned home frustrated and exhausted.
After a week, John was getting depressed. He had occasionally gone more than a day or two without work, but that was before he had a baby to worry about.
Unemployment and food stamps barely covered the necessities, jobs were scarce, and John was getting not just frustrated, but angry, and to his shame, he occasionally took his anger out on Gail.
Gail tried to be sympathetic, and usually succeeded, though she sometimes lashed out in return.
John continued to apply for work everywhere he could, but continued to come up empty. When Gail got a part-time job as a waitress, John's pride was crushed—he was raised to believe that it was a husband and father's responsibility to provide for his family.
He swallowed his pride, and tried to find satisfaction in quality time with his son, which did help some.
He was getting more and more frustrated, wearing out shoes pounding the pavement, trying to find something, ANYTHING to make a buck, but unable to find anything more than the occasional day-laborer job.
John was in the neighborhood bar, enjoying a rare cold beer before going home to report on another unsuccessful day of job hunting, when one of his less reputable high school friends approached him.
"Hey, John," Hal Olson said, "How are things?"
"Could be better," John snorted.
"Yeah, I kinda heard," Hal said, "That's why I was looking for you. I have a proposition."
