Drew pulled his collar up closer to his ears. "What the fuck am I doing here? Its fucking cold, the snow is blowing, and I want to go fucking home" he thought. His angst was not North East, Maryland, the little town he had rented an apartment in. It was his desire for home in California. It's not rebuilding a prison and doubling its size, all while its 110% full of inmates, with a short staff. It's none of those things. It's his fucking life. It's his desire to be in California. It's his desire to be home. It's dealing with his ex-wife, fucking troll, and her ugly games she plays with the kid's emotions. It's his ex-girlfriend, dumping him because he was too "needy". He felt he was not needy, but just his attempting to communicate what his needs were. Well, he did understand one thing, she had the pussy and therefore ruled the relationship. That relationship ended badly and sadly for many reasons. And worst of all, he had given up his dog! He loved that dog! But he decided he needed to be honest. He was looking at long stressful hours, living out of a small apartment. He loved the dog so much, but it would not have been right. He gave her up to old friends, past neighbors, that had land, two young children, that loved her, and her best bud Bella, a basset hound.
So here Drew was, overseeing the construction and renovation of a local prison, living in a cute little town in North Maryland, alone, sad, and decidedly drunk. The snow had started to blow and lay before he entered his favorite bar. He had spent a couple of hours drinking, eating, and getting his fill of the very limited female bar flies of North East. The only prospect was the bartender Jenny and she had the intelligence of a sheet of paper. If Drew had one failing, it was his attraction to intelligent females. "God, can I just once do dumb?" he stated into the wind.
It was blowing now, but he handled the cold well, and he was in no hurry to get back to his apartment, empty of love, empty of passion, and generally, a distant office of his project. "Fuck!" he yelled into the horizontal snow. The snow was a foot thick and due to the time of night, midnight, had not been cleared. But he was prepared, like the proverbial boy scout. He had worn his snow boots, wool socks, lined jeans, turtleneck, his winter leather coat and his felt Stetson, now holding and inch or so of snow. North East was a quaint little town, worn around the edges, all wood in need of some paint. But the little town kept itself up, clean, with kind folk. It had 5 good restaurants, within walking distance, a generally nice place to live. But now he was plowing his way home, past the old want-to-be Victorians. Past the bait shop, with the Bait vending machine lit and ready to dispense 24 hours a day. Down the sidewalk stepping and pushing through 18 inches of fresh fluffy snow.
He finally came to the stone wall. It was at St. Mary Anne's Episcopal Church, built in 1742. That was same year that Drew's ancestors came to the shores of America. For some reason he held the cemetery and its hallowed ground in reverence. The cemetery always held a certain respect for Drew, not that he had a clue why. He was a lover of history, but there was something more about the place, that made him want to cross himself, not that he was Catholic. The bedroom windows from his second-floor bedroom looked over the cemetery, but he avoided looking. Drapes pulled tight; blinds down flat. Was it out of fear? Respect? Or something else?
He continued to plow his way home along the long wide stone wall that surrounded the cemetery. There was a good foot of snow on top of the wall now, the snow was becoming a swirling mess. The stone wall had fascinated him. A student of old and new construction techniques, Drew understood the effort it took to create this 2-foot-wide, 4-foot-high stone wall. It was not built to keep out bandits nor marauding hordes. It was built to show the permanence of this church. The solid foundation of "Christian" belief and the long-lasting presences of God. And while Drew knew the words, being a Deist, his brain kicked in to the "Blah, Blah, blah" of his scientific reasoning.