text: Got my thumb out when a beat up old Ford pick up truck pulls off the side of the road. “Thanks.” I toss my duffle bag in the back. “Where ya headed to, son?” A grizzled old man asks as I climb into the cab. “Anywhere. Away from here.” I answer. “You runnin’ from that rehab place?” I can barely see the smile covered by a snowy gray mustache. “Yaw ain’t the first fella I picked up from that place.” “Milton Barkley Ten Step Program?” I bow my head ashamed that I had made up my mind to give up on my chance to walk the straight and narrow. My daddy told me I would never amount to a hill of manure and deep down I have to he may have been on to something. He done the program long before I got slammed in there by a crooked judge. “Why did you run away?” He asked as his tires kicked up the loose gravel. Man, it was hot. Someone told me I’d get used to it, but I don’t think I ever will. “I’m Orville McKenzie, what might your name be?” He asked as he narrowed one of his pale blue eyes on me. “Buck Sentis.” I answered as I rolled down the window which only let in more hot air as we meandered down the gravel road. “Most folks claim that the Milton Barkley Ten Step Method is quite restraining.” He nodded. “That’s putting it mildly.” I chuckled, “Controlling. From the moment you wake up until you put your head on the pillow at bedtime, the method as we know it lists out a myriad of do’s and don'ts.” “That’s what I heard.” He nodded again. “I guess I am more inclined to choose the road less traveled.” I put my elbow out the open window. “Son, there ain’t that many roads ‘round here.” He laughed as he cut close on a curve in the road. “Lucky they got one road.” “I just need to get as far away from the Milton Barkley Ten Step Program.” I hung my head on the crook of my arm so I could get some refreshment from the air blowing in even if it felt as though I was in a confectionary oven. Orville remained silent as he drove as he was not much for chit-chat conversation it seemed. It was a good change from the hub-bub of the Milton Barkley Ten Step Program. With my one bag in hand, I walked through the large wooden door to the center. Once inside, I was overcome with a dozen voices speaking at once in several different conversations. “Name?” A young man at the desk with a neatly trimmed van Dyke of flaming red hair. “Buck.” I answered as I took my bag off my shoulder. “Buck who?” He snapped, already annoyed with me. “Sentis. Buck Sentis.” I watched him check off my name on a very long list. “Welcome Buck Sentis to Milton Barkley Ten Step Program.” He finally smiled. I followed suit. “Here is your rule book.” He handed me a very thick tome. I grunted as I cradled the sacred book in my arms. “You need to memorize that book for the exam.” “Exam? I figured I was done with tests and such.” I sounded distraught as I spoke. “Well, you thought wrong, Buck now dincha.” His heavy sarcasm was a bit much, but I knew better than to challenge a man with a clipboard. “Harv.” A stout man appeared at the mention of the name. “Harv, this is a new resident.” The clipboarded man pointed to me with a sidelong glance as he spoke to Harv. “His name is Buck Sentis.” “Please to meet you, Buck, I’m Harvey Holstein, one of the proctors.” Harvey extended his hand, but I just looked at it as if it was a piece of spoiled meat. “What is a proctor?” I asked as the clipboard man rolled his eyes. “They get dumber by the minute.’ He said under his breath, but I still heard him. “Don’t mind Douglas, he’s a bit of a stick in the mud.” Harvey chuckled since Douglas was well out of range to eavesdrop. “I got sent here-” “Just about everyone has been sent.” Harvey stopped at a door marked 444. “I’ve been here for quite a while. I hate to think about how long sometimes.” He shook his head, “This is your room.” “444?” “Yes, 444.” Harvey acknowledged. “Kinda small.” I sniffed. “You won’t need much room. The program keeps you hustling.” He shrugged. “Hey Bently, here’s your new roommate.” “Swell.” A sarcastic voice emerged from the person sitting at the desk next to a sad looking bed. “I am so sorry. Bently can be a royal pain in the-” Harvey was cut off. “Don’t give my charms away, Harv.” His tone was snide and meant to slice into Harvey. “He’ll figure it out pretty quick.” “Bently smashed up his father’s Silver Arrow on a joyride.” He whispered, but Bently heard every word. “Dweeb.” Bently hissed. “Spoiled brat.” Harvey retorted as he walked away. Turning his head over his shoulder, “I’ll be by in the morning for calisthenics.” “You will love that.” Bently resumed his seat at the beat-up desk. I noticed the initials B.B.B. carved into the wooden desk. He noticed that I noticed. “Bently Bradford Bellford. A royal name for a royal pain in the-” “Really Bently, do you want to add to the kitty?” A prudish man in a sweater vest stopped by the open door. “Higgs? Is that you spreading your disdain like manure?” Bently did not even turn his head to see if it was who he said it was. “Honestly, I don’t see how you don’t flunk out of here.” Higgs rolled his eyes and marched on. “What’s your name?” Bently turned his head toward me as I sat on the edge of my new bed. “Buck Sentis.” I answered. “That anchor of a book of rules is pure...” He looked around to see if someone was eavesdropping. “Bull-loney.” He tossed the thick book to the floor with a thump. “You will read a chapter a day while you’re here. And there’s a test on Friday. A test that I have yet to pass by the way.” “So, what’s the point?” I shrugged. “It’s the ticket out that matters.” He smiled, “No one really wants to stay here in limbo. Even Hell’s not as bad.” “So why are you here?” I did not flinch from his hard stare. I’m sure Bently was used to having an army of servants to wipe his nose, but here there were no servants, only counselors. “Harv said I totaled my dad’s car.” He moved his head closer to mine, “But what he neglected to mention was I totaled my dad with the Silver Arrow and not to mention my poor dear old mother.” I tried not to let my facial expression betray my utter shock, so I just drew a deep breath and let Bently continue. “I’m looking for a way out of here.” He said in a more subdued tone. “What makes people around here hate and despise me is that I want to think for myself. Everything here is scripted and predetermined.” “It is?” I swallowed hard. “The Milton Barkley Ten Step Program is scripted and if you follow it, you get to get the heck out of here.” He snapped his fingers, “But what happens when you get in the elevator and Harv pushes the “up” button?” “I dunno.” I put my hands on my face and my elbows on my knees. “Nobody does.” He waved his hand in a futile gesture, “If I am going somewhere, I want to be in charge of how and by what mode I arrive. I’ve heard rumors that sometimes the elevator does not go to the top floor.” “It doesn’t?” “Nope.” He shook his head side to side. “Once they put you on it, you are at their mercy. You go where they want you to go. Not me. I’m going where I decide to go. Like Robert Frost said, ‘I chose the road less traveled and it has made all the difference.’ He knew what he was talking about.” Bently mentioned the ravine, but did not seem anxious to talk about it. All he said was that I had better stay away from that place. His good humor and sarcastic tone seemed to leave him as he simply said that the place was once used as the place the wicked were cast into by the judges. He was scant about who these judges were other than they decided who went and who didn’t before The Milton Barkley Ten Step Program came into being. “My father was tossed into the Ravine.” He mumbled as his expression turned melancholy, “Hey, I need some sleep. So I hope you don’t mind.” “Sure.” I nodded. It wasn’t long after that when he was chosen to ride the elevator. Members of the ten step program are chosen once they have completed the program. “I didn’t complete the program.” He sat with his hands folded and his elbows on his knees. “I wonder what the deal is.” “Are you ready?” Harv showed up at the door a few minutes later. “What’s the deal? Why are you here?” Bently seemed quite distressed and it made me quite anxious as well. “A decision has been reached.” Harv said without any emotion. “It can’t be.” Bently shook his head. “Come along, it is time to proceed.” Harv reached out for Bently’s hand, but Bently drew back and punched Harv in the gut. Doubled over, Harv managed to tell security to come immediately. As security rushed to the scene, Bently took a chair and broke a window in the recreation area. Before anyone could lay a hand on him, Bently had left the facility. I haven’t seen or heard from him since. I heard some rumors about him and the ravine and that’s when I decided to escape from The Milton Barkley Ten Step Program. The security at the facility was not as impenetrable as I first thought. In a matter of minutes, I was walking the gravel road with a sack over my shoulder. “So what’s ya in for?” Orville broke the silence. His crooked smile was unnerving. “Bank robbery.” I sniffed. I didn’t like blabbing about it, but it seemed to matter an awful lot. “What are you? Sixteen?” Orville made a sharp turn on the road. “Seventeen.” I glared at him. “Just a babe in the woods.” He laughed barely making the next hairpin curve. I noticed that there was a steep drop off on my side. “It’s the ravine.” “The ravine?” I strained to see into the abyss, but all I could see was the endless darkness of the pit. “It’s where I take folks who are trying to get away from The Milton Barkley Ten Step Program.” He nodded. “Where are we going?” I asked, trying hard to swallow. “Same place I take all of my hitchhikers.” He slowed as we came to another switchback. “Who are you?” I began to panic. “Who do you want me to be?” His eyes were darker, more menacing than they were when he picked me up in his truck. “What is the ravine?” I jerked my thumb over my shoulder. “Son, that is the end of the road.” He sighed. “End of the road?” I gasped. “Metaphorically speaking that is.” There was now a twinkle in his dark eyes and his teeth now had pointed edges when he smiled. “In that hole are the souls of the damned.” “You are the devil.” I shook my head. “Glad to be of service.” His laughter erupted from a deep place in his belly. “Buck Sentis, you have been remanded to the place of eternal suffering. When you and your brother decided to rob that bank back in St. Louis, you sealed your fate with me. I was quite perturbed when Milton Barkley spoke out on your behalf. I have tried for years to push him over the edge and close that infernal ten step program of his. Some folks ain’t worth the time saving if you ask me.” I had the door handle in my hand and slowly I was trying to open the door. At the bottom of this bottomless pit was Hell. “You shot that bank guard.” Orville pointed an accusatory crooked bony finger at me. His eyes burned with hatred. The door came open and I stepped from the running board of the truck. I was not looking where I was going and found myself falling. Reaching out, I managed to grab some weeds to stop me from falling into the ravine. Hanging there, I was at the mercy of Orville McKenzie. Suddenly a hand grabbed me by the ankle. “I did not see the second armed guard who shot me in the head. I was in this awful place before I hit the ground. They got my brother, too, but he ended up surviving. They sent him away to the state pen.” I struggled to put my feet on the jagged rocks protruding from the ravine wall. “Help me. Please, I beg of you, please help me.” A pained voice cried out. I kicked my leg. His hand let go and I could hear him scream out as he fell into the ravine. “Fate has not been your ally, Buck Sentis.” Orville stepped to the edge and looked at me as I hung helplessly to the prickly weeds. I refused to let go, no matter how the spikes gouged into the palm of my hand. “Milton Barkley felt sympathy for you. I told him you were a lost cause. Fate had decided to feed you to the ravine. I felt it was only fitting.” “We were just trying to get some quick cash so we could buy some groceries. We were hungry.” I gritted my teeth. When daddy left us we were just children with no idea how to survive. Every time we trusted someone, they ended up taking more of what our daddy had left behind. “Hunger. What a curse it can become.” He took out a knife and leaned over intending to cut the weeds I was hanging onto. “When I walked the earth, I was betrayed by those I thought would save me. I love driving this truck and picking up lost souls like you and watch as I dump them into the ravine. Like I am doing to you now.” “Please...” I begged as I saw one by one my handhold on the weeds were sliced from the rocky soil. “Just like that whipper-snapper I got last week. He whined and cried as he fell into the ravine.” He kept cutting with his knife. It was Bently. He had thrown Bently into the ravine. I felt a rock fall into my hand as the soil crumbled. When he leaned over, I aimed my weapon and just like David striking Goliath the mighty Philistine warrior, I heard Orville curse as he fell from the edge into the depths of the ravine. I watched as the darkness swallowed him whole. Growing up, I became quite fond of climbing on the rocky hills of the Ozarks around my home. So climbing out of the ravine was something I knew I could do without much of a problem. Which is exactly what I did. After brushing myself off, I got behind the steering wheel of the truck that was still running and I drove away from the ravine. It was then I noticed the rotten stench rising up from the pit. The odor coming from that pit almost made me gag. I could not wait to put the ravine in my rearview mirror. As I drove, I reflected on fate and how fate had condemned me to Hell. Even as I drove away from the ravine, I could not help but wonder if I had truly beaten fate or was it just waiting for another opportunity to reach out and grab me when I least expected it to. Either way, I was now free to return to the facility since the road only went in two directions, one way to the ravine and the other to The Milton Barkley Ten Step Program. Upon my return to the ten step program, I made up my mind to become a model resident so when I was called to the elevator, I knew what direction I would be going.