Chapters:

Chapter 1: Frank

Kevin Dunkerley

176 North Madison avenue

215-436-7033

KevinDunkerley1988@gmail.com

Plagued

A novel by:

Kevin Dunkerley

Chapter 1:

Frank

       Most people would call me a disgrace, a bad father and husband. A lot of people would call me a drunk, an alcoholic who drowned in the devil’s nectar. The truth is, those people are absolutely 100% correct. I lost everything because of the fluid that now probably replaces my blood. It made me forget things that I wanted to forget like what I saw in my 30 years as a CDC agent. Some of the terrible diseases that ate away people’s flesh, took their limbs off like a rabid wolf destroying its prey.  

      I made a lot of enemies and a lot of relationships were destroyed because of my disease.  Most of my nights after work would be spent either in hole-in-the-wall bars or sitting in my chair in the living room of my home staring into space.  

      My wife left with my son about a year ago and that sent me deeper down into the pits of my own hell.  I drank and drank until one night, i almost drank to death.  

      I woke up in the hospital with my wife standing over me and my son, too young to understand, gazing at me.  

      "You need to stop this, Frank," she said to me.  "You need to stop this right now!  This is why I left!  You brought this upon yourself!"  I watched her storm out of the room with my son who had his head turned towards me.  

      "Mommy?  Is daddy sick?"  he asked her.  

      My heart was bursting at the seams with pain and agony when I heard those words come out of my little boy’s mouth.  It woke me up from the nightmare I had been living in for years and made me see the light. 

      I eventually cleaned up and started going to AA meetings and I was finally allowed to see my family again.