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Harris when she understood that the hurricane had nothing to do with the damage, but rather Max’s laughable mistake.  Max’s marriage was already on the rocks when his wife returned home. It took over a year to repair their home and Darlene made sure that Max knew how disgusted she was with him.  She was pregnant at the time and only stayed with Max because she didn’t want to raise a baby on her own. Max had never been so humiliated in his life.  His home survived a hurricane and was instead destroyed by his own stupidity. 
     
    Max really hated hurricanes.
     
    Max was thankful that the Category 5 hurricane sitting in the Gulf of Mexico would do little to him other than bring some heavy rain. The first one took his childhood; the second almost ruined his marriage.  He could not imagine what a third would do to him.  He just wouldn’t be able to deal with it, not with the constant pain he was in.
     
    He had managed to secure a nice comfortable job at a small local police department and quickly worked his way up to chief, which wasn’t hard to do with only twelve officers in the department, the previous chief’s pending retirement, and Max’s overqualified sixteen years of law enforcement.  He was an hour away from the busy city of Houston, but the little town he managed to settle in might as well have been Mayberry.  He was happy to play the role of Andy Griffith and not have to worry about much of anything outside of minor traffic accidents and a domestic squabble from time to time.  The hardest work the department had to do was keep the town clear of the waves of homeless people who tried to set up hobo camps around town on their way out of Houston.  As long as the 6,447 citizens of his town didn’t have to actually look at the dirty bums, they were content to leave Max and his department alone.  Chief Harris was actually kind of surprised the city police department even existed; the county sheriff's office did most of the real work.  When their quiet little town did actually fall victim to a major crime, the county boys would always swoop in, wanting to take over.   They relished the excitement and Max was more than happy to oblige; the last thing he wanted to do was real work.  After all, the Internet didn’t surf itself; someone had to look at strange porn, might as well be Max. The chief of police wanted as little responsibility as possible. He ran from trouble and had managed to hide from it quite well in his dream job.
     
    An hour later the pain was only a little better, and Max realized he wasn’t getting back to sleep.  He played  Modern Warfare 7  for about an hour then decided to shower and eat breakfast.   He got to the station an hour early and relieved Elizabeth, the graveyard shift desk sergeant. 
     
    “Morning, Chief.” 
     
    “Morning, Elizabeth, anything happen last night?” 
     
    “Not a thing. The phone didn’t ring, not one time.” 
     
    “That’s what I like to hear.” 
     
    Elizabeth handed her keys over to the chief. “You see the news on Maxine?  Looks like your sister doesn’t like you very much. What did you do to hurt her feelings and make her stay away?”
     
    Max just stared at her, frowned, and rolled his eyes. He turned and limped off towards his office.
     
    “Oh, come on! Don’t be like that! It was a little funny! Get it? Max, Maxine? Your sister?” 
     
    “Go home, Elizabeth,” Max said over his shoulder.
     
    Elizabeth Reed had known the chief for years and still had no idea why he was in so much.  When things got really bad for him, he even used a cane.  People knew to keep their distance when the chief pulled out that cane; it was when he was in the worst of all possible moods.  She even knew that he constantly popped pills, a secret the chief had managed to keep from everyone except her.  He actually did his “I’m eating Skittles so no one will notice me taking pills” trick when he collapsed into his office chair