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department, Patrick frowned. He had no respect for the police department; they’d never found the guy that shot his brother. He inhaled to rid himself of the memory of the blue lights at his house when he’d gotten home from baseball practice.
    “I don’t know anything about the Savannah PD,” he said calmly, “but I can talk about law enforcement in general.”
    Tim grinned. “Anything you can share would be helpful. Come down here, Patrick, I want you to try this beer.”
    Patrick obliged his request and walked to the empty beer stool next to Tim. The two women began their own conversation.
    Tim pushed a pint of draft beer over to Patrick. “You will not believe this beer. It’s called Smoke and it actually tastes like barbeque.”
    “Really?” Patrick asked in disbelief. He took a sip. “Wow, that’s…”
    “Crazy, right?” Tim took another swig of his beer and looked at his girlfriend. “Look, Stephanie is freaked out because I’ve decided to go into law enforcement. I guess because of what she sees at the hospital. Tell me about your experience.”
    His experience . Well, he was totally disillusioned and he didn’t believe in his agency, hadn’t in a while, but he was pretty sure that wasn’t what this kid was asking.
    “I mean, I know that the ATF is way different than the police, but anything from your experience would help.”
    “Well,” Patrick started, “no one gets into law enforcement for the pay. You do it because you want to be a part of something that makes our world safer…better. That’s the same.”
    Tim nodded and sipped his beer.
    “The thing is, it’s not really what you think or want it to be. Men in law enforcement have big egos and even bigger dicks, at least that’s what they want you to think. I’m not sure about the police around here, but from my experience, you have to really want to go into law enforcement to make it. It’ll beat you down and the stuff you’ll see on a daily basis will change you into a person you don’t recognize. You’ll witness things you’ve never even dreamed…”
    Tim’s eyes widened at Patrick’s admission and both took another sip of their beer.
    “I think, though,” Patrick continued seriously, “if you can hold on to that one person you helped, saved, or found, it’d be worth it. What you’ll be doing for the first several years of your career will be working to make it to where you can be in a position to save people. You know, menial crap like writing speeding tickets and parking tickets, nothing that you really want to do. Just so you know that going into it.”
    Tim nodded and thanked him before he was pulled into conversation with Katrina and Stephanie.
    In the room full of people, Patrick felt lonely and barren. His life was getting away from him and he knew he was just going through the motions. Patrick gazed into the draft beer that looked normal, but tasted like actual barbeque. It was deceptive, just like him.
    He was a liar. He was disillusioned. He was empty.

    Trevor played a card and started yelling. “Oh YEAH, bitch! That’s right, son. I made you my bitch!”
    Patrick flinched at the cuss words, but smiled at the fact that he’d been schooled by his brother. “Dude, language.” Patrick laughed.
    “What?” Trevor asked. “You cuss.”
    “Does Mom let you cuss?”
    Trevor shrugged.
    “Fuck it, whatever.” Patrick was tired. Trevor was a handful and couldn’t be left by himself for any time without messing something up or getting on the internet. Patrick had seen more porn this weekend than he had in the last ten years of his life. He was ready to go home, his home with his things and his problems.
    “Yeah, fuck it.”
    Patrick moaned. “Trev, you need to give Mom a break, you know.”
    “I try, but it’s like everything I do is wrong,” Trevor said, shuffling the cards again. “You want another game?”
    “No, I think you beating me twice in spades is about all I can take.” Patrick laughed and