Tales from the ARVInn, 3

Chapter 10
ARVInn: Residents--Charlie and Sam, Partners

Chapter Description: When Charlie took Sam in, after years of him feeling like a tennis ball, it started a new thing that helped both of them...and a lot of others, as well.

Tales from the ARVInn—Charlie and Sam, Partners             

I spent the first fifteen years after the virus being a tennis ball…batted back and forth between whoever would take me.  Some of my family simply saw me as a mouth to feed and kept out of sight.  Some saw a target for their own frustrations. 

Admittedly, I was definitely a slacker, used to couch surfing my way through life while working at minimum wage or casual jobs, but being treated like I was really eleven years old was too much.  I just retreated into a shell and tried to be invisible.  At thirty-three, when the virus hit, I still had no idea what to do or where to go.  With the treatment I received after that, I couldn’t respond in any good way.

It wasn’t until my much younger cousin took me in, in his college apartment, and treated me like a human being with wants and abilities of his own, that I began to feel my worth.  It took me over a year to realize I could still accomplish something.  Charlie was a sophomore when I moved in and I finished my own business degree two years after he finished his bachelors’.  We’re now partners in the business he started, AR-Trek, helping other AR-Adults find their roles in life through therapeutic camping and outdoor experiences. 

Read the remainder here:  Tales from the ARVInn--Charlie and Sam, Partners (mediafire.com)