Read the Zapfic serial #GHAWG on LeoThreads to follow the transformation of a courier into a Harley-riding tool of God.
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Cover image is a screen capture of LeoThreads edited with MS Paint
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TL;DR
What is GHAWG?
Zapfic Entries 15-21
1️⃣5️⃣ 2023-March-19 01:36:00
1️⃣6️⃣ 2023-March-20 01:55:00
1️⃣7️⃣ 2023-March-21 02:31:00
1️⃣8️⃣ 2023-March-22 00:29:00
1️⃣9️⃣ 2023-March-23 00:29:25
2️⃣0️⃣ 2023-March-24 01:21:09
2️⃣1️⃣ 2023-March-25 01:53:24
Story Arc So Far
Next Week
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What Is GHAWG?
#GHAWG is short for "God's Hog: A Watchful Guardian." This fictional story tells how David Guardia, a courier and business owner from Bayonne, New Jersey, US moved into the next phase of his life after spending the final ten years of his ailing father's life helping him.
More details can be found in the first post of this weekly recap.
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Zapfic Entries 15-21
1️⃣5️⃣ 2023-March-19 01:36:00
En route with deliveries, I got The Call. I located the courier closest to me to offload my deliveries before I terminated the rest of my route. My father had sustained a serious fall, and he was in a a hospital bed sedated.
🏍️ David Guardia's father, occasionally called "Pops," was like Pope John Paul II in one respect: he was a fine physical specimen until late in his life when he broke a hip in a fall. At that moment his biological age caught up with his chronological age, and the frailties began to mount. He lived alone after became a widower, but it was his condition after the fall which brought David back to live with him.
🏍️ The Call came as a result of a notification service for medical emergencies; LifeAlert is the best known of these services in the United States. Pops called LifeAlert; LifeAlert called everyone else (including David).
1️⃣6️⃣ 2023-March-20 01:55:00
Doctors told me my father needs to stay hospitalized because his fall triggered the pneumonias he's had on and off since his honorable discharge from the Marine Corps. He's handled Parris Island, so he'll fight this all the way.
🏍️ Pneumonia is known as a killer of the elderly, and for good reason. Pops had been dealing with pneumonia for decades going back to his service in the Marine Corps, but it had been a while since he had one late in life. Now Pops was frail, hospitalized, and chronologically endowed. Even so, David had known his father as a fighter in all he did, so this was just another fight to be won.
🏍️ Parris Island, South Carolina, US is famous for being the main recruit depot-- boot camp-- on the East Coast for the Marine Corps. On the West Coast, it's at San Diego, California, US.
1️⃣7️⃣ 2023-March-21 02:31:00
The 2 weeks my father was hospitalized, I had to admit some hard facts. "I wasn't the best son for you," I said to him as he slept. He woke up, and in a moment of clarity he replied: "You were the son I needed." Then I lost him.
🏍️ This was the moment both men knew was going to arrive eventually. Not everyone gets the opportunity to say good bye to loved ones at the very end, and there are many people who remember their last words coming as part of a fight or disagreement.
🏍️ This is also the first time we see David express regret and emotional frailty. He believed that he could have been a better son to his father. Even had he been the perfect son to his father, it would not have stopped his father's final moments from taking place at that time.
🏍️ Pops final words to David is a call back to one of the final lines from The Dark Knight (2008): Because he’s [Batman] the hero Gotham deserves, but not the one it needs right now.
1️⃣8️⃣ 2023-March-22 00:29:00
My father was good friends with neighbors, and it showed at the wake. Not as many attended the funeral. He was the last of his 1960s Force Recon unit to pass. A few couriers came by to see me. At least I know who my friends are.
🏍️ Pops had been a blessing to people in his immediate circle, especially his neighbors.
🏍️ Nothing should be read into the drop off in attendance between the wake and the funeral. Many times it's not possible for people attending a wake to attend a funeral (especially if they take place miles from each other).
🏍️ It can be surprising to see who attends a wake or funeral. Alternately, even if certain people don't show up, they may compensate with a gesture such as sending flowers to the service or even picking up some of the expense. Sometimes people we think of as good friends don't show up when they are in a position to do so. Sometimes mortal enemies attend a wake simply out of respect.
🏍️ Force Recon (force reconnaissance) units are special operations units used by the Marine Corps. First mention of Force Recon for me came from the 1986 movie Heartbreak Ridge starring Clint Eastwood.
1️⃣9️⃣ 2023-March-23 00:29:25
Pickups, deliveries, dispatch. Pickups, deliveries, dispatch. It's been the same routine for months: longer work hours, more work. I've been pushing myself hard. At least the weight loss has helped reduce my high blood pressure.
🏍️ After Pops' death, David turned into a workaholic; it was all he could do to dull the sting and emotional pain from losing his father and roommate.
🏍️ The change in physical appearance and health status shows how much David had been working and for how long. Months had passed.
2️⃣0️⃣ 2023-March-24 01:21:09
I have more time for myself, just not for my blogging side hustle. That's why I shifted blog earnings into the account's Savings account to let DeFi do its thing and earn 20%. Tonight I looked at the wallet. My eyeballs popped.
🏍️ Earning 20% in a savings account? Now we know: David Guardia blogs at Hive! Given his Hive age, he had built a good-sized wallet.
2️⃣1️⃣ 2023-March-25 01:53:24
Slim parked his pickup truck. Last month I bought the Harley-Davidson, so I decided the courier business gets my Honda. Slim looked puzzled. When he saw the strong box with all he needs to know to run the business, he understood.
🏍️ David was ready for a new phase in his life, although he wasn't sure what it would be exactly. Before trying to figure things out, he decided it was time to take that motorcycle road trip he had postponed because taking care of Pops had taken precedence.
🏍️ Slim had reached the point where he was-- literally-- given the keys to the business. The strong box contained all the essential knowledge David had acquired since Day One of the business, and he wanted the owner after him to be up and running quickly. What Slim hadn't learned until then, he would learn from what was in that strong box.
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Story Arc So Far
More expository zapfic adds meat to the frame established not only in in zapfic entries 1-7 but also for zapfic entries 8-14 for David Guardia.
This time, the first turning point had arrived so that the story could advance. The routine we had seen for David and his father came to an end when his father died. Work was all David could do to handle his loss. At least the extra work helped to accelerate the date he could upgrade his motorcycle from a Honda to a Harley-Davidson.
David had reached the point where he knew he could start the next phase of his life, and the Harley-Davidson would be integral to that.
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Next Week
The next post will feature GHAWG entries 22-28 and explanations for each entry. Now that the first turning point had arrived, GHAWG enters Act 2.
GHAWG itself continues at LeoThreads, where Act 2 is done but Act 3 can't start yet. Consider these zapfic entries an interlude between Act 2 and Act 3.
Catch the lastest zapfic entries for GHAWG at LeoThreads. Get caught up with GHAWG with these weekly summaries at LeoFinance and at the Scholar and Scribe community.
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GHAWG Navigation
To find other weekly summary posts such as this one-- or to read the serial without annotated commentary-- use the GHAWG Navigation threadstorm at LeoThreads. Within LeoThreads, hashtag #GHAWGnav brings up the navigation.