Hillbilly Elegy

I yelled. “You’re just making an excuse
for weakness. I didn’t get here by
making excuses for failure.”
I stormed out of the room and spent
the next couple of hours on the streets of
D.C.’s business district. I thought about
that time Mom took me and our toy
poodle to Middletown’s Comfort Inn
after a screaming match with Bob. We
stayed there for a couple of days, until
Mamaw convinced Mom that she had to
return home and face her problems like
an adult. And I thought about Mom
during her childhood, running out the
back door with her mother and sister to
avoid another night of terror with her
alcoholic father. I was a third-generation