Wild Bill Ward - The Gates of Pair O’ Dice

The Gates

of

Pair O Dice

A story about dying and living and coming of age in Texas during 1967s Summer of Love

Wild Bill Ward

Copyright

THE GATES OF PAIR O DICE

Copyright 2017 by Wild Bill Ward
Nine Gates Media, LLC

All rights reserved. Printed in the United States of America. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews.

This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, organizations, places, events and incidents either are the product of the authors imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

For information contact:

BB@WildBillWard.com

Cover design by Alex Alford

First Edition: January 2017

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

Contents

Dedication

I dedicate this book to my father, William Seaton Bill Ward, who would have been 90 years old on April 7, 2016. I also dedicate this story to my mother, Mary Jane Lide Ward, who wouldve turned 90 on March 14, 2016. I know with every fiber of my being they loved me very much. Dear mom and dad, as the celebration of my 65th year on this earth approaches, please consider this novel, The Gates of Pair O Dice , as a healing birthday present for all of us.

This picture of my parents on a footbridge was taken sometime in October of 1966 for an article in the Real Estate Section of the Raleigh News and Observer about our brand new 7,000 square foot house built in the shape of an H over a creek. My mom and dad were separated at the time, but they tried to make the best of things for this photo op.

Without any warning, on the night of November 14, 1966, my dad shot and killed himself. He was forty years old, and I had just turned fifteen. For any person, any family, going through tough times, I hope this story helps you heal.

Wild Bill Ward

Invocation

To Every Thing There Is a Season,

and a Time to Every Purpose, Under Heaven

A time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, a time to reap that which is planted;

A time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up;

A time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance;

A time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together;

A time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing;

A time to get, and a time to lose; a time to keep, and a time to cast away;

A time to rend, and a time to sew; a time to keep silence, and a time to speak;

A time to love, and a time to hate; a time of war, and a time of peace.

In the late 1950s Pete Seeger borrowed a poem from the Bible, Ecclesiastes 3:1-8, entitled, To Every Thing There Is a Season, written by a wise and wealthy prophet, the indefatigable King Solomon, who had 700 wives, and 300 concubines. Pete wrote the music, added six words to the end of the poem, and changed the title to, Turn! Turn! Turn!

The Byrds rode that tune to the top of the music world in 1965, making this timeless anthem the song with the oldest lyrics ever to reach #1 on the American Billboard Hot 100 pop charts. King Solomon, who knew what a righteous dude hed turn out to be?

Authors Note

For many years, I struggled with this age-old storytellers dilemma. Would The Gates of Pair O Dice be better told as nonfiction or fiction, a memoir or a tragicomic novel? When it came time to fish or cut bait, to write this story down or keep on whistling through the graveyard, an autobiography just didnt seem to be the right way to carry the water. Thats when I met my alter ego, the narrator and protagonist of our novel, Billy Waters.

Youll find truth in every word of this book, but not in the conventional sense. Ive changed names, altered events, and warped my tale through time to try and tell the best coming of age story I could possibly tell. Like Billy Waters great-great-granddaddy, old Pearly Gates his own by God self, used to say, You cant let the facts get in the way of telling a good story.

First and foremost, I intend for this book to serve as a healing manual. Ive attempted to condense fifty years of healing into one summer. Ive also tried to weave the healing message into an entertaining narrative. I would encourage you to let your hair down and put your feet up, kick back in an easy chair with your favorite hard beverage in one hand and lean forward into this story with the other, as you enjoy a trip to Pair O Dice, Texas for 1967s Summer of Love.

Prologue

My full christened name stretches out to William Gates Waters, but everyone just calls me Billy. Im about to tell you one of my family stories. By the grace of God Ive lived into my last sixties now, my biological sixties, so Im a sexagenarian. This story happened in my first sixties, the 1960s, down in Pair O Dice, Texas during the Summer of Love in 1967. This tale Im telling primarily concerns itself with my recovery from a family tragedy, and secondarily with my coming of age: the first time I almost had sex, the first time I actually did have sex, and the first and only time I ever fell in love.

This tale consists of mostly truth, and anything that isnt true should have been true, but you wouldnt call it the courthouse truth, the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, so help me God. But, its certainly not the gone fishin truth, or the campfires and sippin whiskey truth, because thats not the truth at all, merely tall tales, well spun yarns, white lies, outright lies, and plagiarized alibis.

Ill confess right here in front of God and everybody, I did help the Almighty a wee bit by patching up the potholes in the story. God knows all of us need a little help recreating our creations sometimes, even the Creator. This right here fellow pilgrims, amounts to what you might call the real honest to God front porch gospel truth.

Good stories, and most especially Waters family stories, seek their own level and have a fluid nature to them, encompassing everything from a single tender blessed drop of rain to the raging tempest of an angry ocean, presenting many places to begin the telling of the tale.

Theres the runoff from snowcapped mountain peaks or lazy streams meandering through verdant valleys, mighty maelstroms and roaring rapids, placid lakes with smooth mirrored moments, or jagged broken glass waterfall edges with their dancing pools down below.

Many folks would insist that life begins at conception, another fluid situation, some would even say, a seminal moment, so let us jump into the river of our story there, and get things started with a few spurts at my fathers conception.

Chapter One

Embrace Change

I had just turned fifteen when my dad killed himself, and I turned my back on God.

I will always be grateful, that God never turned his back on me.

Sporty and Grace Waters trundled home from a party where they enthusiastically broke the law of the land, specifically, the Eighteenth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States of America regarding the consumption of alcohol, also known as the Volstead Act. Like most reasonable people, they decided to ignore Prohibition. In their case, the violating alcoholic beverage trafficked under the name of moonshine, the exact opposite of sunshine, although the wicked liquid did infuse you with a rather sunny disposition right up until the moment when you experienced a total lunar eclipse of your conscious mind and couldnt remember your own name.