Everyone deserves a second chance.

"Well..." He resumed his rocking, staring off into the distance. "Here's the short version: I was not a good man, a terrible husband and father. I got into some trouble with the law and spent three and half months of a six-month sentence in the Mobile County Jail. While I was there my wife divorced me and moved away with the kids, out west somewhere. I don't blame her. There was no reason for them to stay.

"I went to group counseling sessions while in County, and they actually helped...a lot. By coincidence, the guard for my cell block was a former classmate and we became reacquainted. He helped me, too. His brother, they were twins by the way, identical twins...Anyway, his brother is a parole officer and the two of them helped me get out of jail early and get the job up here at Rikard's Mill." After a short pause, "That's the story in a nutshell."