Live. Love. Whiskey.

Chapter 1

All these are the beginning of sorrows. Matthew 8:24

"It's okay mom, I can pick Noah up." I paused, "No mom, I won't be late to work because of it." I smiled as I hung up with my mom and headed out to my car.

Noah is my younger brother, he is a special needs boy who was diagnosed with severe nonverbal Autism when he was 4, he is now 8 and goes part time to school. For the remainder of the day he usually hangs back home with mom when she isn't working.

There are five of us in my family, there is my dad Mark who is a plastic surgeon, my mom Jenny who is a baker at a cupcake cafe, my older brother John who is serving overseas in Iraq, and my younger brother Noah who is still in elementary school.

And I, am single. Still. I work part time up at my church as a secretary while I attend school to get my masters degree in teaching.

I hopped into my truck and started it up after I touched the small cross necklace I have hanging from my rear view mirror.

I pulled out of the driveway before driving to the school a couple of minutes away.

When I got to the sign in the secretary there smiled and said,"I already signed in for you, here's your pass." I smiled back at her and thanked her before heading down the hallway to the third grade.

I stopped in front of the door and looked in through the small window they have, I saw the class was sitting on the carpet and one person was sitting at a desk with his head down.

I knocked on the door and the teacher smiled at me before excusing herself from her chair and walked to let me in.

"Hey, thanks for stopping by. I thought I could handle him, and help him this time, but it seems to be getting worse as time goes by." She said sadly, I nodded.

"What caused it this time?" She sighed, "Another student in the class asked about why the sirens are tested each month and another child said that it was to make sure that the bad guys don't get into our homes, that it scares them. I didn't hear them say this, it was coming from the person who asked the question. My attention was brought to the situation when one of the students began mimicking the sirens very loudly, and well Noah reacted."

I swallowed my frustration to the teacher, though she didn't know that the kids were asking about things like that, but she has been trained how to handle him when things like this happen.

"I'm going to take him to work with me. Can I go in and get him?"

His teacher lead me into the colorful room and I walked towards Noah's desk silently. I bent down in front of his desk and slowly placed a hand on his arm.

"Noah, it's sissy. I'm here buddy." He peeked out of his arm and I could tell that he had been crying. "Oh buddy come here! I know it scared you." I opened my arms for him and he gave me a hug, he began to squeeze normally before he started to squeeze too hard.

"Noah, let go. Let go Noah." He made a noise before loosening his grip on me. I patted his back a little, though he was only in third grade, that boy sure can pack a little more muscle on him than the other students.

"Go get your bag Noah, you get to come to work with me." He gave me a big grin before hopping up to go to his cubby that held his bag and folders.

I held my hand out for him and he walked to me with his bag on his back and we started our way back to the front. He grabbed my hand and started swinging it back and forth, while he was jumping up and down he tried to wriggle his way out of my grip.

"Noah stop. Don't jump please." I told him in a firm voice, he didn't listen and I repeated myself, and of course this time he yanked his hand free of my grip.