Page 256 - The Big Book of Alcoholics Anonymous

Alco_1893007162_6p_01_r5.qxd 4/4/03 11:17 AM Page 241

JIM’S STORY 241
and have some kind of reconciliation or at least talk
with her. I don’t remember whether I went by street­
car, whether I walked or went in a taxicab. The one
thing I can remember now was that Vi was on the
corner of 8th and L, and I remember vividly that she
had an envelope in her hand. I remember talking to
her, but what happened after that I don’t know. What
actually happened was that I had taken a penknife
and stabbed Vi three times with it. Then I left and
went home to bed. Around eight or nine o’clock there
came two big detectives and a policeman to arrest me
for assault; and I was the most amazed person in the
world when they said I had assaulted someone, and
especially that I had assaulted my wife. I was taken
to the station house and locked up.
The next morning I went up for arraignment. Vi
was very kind and explained to the jury that I was ba­
sically a fine fellow and a good husband but that I
drank too much and that she thought I had lost my
mind and should be committed to an asylum. The
judge said that if she felt that way, he would confine
me for thirty days’ examination and observation.
There was no observation. There might have been
some investigation. The closest I came to a psychia­
trist during that time was an intern who came to take
blood tests. After the trial, I got big-hearted again and
felt that I should do something in payment for Vi’s
kindness to me; so I left Washington and went to
Seattle to work. I was there about three weeks, and
then I got restless and started to tramp across the
country, here and there, until I finally wound up in
Pennsylvania, in a steel mill.
I worked in the steel mill for possibly two months,