Page 258 - The Big Book of Alcoholics Anonymous

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JIM’S STORY 243
who she was, I remembered her right away. She didn’t
say anything about A.A. or getting me a sponsor at
that time, but she did ask about Vi, and I told her Vi
was working and how she could locate her. It was
around noon, a day or two later, when the telephone
rang and it was Ella. She asked me if I would let
someone come up and talk to me concerning a busi­
ness deal. She never mentioned anything about my
whiskey drinking because if she had I would have
told her no right then. I asked her just what this deal
was, but she wouldn’t say. She said, “He has some­
thing of interest, if you will see him.” I told her that I
would. She asked me one other thing. She asked me if
I would try to be sober if I possibly could. So I put
forth some effort that day to try to stay sober if I
could, though my sobriety was just a daze.
About seven that evening my sponsor walked in,
Charlie G. He didn’t seem too much at ease in the
beginning. I guess I felt, and he sensed it, that I
wanted him to hurry up and say what he had to say
and get out. Anyhow, he started talking about him­
self. He started telling me how much trouble he had,
and I said to myself, I wonder why this guy is telling
me all his troubles. I have troubles of my own. Fi­
nally, he brought in the angle of whiskey. He con­
tinued to talk and I to listen. After he’d talked half an
hour, I still wanted him to hurry up and get out so I
could go and get some whiskey before the liquor store
closed. But as he continued to talk, I realized that this
was the first time I had met a person who had the
same problems I did and who, I sincerely believe,
understood me as an individual. I knew my wife didn’t,
because I had been sincere in all my promises to her