Ever since I can remember, folks called me Dickey. Word is it was after the famous guitar player Dickey Betts. Never mind that my name is Harold James Parker and I look nothing like the man. It all started when I was 8 and got a kid's plastic guitar. Supposedly I was spotted trying to trade licks with the axe man on You Tube. Someone said I was a natural, just like Dickey and that stuck on me whether I liked it or not.I was a clumsy enough kid but put a guitar in my hand and I could flat play slide like Warren Haynes, Sonny Landreth, or even Derek Trucks; at least that is what everyone said. I never believed it. I had a couple other passions that I later took on after I busted a tendon in my left hand bailing hay on my Uncle Elmore's farm near Liberty, Texas.To say my guitar playing suffered because of the injury would be an understatement, as I simply could not get my finger placement on the frets. I was 14 years old and it was the summer between 8th and 9th grade. I would have been lost without Uncle Elmore's support. He had been in the United States Marine Corps and limped from being shot in the right thigh during the invasion of Iraq. He loved guns and taught me to hunt and shoot and how to harvest an animal, fish, or bird for sustenance.He also taught me to grapple to help strengthen my messed up left hand. He never talked much about the war or how he earned his 3rd degree black belt in Small Circle jujitsu. Dad and Mom were more than happy to let me stay on his farm, as we never had much of nothing. Dad drank a lot, if I remember correctly as he was never home. Mom had a boyfriend and he and I didn't see anything in common other than we both wanted momma to ourselves. I lost out. I didn't even realize this until I was in boot camp, but I'm getting ahead of myself.The Finisher Series is book sixteen, titled Job and features reoccurring characters along with a bevy of bad guys and gals and adult situations. Dickey lives in the violent underbelly of society and will take you along with him, if you dare to follow.
