Who is Teddy Hamilton? - Excerpt from a Novel in Progress

Teddy Hamilton was no stranger to Iraqi politics and the progressive tactics used by other nations in an attempt to gain control over the vast natural resources the industrial world valued so much. Although he had been a fairly young child when the towers fell and may not have been pulled into the story, his father had been an outspoken, angry war monger, at least that is how his mother often described him. His dad, Gregory Jamal Hamilton, became obsessed with conspiracy theories between his bouts of drunkenness. He was always going on about Iraq and the war and the towers, and his friend Dave who knew someone who was killed in the towers. Actually, he himself knew several people who died, his college buddy Hank and several other poker friends worked at some outfit housed in the first tower.

Teddy didn’t remember much, but he came to the conclusion that his fathers previously undiagnosed mental issues began to surface after good ol’ Hanky died, as he became obsessed with who did it. He started blaming the Iraqis just as the government did, but within months it was all about the conspiracy. Everything was a conspiracy, and although he seemed to hold onto some of himself over the first few months, he soon spiraled into a permanent haze that no one seemed to catch until it was too late. Everyone had the potential to be part of the conspiracy. He even blamed his wife and now eight year old son of conspiring against him, and after a severely violent and drunken breakdown that left Mrs. Hamilton in the hospital and Teddy with a broken leg and rib, Mr. Gregory Jamal Hamilton, once a decorated war hero, was shipped off to a mental hospital in the back woods of Alabama, at least that’s the story Teddy got. Because of this, Teddy loathed his father, or his “Embarrassment”, as he called him, and this fed his obsession with criminals, psychology, and even war.

Charlene Hamilton, Teddy’s mother, moved the two of them to a small town called Zigzag in Oregon. The population was small, reminding her of her home town but much further away, and Charlene felt better knowing that she was so far away from her estranged husband. She was able to live comfortably and support her son on the payments she received from the government for her husband’s service. Teddy was her life, and she did everything for him. Her love for him fueled his anger. He had been away when she called him with the news that changed his life. Daddy was dead.

Teddy felt free. He could now change his focus, and while human behavior intrigued him, he was also drawn to the behavior of the planet he called home. He found that some of the things his “Embarrassment” had spewed on and on about hit home. He left his mother and began to travel, putting all of his emotions into his writing. He soon found his niche.