johnny wilson - 52. 2015

by bofa xesjum

part fifty-two of 52

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on january 1, 2015, johnny wilson woke up in the stairwell of his building. after ringing in the new year at billy’s bar downstairs, he had been unable to navigate the last few feet to the door of his apartment. later that month it was announced that the wal-mart johnny had been working in since 1998 was consolidating with another at a new location. johnny, who had been warned about his declining job performance, was not invited to work at the new location. he decided to be in no hurry to seek new employment, as, besides the unemployment benefits he could collect, he still had some money from the sale of his childhood home, and he began spending both afternoons and nights at billy’s. on the night of march 16, alberto, the bartender at billy’s, cut johnny off after he fell off his stool. instead of going up to his room, johnny decided to seek some fresh air, and wandered down to the river. a big bearded man was preaching to a few onlookers. he did not carry or flourish a prayerbook or bible, but punched the air with his fists. although johnny did not know that his own father, joe, had been such a preacher, the apple does not fall far from the tree, and he found himself responding to the man’s words. “he looks like a jew,” one of the onlookers said to another, about the preacher. “brother clyde is as christian as you or me,” the other man replied. “you just listen up.” although johnny had no way of knowing, brother clyde’s message was the opposite of joe’s. where joe had preached the lord’s mercy, clyde dwelt on the relentless punishment due the unrepentant sinner. johnny took solace in his words, in no way applying them to himself, but to those who had done him wrong, such as the phoenix ashes brigade, and his former employers, as he listened to brother clyde’s thundering voice, a great light flooded johnny, and he began to weep. on june 16, donald trump formally announced his candidacy for president of the united states. the end

johnny wilson - 51. 2014

by bofa xesjum

part fifty-one of 52

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on june 11, 2014, the rebel army known variously as the islamic state of iraq and syria (isis), the islamic state of iraq and lebanon (isil) and by the arabic acronym transliterated as “daesh”, defeated the army of the state of iraq and took control of mosul, the second largest city in iraq, and surrounding territory, and proclaimed itself a caliphate with authority over all muslims. on august 5, a 21 year old woman calling herself kim lee , who had served nine months of a two year jail sentence for selling drugs, was released to a halfway house about fifty miles from st louis. the residents of the house were encouraged to write letters to family and friends and “loved ones”. kim wrote several letters, including one to her childhood friend d’sheena nelson, whom she had not heard from in years and whose exact address she could not remember or find by googling. but she mailed it to the address as best she could recall it. she sent another letter to jenny wilson, not knowing that jenny was dead. dear jenny , the letter read, i hope you are o k and hanging in there. i call myself kim lee now instead of kim wilson or kim montgomery or some other american name because people are always asking me about it and they tell me two thirds of the people in korea are called lee so that sounded good to me. my present situation could be better but what are you going to do? i just want to say i know you always meant well and treated me better than most which i have found out for damn sure and i am sorry i was such a little bitch and baby. xxxxx kim the letter did not reach johnny wilson beause he had moved and the time period for forwarding his and jenny’s mail had expired. when the letter was finally returned to the halfway house kim had disappeared. johnny had become a regular at billy’s bar. he had never been much tempted by alcohol before and now discovered he had a low tolerance for it. his performance at work began to suffer. on september 19, an iraq war veteran named omar jose gonzalez jumped the fence of the white house and ran across the north lawn and entered the main residence. he was apprehended by security officers and found to be carrying a knife. the director of the secret service, julia pierson, resigned on october 1. 52. 2015

johnny wilson - 50. 2013

by bofa xesjum

part fifty of 52

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on february 11, 2013, benedict xvi announced his retirement from his position of pope, citing advancing age and ill health as the reasons. he became the first pope to resign since gregory xii in 1415, who had resigned in an attempt to resolve a conflict between three rival claimants to the papacy. on april 30, johnny wilson returned home from at four in the morning, as he often did. he was surprised to hear the television on, as jenny, as much television as she watched and as late as she watched it, was usually in bed at that time. when johnny entered the small living room, the old black and white tv show perry mason was on the screen, and perry was saying to the judge, i have no more questions for this witness. jenny was slightly slumped in her chair. she had had a heart attack and died three hours earlier, watching the big valley. she was seventy years old, had become very heavy, had not worked in years and did not get out of the house much, with johnny doing most of the shopping, mostly at wal-mart where he worked. johnny sold the little house where he had lived his whole life, and moved into a small apartment only a couple of miles from the wal-mart. the apartment was above an old-fashioned neighborhood bar called billy’s. johnny became a regular at it. 51. 2014

johnny wilson - 49. 2012

by bofa xesjum

part forty-nine of 52

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on february 1, 2012, violence broke out at a football match in port said, egypt, between adherents of the el masry team of port said, and the al ahly team of cairo, after some of the visiting cairo fans displayed signs questioning the masculinity of the port said fans. 73 people were killed. members of various political factions accused others of fomenting and/or allowing the violence. on july 5, johnny wilson spent much of his night instructing a new hire, a 31 year old woman named doris hutchinson, on the best ways of stacking boxes containing computers and television sets. as doris moved the boxes around with her fork lift under johnny’s supervision , and later, as they were drinking coffee in the break room, she kept up a commentary on such subjects as the afghanistan war (she was for it, but only because the taliban treated women so harshly) and same-sex marriage (she was all for it). johnny just nodded through it all, barely listening. as he drove home just before dawn, it occurred to johnny that only a couple of years earlier, much of doris’s monologue would have outraged him. so? he thought. what difference did it make? he wondered if he would ever really care about anything again. on october 7, hugo chavez was elected to a third term as president of venezuela, and on november 6, barack obama was elected to a second term as president of the united states. on december 14, 20 year old adam lanza entered the sandy hook elementary school in newtown connecticut, and shot and killed 26 people, including 20 small children. conspiracy theories quickly followed. 50. 2013

johnny wilson - 48. 2011

by bofa xesjum

part forty-eight of 52

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on may 2, 2011, united states troops and c i a operatives invaded a house in abbotabad, pakistan, and shot and killed osama bin laden in a gun battle. abbotabad, a city of 500,000 population, was home to a pakistani military base and military academy. as usual with such events, the exact nature of bin laden’s capture and death would become the subject of controversy and conspiracy theories. on the night of june 6, johnny wilson awoke to find himself seated behind the wheel of his car, which was parked in a sandy area on the side of the highway he regularly traveled between his home and workplace. for a few seconds on waking he thought he was in the fifth grade and was worried he had not done his homework. then he remembered who and where he was. he assumed he had driven himself off the road because he had become sleepy, although he had no memory of actually having done so. this is the most interesting thing that has happened to me in a while, he thought. he wondered if he should mention it to jenny or anybody else, decided not to, and started the car and drove home. on sptember 25, king abdullah of saudi arabia granted women the rights to vote and to run for office, effective in the year 2015. on october 18, galid shalit, a 25-year old israeli soldier who had been held prisoner by hamas for over five years, was released to israel in exchange for the release of 1,027 palestinians who had been in jail in israel, including 280 who had been sentenced to life imprisonment. 49. 2012

johnny wilson - 47. 2010

by bofa xesjum

part forty-seven of 52

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on february 12, 2010, amy bishop, a professor of biology at the university of alabama in huntsville, opened fire at a faculty meeting and killed three of her colleagues and wounded three others. it was assumed that she was upset at having been denied tenure the year before. bishop had shot and killed her brother 24 years previously, in what had been ruled an accident, and been a suspect in a mail bomb incident in 1993. johnny wilson continued to search the internet in hope of finding a new band of patriots to join, but did not have any success in finding one close enough to home for his purposes. johnny was now 46 years old, and in poor physical shape. the long hours on the floor at wal-mart, and spending up to four hours a day driving back and forth to work, had taken their toll. he began to wonder if he had what it took to fight for freedom. johnny found himself sitting in front of his dell computer, playing simple games like tetris and pac-man and solitaire. he was too old to get the hang of the more elaborate games, with movie-like visuals, that the younger generation enjoyed. he spent hours just playing old-fashioned klondike solitaire, endlessly putting red cards on black cards, and black cards on red cards. on the night of april 20 he fell asleep in front of the screen, and when he woke up his legs were cramped and his feet had fallen asleep, so much so that when he tried to get up he stumbled and fell, severely fracturing his elbow. he put an ace bandage on the elbow and drove to work. on june 13, the united states government announced that american geologists and military personnel had discovered more than a trillion dollars worth of previously unsuspected mineral deposits in the mountains of afghanistan, including large amounts of gold, iron, copper, cobalt, and lithium. on december 2, it was announced by f i f a, the governing body of world football, that russia would host the world cup tournament in 2018, and qatar would be host in 2022. 48. 2011

johnny wilson - 46. 2009

by bofa xesjum

part forty-six of 52

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on march 2, 2009, the insurance conglomerate american international group reported a fourth quarter 2008 loss of 61.7 billion dollars, bringing its total losses for 2008 to 99.3 billion. on march 14, the company announced the payment of 165 million dollars in “non-negotiable” bonuses to some high executives. this generated some outrage, as the company had previously received 170 billion dollars in bailout funds from the united states government. march 25 was the twentieth anniversary of johnny wilson’s first promotion to foreman at wal-mart. he had not actually held the position continually for the twenty years, as he had lost it for seven months when moving to the new location down the road in 1998. nobody except johnny himself noticed the date, and when he informed jenny of it she congratulated him and told him she was proud of him. johnny decided to celebrate the anniversary by buying a large chocolate cake he saw at the bakery in the local supermarket. he ate the whole thing himself, washing it down with cups of decaf, while scrolling through long threads of patriotic outrage and rhetoric on reddit. on june 25, michael jackson, “the king of pop”, died suddenly at the age of 50. he had been a famous popular music star since he was about 10 years old. on june 30, united states troops withdrew from baghdad and other iraqi cities, though over 100,000 remained in the country. iraqi prime minister nuri kamal al-maliki declared june 30 “national sovereignty day” and a public holiday. on october 1, u s president barack obama signed an executive order prohibiting federal employees from texting while driving. 47. 2010