First Line – Adam Raised a Cain

The first time is the toughest, they say.

This is the first line of my short story, “Adam Raised a Cain.”

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This story is a prequel of sorts to Blood on Blood, the first novel in the Ania series that Jim Wilsky and I wrote together. We each wrote one of the two protagonists, half brothers Mick and Jerzy Sawyer. I wrote Mick. The book, like all in the series, is presented in a dual first person format with alternating chapters.

Mick is a tainted ex-cop in Chicago. The question of why he was bounced from the job is a little bit of a mystery during Blood on Blood. “Adam Raised a Cain” hearkens back to when he was still a cop and answers that question.

Rick Ollerman published “Adam Raised a Cain” in the third volume of Down & Out:  The Magazine.

So how is this for a first line?

I say it’s not bad. A solid B (big surprise there, huh?).

You?

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People of a particular musical interest will recognize the title as also being the title of a Bruce Springsteen song. That was no accident. “Adam” the song is about the dark, troubled relationship between a father and son. “Adam” the short story is about the dark, troubled relationship between a father and son…. and how that takes the son down a tough path.

The song appears on what is still my favorite Springsteen record, Darkness on the Edge of Town.  

The original song on the 1978 record is a rock and roll tour de force. Searing guitars, smashing drums, wailing vocals, deep, dark bass line… You can really feel the anger and hurt in that song.




Later, in the early 90s, he did an acoustic version. Though it was stripped down to just the one guitar, the powerful, dark emotion of the original still comes through.

Later yet, Springsteen did another acoustic take, but this one always seemed more mournful, and maybe even forgiving.  Perhaps that is because the singer himself had traveled that journey, or because we might hope that any son who outlives his own father reaches that point eventually.

Spoiler alert, but our protagonist in my story, and in Blood on Blood, doesn’t ever get to that point with his own father. One of the reasons is because Gar Sawyer doesn’t deserve it.

But there are other reasons, too. 

Read “Adam Raised a Cain” and Blood on Blood, and I think you’ll agree.
Source: All The Madness In My Soul