Characters on the Couch: an Interview with Michael Bailey

  What is your biggest vulnerability? Do others know this or is it a secret? 
       Knowing that I messed up the first time that I was presented with a real case as a detective, and it cost the lives of two children.  Do others know . . . shit.  Word gets out.  In the early days, it was a lot of sympathetic looks , but as time went by, people look down as you walk by.  Sometimes getting a response from saying good morning feels like too much of a privilege.  Then you realize you're nothing more than a ghost.  People react to you like they just hit a cold spot on the floor. . .  maybe it's something deserved.


What do people believe about you that is false?  
        That I'm apeshit psycho.  Yeah, I took potshots at a pair of glowing eyes in my apartment and I have dreams of this big black dog waiting to kill me every time I close my eyes, but I have my lucid days as well.  I tend to stare off into the shadows at times, but I know what is there.  Those that watch me, wondering what the hell I'm staring at?  They're the idiots.  They got their backs to it.


What would your best friend say is your fatal flaw? Why? 
       Friends have low tolerance.  Sponsors are sometimes better to listen to.  Sometimes, we fall off the wagon.  Sometimes our sanity gets a little fragile.  But like Micheal Cain said in "Batman Begins", sometimes we fall to get back up.


What would the same friend say is your one redeeming quality? Why?  
       Same sponsor, old man, lung cancer, used to tell me that I couldn't see what was right in fucking front of me.  Sometimes he said I was a simple idiot, but yet, we used to talk all night.  He always told me I couldn't see the apple in front of me on the table, but sometimes I'd surprise him with an aerial  view of the orchard.  I may sometimes act a little thick, but listening to someone explain the simplest idea gives you a perspective on them and how they view the world that you can't gain from simple conversation.  I use it a lot in interrogations.  


What do you want most? What will you do to get it?   
       To win, to let go of past issues, and to have a good night sleep.

Michael Bailey is currently featured in the novel "Hell to Pay" by William Brian Johnson from Hellfire Publishing.
 http://tinyurl.com/4yzb32k

Also check out "The Ballad of Mercy Tyler" available for free on Smashwords: http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/118371

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