Henry's Re-entry

Henry’s Re-entry Status check, Saturday morning 11:45:
Skull crushing headache? Check.
Black eye? Check.
No cell phone? Check.
No wallet? Check.
One shoe? Check.
No socks, tie, or belt? Check, check, and check.
No memory of previous night? Double check!
Touchdown complete! Henry has landed!

When Henry wakes up on the floor of a dirty gas station bathroom with absolutely no idea where he is or how he ended up there, he knows this is going to be the best outing ever. This outing is going to be Epic!

Henry is a man on the run. The beast chasing him wears the face of his murdered wife. Fueled by the guilt of her death, he’s running the gauntlet of an ever hopeful, but chronically unsuccessful suicide marathon.

He’s spent the last four years fleeing from his life. During the workweek, he merely exists, performing the inevitable and necessary functions of life, moving through his world like an automaton. But when that assembly line of existence ultimately reaches its end on Friday afternoon, Henry launches into orbit on a liquor-propelled rocket. His flight begins when he straps himself into his favorite barstool late Friday afternoon, and ends with his splashdown sometime late Sunday night. And the time spent in between is a fog of chaotic memories.

During this latest flight, however, he experiences some unexpected turbulence. This time he crash-lands seven hundred miles from home, unencumbered by a car, wallet, or memory. Hungover, angry, and broke, he’s forced to hitchhike his way back home, trolling for rides along the hot, dusty backland highways of New Mexico.

However, the real story begins with the procession of characters he encounters along the way: The cowboy bartender, the lovesick preacher, the militant social worker, the escaped convict, the cynical psychic. Each of these curious people find their way past his well constructed barricades. Each one manages to make contact with him and help him find another piece of himself. Each one helps him find the strength necessary to finally bury his dead and re-enter his life. But it’s the woman with the paint-store hair and kryptonite eyes who renders his shields useless and finally guides him back to his life.

Equal parts hilarious, passionate, and emotionally intense, this is the story of a man’s unexpected rescue at the hands of an assortment of eccentric, compelling people, people he’d normally have crossed the street to avoid.