We're Not Down

Rhode Island, 1981.

Ted Hollis has spent his entire adult life working at a brewery. And when the only job he’s ever known disappears after the brewery shuts its doors for good, he isn’t sure what comes next.

He’s also about to send the son he raised alone off to college. For the first time in eighteen years, Ted will be on his own—just him and his dog.

But then a letter from the school’s financial aid office says the money they’d been counting on is no longer there. With no job, little income, and his savings drying up, there may be nothing Ted can do to keep his son’s dream from falling apart.

It doesn’t mean he won’t try.

When an old friend from Ted’s past returns to Rhode Island, she brings problems of her own—and Ted can’t help wanting to fix those too.

Because if Ted knows how to do one thing, it’s take care of everyone else. What he doesn’t know is what happens when they begin to leave, and he finally has to figure out how to take care of himself.

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Cover painting by Gregory Payette