life & death

It was a cool November morning when the screams of agony spilled from Helen's mouth as she clung onto the door of her husband's pickup truck. Justin had been going nearly 90 miles per hour down the highway towards the hospital, the circulation in his hand being cut off by how tightly his wife had been holding onto him. Helen screamed that they weren't going to make it, that the baby had to come now. The California-native was crowning miles before the hospital and Justin had no choice but to pull over to the side of the road. Nolan Matthew Hall was born into the dusty, red clay of Georgia, delivered by his own father's calloused hands and the cries of his mother.

After the birth, Helen vowed to never have any more children because of the pain of her pregnancy, leaving Nolan as the only child. His father was a veteran, a man who enlisted in the Marines the moment he was able to, just like his father and his grandfather. After spending time in the service, Justin returned to his home town to marry his high school sweetheart, Helen, a charismatic, sweet woman who had a knack for design and being the perfect homemaker.

However, Nolan's childhood was far from ideal, as his father was a very controlling, militant man who wanted to shape his son into a smaller version of himself. Rules and regulations was the only thing Nolan knew as he grew up, fear developing in his persona as it was clear that his father only expected the best from him. His father was extremely strict with him and dictated nearly every aspect of his life - whether it was the way he dressed or the people he hung out with, he was determined to make sure his son would not turn out to be a failure.

Nolan was taught that a man did not have any room for emotions, that he had an obligation to fill as being apart of the dominant sex, and that he needed to be tough as nails. Tears were not an option in the Hall household and a drop would earn him a beating, the next one always worst than the last. Nolan lived in constant fear, knowing that if he did not live up to his father's unrealistic expectations, he would have to face his father's wrath. While his mother was always soft and kind to her son, she never intervened when it came to her husband - perhaps it was her own fear that held her back.

He was expected to join the service once he graduated from high school and he did just that - he enlisted into the Marines and after facing the grueling weeks of basic, he was a man worth of honor. However, it was never enough to please his father. Nolan finished basic right in the midst of the Gulf War, which led him to be deployed to Iraq. Once he returned to America, Nolan wanted to move away from Georgia, to a place he's never been to. Therefore, he was accepted into Northeastern University where he obtained his degrees. Currently, Nolan is the chief financial officer for a very large insurance company called Wilson Mutual. He's very wealthy and seems to have the perfect life - when inside, he's far from it.