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The Hero Shot

By Richard Lange.
With his Hollywood dreams on the rocks and his tequila straight, a would-be actor returns home to mom's place in Riverside for a stiff shot of rehab and reality. Read the full story.

Part One

When did everyone get married? When did they all have kids? Suddenly there's no room for me. I spend an hour on the pay phone trying to wrangle a couch to crash on, and all I get is "Sorry," "Sorry"...   Read More >>

Part Two

The unemployment was gone and so was most of his pride. When the cops came to officially boot him from his apartment, the Hollywood dream was good as gone. It was time to go home. To mom.   Read More >>

Part Three

It was Hollywood. There were tryouts but no call backs. There was an agent, and then the agent went to jail. And after five years of this, there was the Christmas when his family mocked his head shot. Now that the money is gone, he's back in Riverside, which his mom never left and where his brother, Paul, has settled with his wife.   Read More >>

Part Four

Home is almost starting to feel like home. The improvements to mom's house -- his way of paying the rent -- are coming along. He's even getting along with Paul. And yet this was part of the pattern, too. He always started to feel optimistic when it was almost time to leave Riverside.   Read More >>

Part Five

Mom's house has been remodeled. Better still, a forgotten stash of comic books brought a few hundred bucks at the collector's shop. And then it was time to get back to Hollywood. The future was uncertain, but whatever it brought, it wasn't going to happen in Riverside.   Read More >>