The Twisted Fig (a work in process)

Carl stood at the top of Calico hill unsure of where to go from there. Lately, nothing had made any sense and he felt like one of those silver balls in a pinball machine. God had left him awash on life's shores and the tide was battering him something fierce. Hell, he wasn't sure if there was a God anymore.
When he was a boy he loved to go down to the arcade and play pinball. A boy could get a good hour's or so worth of entertainment with just one quarter-- he was the master of the pinball. Now he was the pinball. When did things change so much and go so badly?