Continuing with my spotlights on the characters of Depending on the Morning Sun …

For each spotlight post you will get:

• a list of my favorite stories with the character—and the reasons why
• a brief bio

Here then, is my entry for our hardworking state trooper and special-needs-dad, Jonathan Reese

Previous entries: Carrie Reese

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My favorite stories with Jon

The Call

First story I wrote for this site, and about just another ordinary morning that breaks your heart as a father. But you have to go to work anyway.

Right Choices

This story was like writing a gut punch. I didn’t even know it was going to end up like that. But it says a lot about Jon’s life and how he’s trying to keep it all together.

Can’t Go Over It, Can’t Go Under It

Another everyday story, where Jon has to find that special shelf for his dark feelings, when his child can’t play with other children. It takes a real man to deal with that, and sometimes it’s not enough.

Up That Hill

Jon’s restless brother, David Reese, is introduced for real in this story, and his work in Africa, which is another path not taken for me personally. But really, the story is more about one brother trying to look out for the other, even if it’s not always right—or even possible—to do.

Black and White

Another intro—this time it’s Jon and Dave’s father, Sam Reese, who is ready to save the workers, his sons and everyone else! As long as they make the choices he thinks they should in life. I’m sure you’ve met the type.

Under Fire

Jon’s ex, Vanessa, makes an unexpected appearance on the road between Yuma and Phoenix, and it rattles Jon’s usually stoic self. I just really liked writing this one …

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That Bio

Jonathan Reese was born in 1975 as the eldest son of Samuel Reese and Ellen Spacek. His brother, David, followed in 1980. For better and (mostly) worse, it was a family always on the move, as Ellen took care of the kids and Sam bounced between all kinds of unsteady jobs.

Their original home was Wichita, but they soon moved to Biloxi, Mississippi and later San Pedro in Los Angeles, and many other places in between. Jon and Dave flirted with bad company as they grew up, especially in L.A. where they both jacked cars.

At one point, Dave—still a minor—protected his brother from going to prison, by insisting he had stolen a particular car and not Jon. Dave ended up many months in juvenile detention, something which shook the already fragile family to the core.

Jon decided he had to straighten his life due to Dave’s sacrifice. After a stint in Iraq in 2003, mostly to make money, he got home with scars, both on mind and body, but not enough to deter him from a renewed sense of purpose. He applied to become a state trooper and got his first job in Arizona in 2005, which was when he met Carrie, who was working odd jobs as a waitress at the time.

With the ghost of Iraq and his youth still on his mind, Jon exited a difficult relationship, and married Carrie who had only just become clean after years on the road with drugs and abusive men. So it wasn’t exactly in the cards that their match should turn out for the better, especially with two children, one of them diagnosed with autism in 2011.

Against all odds, though, the Reese-family have kept together, thanks in no small part to Jon’s fight to create the stable homestead he never had himself. But he and Carrie are being challenged every day to keep it that way, not in the least because Jon is the only one with the steady job.

Jon wishes he could be there more for his son and daughter, but he knows that without him working hard, their situation will be even worse. He is not sure there is a solution to this, but that doesn’t prevent him from keep trying to find it.

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Song: Bruce Springsteen – “The Ties That Bind”

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Cover photo by Karl Fredrickson on Unsplash

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