The Flotilla Cast - Rick Westfield

"He stood five-foot-eight but broad in the shoulder. He stood in a wide stance on the dock that I found somewhat predatory."

Rick Westfield is a recovering drug addict, an ex-con and a failed college professor; everything you look for in a father. After years of being a ‘deadbeat Dad’ and a guest of the state, Rick and Jim are thrown together in the strange experience of the Colony. His past is never far behind him, but that doesn’t prevent him from giving Jim some appropriate guidance and direction even if it’s usually by threat of violence.

Trying to stay away from the failures of his past and build a successful future on the bare, ragged edge of humanity, Rick still suffers from his own ability to get into trouble much more often than he gets out of it. His past is the millstone that he so desperately does not want to place around the neck of his own children.

"'So let this be a lesson to you, kiddies,' Rick would lecture the wood paneling in the lounge. Coming down or sobering up always left him in a semi-fugue state…’twilight time’ he called it. He’d deal with his depression by delivering the next installment in a lecture series entitled 'How Not to Screw Up Like Your Old Man'. He wasn’t talking to anyone; he knew he was talking to the wall. It felt better than sitting there with your head burning over and over every mistake you’ve made. It felt better than trying to write it all down. Rick would sit down with a cold drink, stare at the wall and just let rip. A confessional worthy of a cable-ready documentary if they ever cared to drag a camera crew out this far…"