The greatest tragedy is not evil people, but rather the silence of good people.
-Martin Luther King, Jr.

What's this world coming to, I ask? Huh? Can you tell me that? Seriously... the way people go around trying to prove themselves better than everyone else and killing people just for goddamned petty reasons! It makes a person want to defect and run off to another planet altogether.

Okay, now that I've given my motivational bullshit speech, I'll tell you my story. See, starting off with something like that will make more people want to keep reading. I mean, everyone likes self-righteous assholes, right? I know I do. Or well... my dad apparently thought so. Because I'd get to hear that kind of ranting all the damn time. You'd be amazed what that can do to a kid's psyche. Or a woman's. That one must have been bad because my mom dropped out of the scene when I was three years old. Really nice of her to leave it all to me to take, right? Good ol' mom. Lucky for me though, I somewhere along the way inherited.. get this.. a sense of humor! Yes, I was able to use that to make the weekly/daily/hourly/minutely(is that a word? I never know) lectures easier. Took some work, but hell, I'm an adaptable guy.

Well, getting past the old man complaints, life wasn't too bad. For the first five or six years, anyway. I tuned dad out and tuned the cartoons in. After all, what else is there for a kid that young to watch when dad doesn't have the news on? Great escape, I'll tell you that. But when I was six, the most godawful thing happened. Some woman.. get this.. had enough insanity in her to actually marry my dad. One day it's just me and him making ends meet and then the next this woman.. not much out of girlhood at the ripe old age of 19.. came into our life. I don't know what she saw in my dad. Okay, so he had some money. But hell, we weren't rich by any stretch of the imagination. But apparently it was good enough for Ms. Golddigger. She came in and proceeded to make life totally topsy turvy. Although I'll give her this... those rants definitely went down in frequency and volume both. She truly took over. I never saw a man so fucking whipped. Oh well, to each their own.

Life wasn't horrible after the woman came into the family, though it sure could have been better. I tried to avoid being home when she had her friends over, the women just like her for the most part. When they were there, it was like I was their fucking servant. Get this, take that, stand there, straighten up, on and on and on. I swear, I could have killed them all. However, my talent for verbal repartee was most useful in this time, I'll say that. I have this little knack for sarcasm and acidic witticisms... insults if you like... that usually shuts people up. And that got me sent away most of the time. Which was good. I ignored the dad and the stepwench as much as possible for the next few years, doing only what I had to do to be around them. Truly disgusting together, they were. Puberty hit me and I found so many people more worth hanging out with than them. Mostly of the female variety, though I had a little band of friends I spent time getting into trouble with. Usually having to do with some of those girls. But I got a so-called advantage over the others. Because when puberty hit me, so did these looks that... while useful at times... do get in the way at times. It's not bad all the time being chased by the women, but damn... some of them that you get after you. One in particular I remember....

Oh, you've already heard about my dear stepmother. Yup, you got it. I was about 16, I think, when she took a second look at me. I guess dad was just getting to be too old and mangy for her. I came home from school one day to drop off my books and go out again, and she and her friends were there in the living room. Not their day, either. That should have clued me in. But no, I was a naive 16 year old. I went to my room to drop my shit off and when I came back... damn. They started in on the trying to get me to do stuff for them and found all these excuses to keep me from getting to the door. I finally got frustrated enough to start out the other way when stepmom inserted herself between me and the other door. And I found myself looking at her... how to put this delicately... bare front. She unbuttoned her shirt and was trying her damndest to get mine off all of a sudden. It was frightening, really. Especially since I realized that this was a nice big setup and the other women were planning on getting involved in the fun. I think they seriously overestimated the horniness of a 16 year old. I'd almost rather fuck a farm animal. Almost. And don't quote me on any of this.

Well, after extricating myself from that little fiasco, with all of my clothes on and intact even, I did my best to avoid going home much at all unless dad was there. That's a strange enough thing in itself. There were times she was there and he wasn't, and she came onto me some of those times. Disgusting woman. Finally I just packed up and left. No way I was going to deal with that shit. Last I heard, the old man died and she got left with the goods. Didn't bother going to the funeral, not like he would have cared anyway.

During this time I met up with the Araņas and joined up. I always liked adventure and excitement. And there were some damn hot women in that gang. Sure, I had to put up with Paco's ugly face, but I endured. And I even met a woman I decided was good enough to latch onto in a more or less permanent way. Not sure how the future looks on that one, but so far so good. I try not to look too far ahead. I've met some very interesting people along the way, I must admit. One woman who reminds me a bit more than I like of that stepmom of mine. Maybe they're related somehow. Although Nadine is probably a bit worse, at least. She goes out and grabs any guy she likes, including yours truly. She has good taste, at least. But damn... some women just need a whole new outlook on life. At least I lived through it, which I wondered about for awhile there. A person can only take so much vileness before being overwhelmed. But I'm tough and I have Neon there waiting to make it all better. And I'm not too proud to admit that I like having a woman make it all better.

Serious people have few ideas. People with ideas are never serious.
-Paul Valery

There is such a thing as a psychological suicide in which one does not take one's own life by a given act, but dies because one has chosen - perhaps without being entirely aware of it - not to live.
-Rollo May