07 August 2010

Necessary Fictions I

SCENARIO ONE:nightcity

A family of 4 sons and a mother and father move from a small town to the big city seeking a better life. While adjusting to new life, over time, the father becomes frustrated at not being able to find a decent, stable job. He turns to alcohol to deal with his embarrassment at his self-perceived failed manhood. He and his wife begin to fight on the regular. The young sons watch and wait....seething at the injury caused to their beloved mother. When the sons grow up, they quickly find wives, have families, but stay in check with their mom. Dad winds up hanging on street corners drunk all the time - he's become a hood thug. He dies by age 50 of cirrhosis of the liver...Real-life or Fiction?

SCENARIO TWO:

A little boy is born to a prominent, socially mobile family in a major metropolitan city. He is descendant of a long line of political movers and shakers. He carries a heavy, respected surname. He is the youngest in a family of 3 sons. But in this family, the father dies early, a street victim from his political activism. Mom can't adjust with the loss. The boys are devastated - the family implodes.

The oldest son, age 22, leaves home and the city to follow a bling-bling opportunity across country. Away from home, he is falsely accused of rape and is convicted to federal prison, 3,000 miles from home. The middle son, 16, and the youngest boy, 10, are especially close .... when the older brother is shot and killed on the streets - he was in the wrong place at the wrong time - doing nothing criminal or untoward. ... this sends the mother and her last son in a emotional/mental/psychic downward spiral of no return ....

With so many devastating early losses and grief to deal with, the mother is lost, she's not dysfunctional ... she's NONfunctional. The son, a handsome young man, does what little he knows to raise himself and care for his mom, which finds him repeatedly in a group home for boys, because Mom doesn't have it in her to mother anyone ... by the time he is 20 years old, he is convicted of master minding the robbery of the department store where he worked. He goes to prison with no signs of parole because he has no legal representation. ... Real-life or Fiction?

SCENARIO THREE:

A girl is born to a single mom who is a crack addict. She is the youngest of 3 girls. The oldest girl is a half-sister, 6 years old. The middle girl, age 3, and the baby have the same parents. Drug-dazed Mom leaves the 3 toddlers home alone too many times and the neighbors call Child Services. The oldest and youngest siblings are placed in foster care, while the middle girl is claimed by her birth father - chosen over the baby girl because the baby girl is too dark-skinned ....

For the next 10 years the two sisters move from home to home ... averaging 1 home a year, including a youth orphanage. When baby girl is 8 years old, the two girls are in the foster care of the older sister's birth father, who is a convicted burglar, addicted to cocaine, on record as having raped women and a little boy .. oh, and he's HIV positive. He gets drunk on beer one Saturday afternoon and anally rapes baby girl ... she becomes HIV positive too.

Luckily, she gets adopted by a stable family. But she has to deal with early deteriorating mental faculties, arrested emotional issues, and physical medical issues that only HIV can bring. Although she makes it to college, she has no real hope for a full, normal life, and anticipates dying young ... Real-life or Fiction?

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