Mark seemed resigned to his fate. He cleared his throat…

“I was 4 and my sister was 18 months when Mom caught Dad fucking the 14 year old babysitter. She hit him over the head with a cast iron frying pan and gathered us up and took us over to our grandparents’ house.

“Mom went back to gather up some things between 2 and 3 in the morning when she was sure he’d be passed out from drinking.  She was right. Al was unconscious in his underwear on the sofa.

“After she packed up what she needed, she went to the kitchen and got the easy-off oven cleaner. She pulled down his underwear and applied the chemical cleaner over Al’s cock and balls. She left the container on the table beside him. Al didn’t wake up for hours. By the time he did, his junk was swollen up to 3 times its normal size.

“Al drove himself to the police station… stood in the middle of the precinct… dropped his pants and screamed.

‘Look what that bitch did to me! Look what that bitch did to me!!’

“He told me he couldn’t have sex for over a year. He sold his part of his business for $750, 000.00 and fucked off to Malta. He bought into a Limousin business, and that lasted 18 years until someone cut his brake lines and almost killed him. He left Malta fearing for his life. The word was that his taste for young girls hadn’t gone away.”

“There’s something wrong with my father. There was something wrong with his father, too. His father lived in a cave in Malta for the last 20 years of his life. My grandmother delivered him a tray of food every morning until he died in that cave. This is my legacy. I don’t know if I have what they have or not.

“Wow! I don’t know what to say… but I do know that I can’t spend another minute with Al.”

“I get it. The bad news is that room I said you could have tomorrow… won’t be ready until next week.”

“Fuck!”

“I do have an alternative… There’s a 2 bedroom on the first floor. You can take it for $800/month.”

“What about Al?”

“Al won’t know. Fuck Al. He won’t ever know you’re there.”

It seemed like the stupidest idea ever; but that never stopped me before. I took the first floor apartment…