It was wintertime somewhere in the Ozarks, in the days before the Soft Scape.
A young boy named Timmy was born unto a poor family that already had one son.
When that brother was killed in an accident, the parents boxed up all his
possessions and hid them deep within the attic, not wishing to be reminded
of his former existence. Some said that it was the only healthy option open
to them, and some said that it was an ill-fitting tribute. In any case,
Timmy barely even found out that he had had a brother, and any memories he
developed of him were false.
As Timmy grew, he sprouted hair, and learned to speak, and learned to pray.
Every night, before going to sleep, he petitioned God, Please keep mommy
and daddy safe. If he had had a brother still, he would have prayed for
him too.
The years went by, and Timmy went to school, and someone surprised him with
the claim that he had once had a brother. He asked his parents about this
when he got home, and they rather loudly instructed him not to discuss such
things. He dropped the matter, but remained perplexed and afraid to ask
any more questions.
It was a long time before his explorations of the attic yielded the discovery
that precipitated a great big scene. When his father saw that he had retrieved
some of his brother's possessions, he beat him, and his mother screamed that
if he ever went up to the attic again, she would cut off his pee-pee , and
everyone was upset for quite some time.
Mistaking this parental love for abuse, he drew away from them, and began to
wander and drift. In the summer of his fifteenth year, he learned that
love was a hobo's hand. Then, that winter, he left his parents' house
for the last time.
Finding himself overwhelmed by the eternal struggle for food and shelter,
he started turning tricks for small change. This proved to be a dangerous
occupation, and Timmy's life was rife with anxiety for quite some time.
Presently, Timmy came to a little town, and in that little town lived a
fireman and his wife. The fireman felt that it was time to experiment,
and and inquired if Timmy would accomodate him. Timmy was more than happy
to oblige for a reasonable fee, and the fireman was more than happy to
continue to pay it. His wife was less than happy about the whole affair,
for she felt that it reflected poorly on her as a woman, and she feared that
if word got out, she would be the laughingstock of the town.
Timmy was unconcerned with such issues. Some said that he was morally bankrupt,
and some said that he was a practical businessman. In truth, though, the money
became utterly unimportant to him, as he spiraled toward a psychotic breakdown.
He had developed a fantasy wherein the fireman would leave his wife and take
Timmy away, maybe to somewhere like Alabama, where no one would oppress them.
As he obsessed and clung to this dream, he pulled farther away from reality and
other human beings. The fireman was relatively unconcerned, but the fireman's
wife grew more worried by subtle nuances that she noticed over time.
You must stop this! she insisted.
Give me my space! he insisted.
The ongoing argument devolved into citations of marriage vows and Biblical passages,
which were conveniently inconclusive. The fireman's wife was a God-fearing woman,
and she knew that she could not violate 'til death do us part without being
struck down, and that she could not invoke the old 'til death do us part
loophole without violating thou shalt not kill and being likewise smitten.
Thus she was at an impasse. Some said that she was a victim of a bad situation,
and some said that it was her own fault for letting it happen.
Timmy's relationship with God was much more complex, though now almost completely
forgotten. He had also almost completely forgotten the existence of the fireman's
wife, else he might have thought to plot against her.
This memory lapse was abruptly corrected when the fireman's wife threatened Timmy.
Timmy was upset and distraught and threatened her back. The fireman announced that
he was tired of them both, and moved to Alabama on his own. Some said that it was
irony, and some said that it was an owmen of things to come.
