Chapter 1
Two more days until Father’s Day, well, one and a few minutes. Around this house it’s always Father’s day. We need a day when it isn’t his. He’s not physically abusive, don’t think I’m saying that, he just is, is—has to be—everything. You can’t have an idea unless he tells you to have it. You can’t want to go somewhere unless he’s already been there and then he’ll tell you it’s not worth it. And he has to be right. It’s—it’s deadening. And it’s all I have.
Mom gave up a long time ago. I barely even remember her. Her name was Ruby, after her grandmother. She didn’t like having such an old-fashioned name. She was thin and pretty and smelled good, except when she’d light up one of her ‘funny cigarettes’ as she called them. Took me years to figure out she was smoking dope. I dunno,
