Chapter 1

Looking back at it all now, I find it pretty amazing that things turned out the way that they did. I guess you could chalk it up to some form of unusual fate that brought everything together. I don't regret anything, even for a second.

The event that started it all happened when I was 14, but we didn't know it then. My father died suddenly from a brain aneurysm, and in the blink of an eye it was just the two of us; my mother, Helen, and me, Mark Stafford. The shock was extreme since my dad exercised regularly and ate a balanced diet. He didn't drink excessively, either. He was the kind of guy you expected to live forever.

We grieved for a long time. Dad was a great guy, and we were a close family. Eventually, things started returning to normal and we got on with our lives, even though we still missed him. In fact we miss him to this day, but that tragic event triggered a chain reaction that neither of us could have predicted.

Three years had passed since my dad's passing, and I was getting ready to leave high school and move on to bigger and better things. Truth be told, I was looking forward to getting out of the house and away from my mother. Since dad died, she had slowly developed into quite a bitch. She was always happy before, but I knew that a part of her died with him. She was either unwilling or unable to take pleasure in anything anymore.

She never went out, never had fun, and I rarely saw her smile. She really started getting on my back about everything: my room was never quite clean enough, my grades never quite good enough, and my attitude never quite positive enough. No matter how hard I tried, I just couldn't please her.

This particular afternoon I had stayed after school for badminton practice. Mom knew about it, so I wasn't worried that she'd rag on me if I missed supper. But as soon as I entered the front door she was all over me.

"Where the hell have you been?" she yelled before I even had the front door closed.

"I was at badminton practice. I told you about it yesterday."

"You did no such thing! How many times have I told you to call when you are going to be late? You've ruined a perfectly good supper! You can be such a dimwit sometimes. My God! I don't know why I even put up with you."

I looked at the table and saw it was still set with my plate, but the spaghetti was conveniently tossed into the trash. She scowled at me. "I work and I work for you, but you don't appreciate anything I give you. You're just a puny little ungrateful runt."

"And don't think you're going to make a new supper. Supper was ready at 5:00 and you missed it, so you can go without mister!" As she said this she stepped closed and put her face directly in front of mine. "Maybe if you stopped chasing after that slut, Julie, you'd be able to remember the most basic instructions."

When she mentioned Julie, I snapped. I didn't even see my own hand as it shot across the small space between us and smacked her right in the face. She was stunned. Her eyes grew wide and she looked right at me, sputtering. "Whu... whu..."

"Shut Up! Don't you ever mention Julie again! If you even say another word to me you'll regret it."

Her eyes were now as large as headlights. I had never even raised my voice to her in the past. This was so out of character for me that she was flabbergasted. She knew she hit a sore spot with Julie, and I guess she just couldn't let it go.