Well, that’s what I want to say.
See, my brother’s friend Mark was a nice little boy. Thinking back, the only words that I could use to sum him up are “clean cut”. This kid was the epitome of clean cut. The son of a librarian, he was every bit as neatly groomed, well dressed, quietly spoken, and well behaved as you would imagine a stereotypical librarian’s son to be. He was also musically inclined, and I believe this put him on the path to his downfall.
Mark took up the guitar in his early teens. Unlike the other kids, who learned to play three bars of a Metallica song and then formed a band that would go nowhere, Mark actually studied music and learned to play the guitar properly. His parents organised lessons for him, and a combination of hard work and natural talent paid off - he was good. So good that the kids who used to pick on him noticed that there was more to him than his nerdy exterior and they began to realise that perhaps he was what they needed to get their bands some gigs rather than just being kicked out of their parents garages for making too much racket. Mark became cool because he could play the guitar.
Well, somehow this lead to him moving to the big city for a couple of years, and he slipped off the radar at this point. We didn’t hear from him until he moved back from the city and my brother bumped into him one day. I don’t know how he recognised him because the old Mark was gone for good. During his time away from his hometown, Mark had discovered drugs and forgotten all he ever knew about personal hygiene. The neat-as-a-pin hairstyle was gone, and his hair was long, shaggy and matted. The clean-cut look was further banished by the presence of facial hair in the form of a scruffy little goatee. His nice shirts and slacks were replaced by torn, dirty jeans and black t-shirts devoted to heavy metal bands. Mark had morphed into being one of the guys who looks like they belong in a backyard band. The change was astounding.
He and my brother took up again, and started “jamming” together every chance they got. They formed a new “band” and spent a lot of time together. I think Mark would agree that this was one of the better periods in his life. These were the days PC - Pre Christy.
Mark met Christy. At first, she seemed normal enough. She was roughly his age, and had a job. She was a nice looking girl, and gave no sign of what lay beneath the surface in those early days, though it didn’t take long before it became obvious that she was a control freak. It started out with little things - she wanted Mark to spend more time with her, less time with the guys. She began to complain about all the time she spent watching the “band” playing in the garage, and asking him to hang out with her instead. Then she started fighting with his friends, and banning Mark from seeing them. She attempted to have his other friends ban the ones she didn’t like from their homes too, and refusals lead to more fallings out until Christy had banned Mark from seeing all but one or two of his friends who she felt she could control.
She quit her job, and spent her time eating and spending Mark’s money. She made him hand over every dime he earned, and then she rationed his money. She confiscated his car and made him walk everywhere. She made him carry a mobile phone at all times so she could check on him - and if she couldn’t reach him on it, there was hell to pay. She set curfews, such as “You can go to the shop and buy me more cigarettes, but if you’re not back in 15 minutes, I’m locking you out/destroying your guitar/burning your stuff/etc”.
And Mark put up with it all. I don’t know how Mark thinks, I don’t know what his opinions on all this are, but his friends generally agree that he’s afraid. See, not only are there clean signs that Christy has been beating him up (bruises, scratches) but also it’s a well known fact that Christy’s family is crazy too. Her parents have both spent time in mental health facilities and I understand that her mother is still in one today. Her father has a history of violence and isn’t currently locked up, and when all else fails, Christy has been hear threatening Mark that she’ll get her father on to him.
One day, Mark attempted to take his life back. He called my brother over and asked him to help him move out. Christy went insane. She was screaming and screaming at him, and threatening him, but Mark just went about the business of moving out. Christy grabbed him and started punching and kicking him, all the while screaming “Stop hitting me Mark! Stop it! You’re hurting me!” - but Mark was just standing there taking it and not fighting back. My brother just stood there, he said he couldn’t believe his eyes. My brother’s girlfriend grabbed the phone and called the police, and their presence allowed Mark to take all he owned and leave. My brother and his girlfriend were so relieved that it was finally over, and that Mark had come to his senses.
Two days later, Mark went back to her. My brother was disgusted, and wiped his hands of the pair of them. He’d experienced too many betrayals by Mark to feel he could stand by him anymore, and he wanted nothing to do with Christy.
Well, their relationship may be bizarre, unhealthy and ugly, but it endures. They’ve been together more than four years at this point. Christy has become obese while Mark looks like a shadow of his former self. My brother describes him as “dead man walking” because Mark seems to have lost the will to live, and merely exists. And yesterday, we heard that Christy is pregnant.
If I see Mark, I know I’m going to do myself an injury as I struggle to prevent myself saying “Nice one, dickhead”, but I both pity him and feel anger towards him. On the one hand, he’s a victim as much as anyone else. On the other hand, he’s 50% responsible for putting the life of an innocent child into the hands of Christy the Psycho. That family has such a terrible history of insanity that by all rights they should be left to die out without passing their curse on to future generations (harsh, I know, but c’mon, they’re violent, dangerous people - no member of Christy’s family can be described without using those words). What genetics doesn’t screw up for this baby, Christy’s parenting is sure to do. As for Mark’s future, the only thing his friends disagree on is when he’s likely to kill himself, being fairly evenly divided between before the baby is born and after. Since they’ve all been banned from Mark and Christy’s home, they feel powerless to do anything for him. We all sit back and watch in horror as this train wreck plays out in front of us.
I don’t have an ending for this story right now, but whatever the outcome, it’s not going to be happy for anyone. I guess I’ll sum up by repeating the subject line - Congratulations! You’ve fucked up your life! What else is there to say?
:mad: :rolleyes: