Damaged Boys

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(damaged boys) 23

There were five of them in the row of townhouses, and underneath the sheen of public normalcy and personal success lived the gaping damage within.

...and then everything else happened

I suppose I should have seen it coming. Everything was as it should have been, Jeanine was finishing the baking and the housekeeping; and for the first time in history, I believe everyone had managed to reply. We were expecting over thirty people for an evening of holiday cheer, something our house needed desperately. Jeanine and I were not quite on the same wavelength anymore, and there was no easy way to remedy the situation. Things were shifting, glacially, toward disintegration…and we both knew it. I wish I could say I saw an easy fix, but I didn’t. I wasn’t even sure that our marriage, our union was what I desired anymore.

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22.Oct.06 | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

(damaged boys) 22

There were five of them in the row of townhouses, and underneath the sheen of public normalcy and personal success lived the gaping damage within.

the degrees of separation

They were scattered about the country as if God had thrown them like dice. And, it seemed, for awhile, as if none of them would ever find home again.

a few degrees of Marcus...

Connecticut Avenue sprawled out for blocks in front of him, as it did every night on his walk home from work. He’d take the metro to the Dupont Circle stop, and he’d walk the rest of the way. Tonight, the stars were sprinkled across the winter sky, brilliant and winking. He’d thought it strange to see the stars so well in the city. He couldn’t ever remember seeing them here. But, there were many things he hadn’t noticed in the months since he’d moved there, in the months his brother had been found dead in Los Angeles, a victim of depression, asphyxiated.

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30.Sep.06 | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)

(damaged boys) 21

There were five of them in the row of townhouses, and underneath the sheen of public normalcy and personal success lived the gaping damage within.

a lake in the woods

He didn’t know why it hit him just then, but Ben remembered it like he was back there, back in high school and pining. His stomach felt like it did then, knotty and tight, like he would vomit his affection for the entire world to see; and he could think of nothing more horrifying.

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11.Sep.06 | Permalink | Comments (3) | TrackBack (0)

(damaged boys) 20

There were five of them in the row of townhouses, and underneath the sheen of public normalcy and personal success lived the gaping damage within.

pas de deux

Corey was looking backwards, maybe for the first time in his life; he was considering the choices he’d made, wondering if it made any difference at all. He often thought not. But today, sitting in a holding cell in the county court house, there was nothing to do but consider. He’d been sitting in the little mint green room for six hours, since he’d been processed and booked. There was little left to do but make the telephone call to his friend David, and to wait to make his appearance in court.

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1.Sep.06 | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBack (0)

(damaged boys) 19

There were five of them in the row of townhouses, and underneath the sheen of public normalcy and personal success lived the gaping damage within.

and the rain quietly stopped

The unit sat empty for four months. The windows remained dark and lifeless, much like they did when Braden lived in those rooms. Everything remained as he’d left it. The furnishings and accessories were all there, it was all for sale, and it was better that way. Better to say goodbye to all of the old belongings, the old way of living. He was in a new life now. A life where there was no use for chrome and stainless steel. A life where there was warmth and light. He would not decorate his new home to reflect the month of November.

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22.Aug.06 | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBack (0)

(damaged boys) 18

There were five of them in the row of townhouses, and underneath the sheen of public normalcy and personal success lived the gaping damage within.

two houses

No one would take note of the orderly row of townhouses which had sprung out of fallow fields of urban blight, disrespect and hopelessness. Where once there were working-class homes and yards and porches, there came the demolition machines, and years, if not decades, of emptiness. Lots plowed under by the city, barely leveled so that one could still make out the outline of the house, and the sinking earth where once stood foundation and cellar. In these times, grasses and wildflowers grew in season, inviting butterflies and birds to alight there. There were grasses and buttercups and dandelions.

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15.Aug.06 | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)

(damaged boys) 17

There were five of them in the row of townhouses, and underneath the sheen of public normalcy and personal success lived the gaping damage within.

Into the wonder

Ben was tired of feeling emotionally injured. Things never seemed to work out. If there was hope, it always seemed dashed in the end, usually with some bizarre twist. Like an episode of The Twilight Zone, complete with Rod Serling narration, Ben watched his life unfold with a sense of fascination and horror.

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7.Aug.06 | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

(damaged boys) 16

There were five of them in the row of townhouses, and underneath the sheen of public normalcy and personal success lived the gaping damage within.

if I was the one you chose

For Marcus, nothing seemed to matter anymore. He was listless and indecisive and unsure. From outside glances, his life looked perfect, ideal. To Marcus, it was far from that. His life had become complicated and mundane. His work, no longer a source of stimulation or interest, slipped into neutral. He coasted on his own knowledge equity, relying on his good relationships with vendors and customers. He lived in the ether, floating from meeting to meeting, not quite in a fog, but disillusioned in a cloud of his own despair.

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4.Aug.06 | Permalink | Comments (3) | TrackBack (0)

(damaged boys) 15

There were five of them in the row of townhouses, and underneath the sheen of public normalcy and personal success lived the gaping damage within.

a stranger in the house

He was driving in the dark.

There was nowhere else to go but here, into the dark, into the unknown. Corey hated surprises, especially in his new career. He’d been hired to make an appearance way out east, in Claydon, beyond the county line, beyond the sensibilities of anyone mildly urbane. The drive had reached almost forty minutes as he pulled onto Route 44 somewhere in the middle of Crestwood County, somewhere literally in the middle of the dark. There were no streetlights and not even reflector plates running down the centerline. Corey watched the road ahead with intensity, almost the same intensity of learning new choreography or learning the movements of his johns.

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16.Dec.05 | Permalink | Comments (4) | TrackBack (0)

(damaged boys) 14

There were five of them in the row of townhouses, and underneath the sheen of public normalcy and personal success lived the gaping damage within.

Towson melancholy

Maybe it wasn’t the best idea he’d ever had, but it was something he felt he needed to do, and this, quite honestly, was his best opportunity. It had been months since he’d seen Adam, months since he’d set foot in Baltimore. The fact is, and few people ever knew, Ben did go back. Once.

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13.Dec.05 | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)