Candy Pink

Life pretty much sucked. I was the son of Ralph and Cindy Cassella. They named me Ralph Junior and my dad was thrilled to have a son he could raise to live out his past glory. My dad wasn't a bad guy and never abused me but I knew he was disappointed. He worked as a contractor in the present but he still lived in his glory days of High School.

Dad was an all-state full back on the football team in the fall and the best hitter on the baseball team in the spring. A letterman in two sports and a runner up in track. He had his choice of any girl in school and ended up with Cindy the head cheerleader. They were the king and queen of the prom and the two most popular people in school. I knew that my mom had a brother but they never talked about him in front of me. I did hear my dad tell mom a few times that she was lucky that he was only a new born when she was graduating High School or it would have ruined her.

My mom accepted me for who I was but I could just tell she wished I had been a girl like her, a pretty and popular girl who would be a cheerleader in her own image as well. I really wished that too. Ralph spent his days teaching me to catch a football and trying to get me to lift more than 50 miserable pounds in a bench press. I wanted Barbie dolls at Christmas but kept that to myself. Another year and five more G.I. Joe action figures, just great. By the time I was just twelve there was Midget football and I would come home battered and bruised after the games. Mom told him it was too much for a kid my size but he insisted I had to become a man.

After I started High School I was pulling high honors in the accelerated program. Mom was proud of me but dad just seemed disappointed all the time. He would have rather seen me on the football team making a 2.0 grade average heading for a dead end future. West Haven High just sucked! West Haven CT. sucked!

My bedroom was right next to theirs and the walls were thin. I got used to hearing them doing it and that didn't bother me. What they didn't know was that I had found an old stethoscope in the trash behind the local doctors office one day. I could hear every word they said once I had it.