Date: Wed, 19 Apr 2000 00:06:17 EDT
From: Double A
Subject: Raven Hair(28)

Disclaimer:

     After a hiatus of sorts, I am back with another story! Yay!
Anyway, due to personal problems, I've been unable/unwilling to write much
of anything for a long time. Here is a new story from me to you. For those
of you who know my style and enjoy it, you should really like this
one. Like I said, though, I haven't written anything for a while, so I may
be a bit rusty. For those who don't know my style, I tend to use a lot of
build-up and "storyline".  So, if you came on to find a story for a quick
jack-off, then this probably ain't for you. However, if you want to take
the time to read a beautiful tale of young love, then sit back, take a sip
from your glass of wine, and enjoy!

And remember...Always stand up for what you think is right, don't listen to
bullshit, no matter who is saying it, and always speak with your fists and
swear a lot to be heard!

******************

Part 28:

	David's initial strategy was the same as the one that existed in BC. After
giving school a few more tries, he went to see a Dr. Steinberg at the Jewish
General Hospital and got her to write a note recommending that he be kept
out of school, pending a decision for therapy.

	His mother, however, was not as patient and objective as his father had
been, though, so she offered him two choices. Either he goes to school, or
she kicks him out of the house. To emphasize her point, she called the
police in to moderate the discussion. In other words, she asked them to take
David away.

	When they arrived, he was waiting outside, crying. They tried to work out a
compromise with his mother, but it was to no avail. In the end, they had the
same idea that David had. He needed to seek the help that was necessary, but
meanwhile needed to convince his mother that he was going to school.

	Of course, therapy was only twice a week, so he had to fill in the other
three days. He conserved his money and saw as many money as he could at the
Palace, where it was only $2.50. Movies, though, got extremely boring and he
wasn't sure how much longer he could pull off the charade of going to
school, so he needed to come up with a good idea that would allow him to get
out of school, but at the same time, would satisfy his mother enough that he
could tell her his plan, without her kicking him out. In the end, he could
only think of one option.

	So, getting off at the Guy-Concordia Metro, he walked down the street, into
the recruitment centre and asked for an application to join the Canadian
army.

	His heart filled with pride, he went home and proudly announced to his
mother that he quitting school in order to join the army. His mother had
gotten so into the whole school thing, though, that she initially was
sceptical and contemplated refusing to allow it and just kicking him out. In
the end, though, he convinced her that it would be a  month, at the very
most, and then he'd be off in boot camp. In the end, she not only agreed to
let him pursue that goal, but she actively encouraged him.

	Despite the fact that it was, more or less, an excuse to get out of school,
David found himself becoming genuinely enthusiastic with the whole thing.
When he got called to come in for his IQ test, he was very gung-ho about
passing it so well. When he was sent for his physical, he was excited that
there were only two things wrong with him and they were very insignificant.
Finally, the day came when he was to meet with one of the recruiters and go
for the actual interview. He prepared all the answers he was going to have,
beforehand. He studied the web site, he read book about infantry. He thought
he knew everything.

	When he went for the interview, though, the Sergeant stumped him on several
points. David wasn't quite sure how long boot camp lasted, he didn't know as
much about infantry as he thought that he did, and he was out of shape, as
far as the army was concerned.

	In the end, though, he passed the interview, but he had a week to get into
shape and take the fitness test. For the next five days, he ran laps around
the track at the local park and he did push-ups, sit-ups and lifted weights.
He'd finish his workouts every day, with lots of water and he'd always get
lots of sleep.

	On the day of his fitness test, David arrived fifteen minutes early and
warmed-up. He was watched by a fitness trainer, as he did his sit ups,
pushups, and the infamous step test. It lasted a little over twenty-minutes
and, when he was finished, he and his workout clothes were covered in a
sheen of sweat. When he was done, he looked up at the trainer for approval,
but didn't see it.

	"You were too slow," he immediately launched into, "and several of your
sit-ups weren't fully complete. I'm sorry, but you fail. Next!"

	And that was the end of David's army career. Of course, his mother rubbed
his failure in his face, by reminding him of how useless he really was. Of
course, she was the god of all mothers, because, even though he was useless
and stupid, she wasn't going to kick him out. She didn't say it in so many
words, but David was sure he was being kept around at this point, purely
because his mother was now going to use him as a scapegoat and a wall to
bounce insults off of. That's just what happened too, but David wasn't a
wall...He was a sponge, absorbing every insult, every comment, and feeling
more and more hurt by them.

	So, he didn't go to school, he didn't work, and the army was behind him.
So, David Levine sat in his room from sun-up to sunset, playing on the
computer, avoiding his mother and, of course, gaining weight. Over the
course of February, he ballooned up 20 pounds.

	It was February twenty-fourth, 1999, and David hit such a rock bottom that
it had him reeling. He had just looked himself in the mirror that morning
and saw an ugly, fat pig who no longer had anything to offer anybody. He
couldn't go to school, so he'd never amount to anything, so he might as well
kill himself. He was too tired to do that, though, so he opted to just go
see a movie and kill himself tomorrow or the next day or something.

	Getting off the Peel metro, he turned down the street and headed down
toward the Palace. He was hungry, but he didn't deserve to eat. In fact, he
deserved to sit on the corner of St-Catherine with the rest of the bums and
freeze in the winter snow.

	So, seeing no need for it, he gave a handful of spare change to a bunch of
beggars and stopped outside the Palace to check out what was playing.
American Pie, Three Kings, and House on Haunted Hill. David wouldn't mind
seeing American Pie, though. It started in forty-five minutes, so David went
down the street to a pay phone to call his mother and tell her. She'd yell
at him and insult him, as usual, about how he's wasting his money on movies,
when he should be saving it for something worthwhile, like a life, maybe.
Yeah, she actually said that to David, sometimes.

	David hated her, because she was so insulting. It was true that he deserved
it, but the least she could do is see his misery and try to comfort him, but
there wasn't a comforting bone in her body. She only lived to insult him, it
seemed. She would know that he was feeling down and just insult him more,
kicking him when he was down.

	So far, life had really sucked. He'd never found a true love, who actually
cared about him. He didn't have any friends. He couldn't attend school
anymore, it seemed..

	"What's wrong with me?" David asked himself, then smiled when he remembered
the context for when he used to have that thought.

	He carried that thought onward though and looked at his watch. School would
have ended a little while ago, giving students some semblance of a chance to
get home. Should he? David wasn't sure if it was worth it. He could get an
easy insult from his mother, so there was really no cause for that. Then
again, David was really in need of a good insulting and there was only one
person who did an insulting that was that good.

	So, instead of calling his mother, David used his quarter to, for the first
time in nearly two years, call Aaron Sternzus.