I'm Brett Compton. I'm not objective when it comes to how my family should be viewed. If you want another perspective you'll have to ask my mother, father, sister, or brother. This is my story, my perception.
My mother and father were superstars in their professions. My older brother and sister were superstars in school, excelling both academically and athletically. All my family members were good looking. I was the third kid and compared to the other four was untalented, stupid and an ugly duckling. My parents always seemed to have time for the two beautiful talented kids, little or none for me.
It warps your personality when as a kid you're always looking for love and attention and rarely get it. I was a nuisance to my brother and sister, and an afterthought -- or embarrassment -- to my parents. My warped personality carried over to relationships with my peers. I wasn't very popular and had few friends. Life sucked lots until I turned eighteen. After that it sucked even more.
Three things happened after I turned eighteen that warped me even more and destroyed the already tenuous relationship with my parents. The first two: I found out that each of my parents was having an affair and I told the other parent -- supposedly in confidence -- to hopefully gain some love, or at least attention. They ended up sharing the information with each other, with each denying it to the other. The environment in my house turned icier.
The third thing: shortly before my High School graduation one of my classmates accused me of getting her pregnant. I had never even had sex with her -- I just think that she was a gold-digger and wanted to get something from my parents. She threatened my parents that she would go public; always concerned with their image my parents paid her off, ignoring my protestations that I not only wasn't the father but had never even had sex with her. [This was before the days of common and inexpensive DNA testing.] "Just another of Brett's fuck-ups," was my father's attitude.
As a result of the three situations described above my parents unceremoniously booted me out of the house two days after I graduated High School (which they didn't even bother to attend). I had my clothes in two softside suitcases, $1,000 in cash, a laptop computer, a six year old 125cc Honda motorcycle worth about $1,200, and essentially nothing else. The only things I had going for me were that I had a High School education (big deal) and even though not athletic I was strong even for my size (six foot two inches, 225 pounds).
I got a menial job manually loading boxes from a warehouse into trucks in the next city over from where I grew up, a room in a boarding house, and a personality disorder. About my only joy in life was paying for a hooker every other weekend since I didn't have the confidence, looks, or money to start a relationship with any female that I was interested in. A couple of hookers seemed to like me -- maybe because I was never crude to them, even if I didn't have a sparkling personality, and I was always grateful -- and gave me a discount. They also said that I was a great fuck, but isn't that what hookers always tell their johns?
Things didn't get any better for me until I got a break when I was twenty.
I was out late at night on a Saturday -- actually in the a. m. on Sunday -- having just had a disappointing sexual experience with a hooker who I hadn't used before. It had been a bad week at work, and very frustrating since I had tried to contact my mother and she never responded to my calls to the house and had changed her cell phone number without giving me the new one. I made unsuccessful token efforts to contact my parents on occasion, but never was even invited home for the holidays. In a really shitty mood I came upon a disturbing scene. A middle-aged guy was slapping around a middle-aged woman and giving her verbal shit besides.
I normally mind my own business, but given the shitty mood that I was in I was anxious to vent -- and what better way than by legitimately beating the shit out of some asshole. I grabbed the asshole's right hand as he was about to hit the woman again and threw him down to the ground. "What do you think that you're doing you asshole?" I rhetorically asked.
"Mind your own fucking business," the guy yelled back from his prone position; bad mistake. I kicked him in the nuts as hard as I could. Two guys, obviously friends or associates of the moaning asshole on the ground, got out of opposite sides of a car that was parked on the street right next to us. I hit the guy closest to me in the face as hard as I could before he completely stood up as he exited the front passenger seat of the car causing him to fall back in. I then kicked the car door so that it slammed into his shins, resulting in a loud shriek.
The guy who had gotten out of the driver's side of the car was much smaller than I was and saw the fire in my eyes. When I started around the car after him he decided that discretion was the better part of valor, jumped back in the car, and took off, leaving the asshole who had been hitting the woman still moaning on the ground, holding his nuts, and causing the passenger's side front door to slam again onto his buddy's shins, resulting in another shriek as the car peeled off down the street.
"Are you OK?" was my brilliant question to the woman who was leaning against a lamppost with blood coming out of one nostril, disheveled hair, and red marks all over her face and neck. Her clothes were high class, and she had what looked like an expensive necklace, watch, and rings on.
"I'm not sure," she replied, her eyes rolling.
"You should probably go to the hospital," was my second brilliant comment.
"I'm not sure that I could drive there," she moaned.
"Do you have a car?"
"Yes -- it's in the lot across the street," she said, nodding her head in the direction of a well-marked three story parking lot.
"I'll take you," I offered.
"Thank you so much," the woman replied, latching onto my arm.
Just before we started across the street I saw the asshole on one knee trying to get up. I don't know if he really did look like my father, but suddenly I imagined that he did; so I took out my most immediate frustrations from my bad week, and life, by kicking him in the jaw, knocking him over backwards.
The woman's car was a new 500SL Mercedes -- she obviously had money. As we drove to the hospital we talked just enough to exchange basic information -- her name was Linda Patton. When we got to the Emergency Room I helped her out of her car. She grabbed my arm tightly and stared up at me with a scared, pleading look. "Brett, after you park the car will you stay with me -- I promise that I'll make it worth your while."
Having nothing better to do, and feeling good about myself for the first time in a long time, I said "Sure."
While I was waiting for Linda in the waiting room two police officers came in, apparently called by the Emergency Room desk. The receptionist pointed to me as a person waiting for Linda, and they pulled me to the far corner of the room and interviewed me.
"What happened?" was the logical first question of the male cop.
I explained the whole story, conveniently leaving out that I kicked the antagonist twice while he was on the ground. After a four minute explanation the female cop asked "Who were those guys?"
"Never saw them before in my life. Maybe Linda knows -- I didn't ask her when I drove her here in her car."
"Thanks," the female cop said, having finished writing in a notebook. "Is Ms. Patton being treated now?"
"I believe so -- she went with a nurse to the back shortly after I parked the car."
**************
I drove Linda home -- she was bandaged up and would be hurting for a while, but fortunately had no lasting damage. It was after three a.m. before we got to her townhouse in a very upscale neighborhood. I parked in her three car garage; there was a Range Rover and a seemingly new 1100cc Harley in the other two garage bays. My eyes bulged out looking at the Harley.
As soon as I turned off the ignition Linda touched my arm, looked at me with her good eye (the other was covered by an eye patch) and said "Brett it's too late to get a cab. Why don't you stay here tonight -- I have three bedrooms that I don't use. I'll get you a cab tomorrow, unless I can drive, in which case I'll drive you home."
"Either that or you could let me take the Harley until you get better," I replied with a big shit-eating grin on my face.
"We'll see," she said, with her first chuckle of the night, even if it did hurt her face.
The queen-sized bed in her largest guest room was very comfortable. I took a shower in its attached bathroom and fell asleep as soon as my head hit the pillow. I woke up to the smell of breakfast. When I got down to the kitchen Linda was there in a bathrobe at the stove.
"I'm not very domestic," she said with a wry smile visible despite her swollen upper lip, "but I thought that you'd need some breakfast food, so I gave it a try."
"Thanks," I said with my own smile. "Smells good."
Linda was right -- she isn't very domestic. The bacon was wibbly, the eggs a little undercooked, and the toast slight burnt, but I was hungry and ate it enthusiastically. She seemed pleased by that, and by the fact that I cleaned up the dishes and put them in the dishwasher. "Should I start it up?" I asked, since it was fairly full.
"No, don't bother. My maid Joyce will be here tomorrow. She'll take care of it. Can we sit and talk?"