He took me to the park when I was seven to suck on a line of boys, tall teenagers, the first one a neighborhood bully that scared me and was big and blond and older than me by several years. I stood under the bridge that crossed the storm runoff creek, looking at that line of boys, and I said no, I can't.

This is the 50 year old dad of a messed up junkie neighbor. She beat her kids,all three of them, but I didn't register that at the time. I babysat for her. One night her dad came over. I was 12. He combed my hair.