The Greatest Crime Never Committed

Chapter 1

        Have no fear of that voice inside your head you hear when you look at this piece of paper that has a bunch of letters perfectly arranged to form words and phrases, it's just me. But who is "me"? I am no one, I am just thought, I'm a story teller, an NPC or Non-playable Character, I am no main protagonist rather I'm just an extra. Now throughout the journey of life we are reminded just how short of a ride it can be and to enjoy every moment like it's our last, to seize every waking second and hold on as if our lives depended on it because for one of those seconds it does. That is how Danny lived his life whether he realized it or not, personally I don't think he did but I don't think he cared either just because that's how Danny was as a person. Danny Collins, the man who orchestrated the greatest crime never committed.
         Danny was a kid who was dealt the wrong hand in life and played it accordingly, he didn't grow up with a close knit family. His dad's parents lived on the other side of the country and his mom was born in some underground whorehouse where she never knew her father because her mom was the popular one in the house. Government came and took her away in a big raid and just like that she became an orphan, a property of the state, or at least for a moment in time until she would run away. They always managed to find her and bring her back but once given the chance she was gone again. Eventually the orphanage ceased to care and stopped looking for her. By then his mom had dropped out of the ninth grade and ran away to be with Danny's father who promised to support her and the curly haired baby in her stomach with his job as a construction worker.Then 1987 hit, the financial crisis left Danny's father unemployed, but he didn't let the pressure get the better of him, he did what every good Catholic does, he drank. His mom had a tendency to smoke while she was pregnant with Danny she claimed the Menthol numbed the pain of carrying a 10 pound human inside of her womb and would smoke even more during contractions, but it also happened to numb Danny's brain, so you could say he was screwed from the beginning , his father who by the time Danny was born was a big time alcoholic drunk who would go on wild gambling sprees using money he didn't have and always coming back with nothing to show for it but a deeper debt than before only to take out his frustrations on Danny's mom, they say the pen is mightier than the sword but to Danny and his mom the pen didn't hold a candle to his father's fist. Silence in his household was reserved for when his dad was either gone or passed out drunk and when his mom was sleeping or "sleeping" on the ground after she would take the sucker punch from his dad so he wouldn't catch it. It got to the point where shouting was just as good as silence. Danny would go to school to learn vocabulary during the day then come home and learn "French" from that night's dispute only to go back to school the next day and teach the other children what he learned the night before.
        Throughout all the pain and abuse his father put both Danny and his mom through his mother stood by him, She really took the "till death do us part" vow literally, well until death came lurking. One night when Danny was in the Living room watching cartoons while sitting on the green stained carpet, shouting and sobbing could be heard from the bedroom. The shouting was his dad. The sobbing was his mom as usual, only this time a phrase never uttered before in the house rang through the halls, "I'm leaving" Danny's mom screamed. His drunk father did not approve of this idea or the new found confidence in his mom. "You think you can leave me? You'll never be anything without me! I'm all you got." He shouts back as a boom can be heard coming from the bedroom they were both in. While Danny's mom was packing she didn't see his father grab his .38 special from out of his nightstand. Lucky for her he was so drunk he was seeing three of her and too stupid to aim for the middle one. Quickly Danny's mom grabbed him and headed for the car. Around the time they were halfway down the street Danny turned to look back at his home where his dad stood in the doorframe of the entrance dingy white wife beater shirt glued to his chest with beer sweat, messy dirty blonde hair that looks like it hasn't been combed in weeks and his pistol still in hand and only thing holding him up was the wall, the once sun bleached house was lit up with red and blue lights and the last time Danny seen his dad was when he got arrested. After a few months in general population in the prison one of the mobs shot callers put a green light on Danny's dad, he didn't make it to the end of the day before someone shanked him. They stabbed him right in the back. The prison got ahold of Danny's mom and told her the news, not a single ounce in her cared the news went in one ear and out the other, so much so she forgot to tell Danny about it. A week later was his funeral. It was open casket as if that matters, no one bothered to show up to it.moral of the story, pay your debts or at least don't take out loans with the mob you know you can't afford to payback.
       For all the bad Danny's dad caused to the family Danny never knew any better, he assumed all families were like this so to him his father wasn't a no good alcoholic wife beating bum like his mom described him, to Danny he was just "Dad" and seeing his dad get swarmed by the police was very traumatic for an already troubled mind. Danny would begin to act out at school. He would start fights, break things, he even one time sliced a teacher with safety scissors, sounds pretty safe. He was visiting the principals office so much he started to refer to the principal as his second dad because he was always shouting at him, only he seen his second dad a lot more often then his biological dad.
     Danny's mom found a apartment on the other side of town they were renting and by renting I mean squatting, they were always so late for the rent that they were just early for the next month's bill. I'd like to say it was a nice apartment though, I'd like to say that. Danny's mom has now accrued her fair share of jobs nothing fancy she has just been through almost every fast food joint and grocery store in the town but with car problems and unscheduled principal visits being ever so common she has found it hard to last more than a month anywhere she goes. However now she works at the gas station right on the corner of the street the apartment is on which means car problems is no longer an issue. It seems Danny knew this as school visits seemed to of doubled since.
     As Danny entered into middle school he discovered god's gift to earth, punk music! Danny would have the whole complex shaking to bands like The Misfits, Dead Kennedy's, and Black Flag. Like every good 13 year old who discovers music almost as violent as they are, he began to dress the part. Lucky for him holes came cheap in his clothes, nothing like having hand-me-downs as an only child. One day as he was leaving school he walked past a section of the school and heard this heavy music playing, it almost lifted Danny off his feet as he tracked the source down like a Basset Hound. It was coming from under the bleachers on the football field. The people there were decked out in leather and chains and no two people had the same color of hair, finally people Danny can relate to.Danny would meet his new clique everyday after school under the same bleachers where they would blare their musical choice of that day and all smoke Camel Reds Turkish Blend that one of the kids had stolen from his dad. Danny began to form a close bond to the ring leader of them all, his name was Curt. Curt also came from a troubled home and spent many nights sleeping under the bleachers. Him and Danny really connected for their love of the horror punk band Misfits and from there a brotherhood was formed. No longer was Curt sleeping under the bleachers, instead he would sleep over at Danny's house. Everyday from then on out when the gang would all go their separate ways Danny and Curt would go back to the apartment watch MTV and hang out till nightfall. This went on for several weeks until finally Danny asked his mom if Curt could move in with them. Curt has become and unofficial member of the family and has been given chores he is in charge of and he has never had any problem doing them but when the question comes up about Curt officially moving in Danny's mom becomes hesitant. Would the landlord approve? Finally after a bit of time she agrees, I mean after all he hasn't given her a reason to be against it and they are already late on their rent as is, what's the worst thing that the landlord could do? Kick them out?