On the Edge of Life

V.

He had a troubled beginning, thus he became troubled himself.

He was born and raised in a large italian family full of unpredictable people. It was a busy household of seven. And he often felt overshadowed and drowned in the amount of people crammed into one tiny flat in Queens. His father was always distracted with being the sole breadwinner for the family and his mother was always distracted with being the sole caretaker for the family. Perhaps this was what influenced the start of his crime spree, the lack of understanding. It began when he was ten. It occurred at the corner store with one of his brothers. Their mother had sent them with a grocery list, but in the end they made it out with one more item than previously requested. The act itself gave him a rush like nothing else did. Thus began the downward spiral.

As a boy in school, he seemed to care more about girls than grades, which upset his mother quite a bit. Not one of his girlfriends did his mother approve of. Perhaps it wasn't their fault, she might not have approved of him.

His father was no different. He could feel them growing further apart, but he had no way of stopping it. This can be quite debilitating to a young boy, not having a stable father figure. It hardened him, but what could they have done. They were polar opposites, and nothing they could do would change that.

So the downward spiral continued and he moved away from a loveless home into a life of danger and further unpredictability. Organized crime was the game, and he was playing it quite well.

But everyone is a loser sometimes.