DIFFERENT

22 -- Done

Warning  --  Violence, child abuse, sexual abuse (sorry!)

Oh, my lovely readers !!

Prince Larry has been contacted by the devil herself !!  How will he deal ?  Will he go back to "old" Prince Larry, will this be the end of him ?  Or will the "new" Prince Larry emerge, and conquer the past ?  Let us return to their castle in the sky, in the kingdom of New York .....

Larrissa sat on the hard wooden bench in the far corner of the garden, her chin resting on top of her knees, arms wrapped around her skinny legs, as she watched the familial scene unfold in front of her.  She had put on her best dress, and her newest ribbon adorned her puffball of hair, a brown halo splaying out behind her head.  Her prettiest sandals were on her feet, and she wore her widest smile.  The only accessory out of place were the most perfect little tears of heartbreak meandering down her caramel cheeks. 

She had wanted to look pretty today, her best kind of pretty, for her mommy and daddy.  She had just wanted a day, an afternoon, 3 hours then, 2.  OK, one hour would do, if they would just acknowledge her, a hug, a smile, a kind word.  It was her last chance.  Their last chance.

Their family was all gathered today, in the back yard of their beautiful, cookie-cutter house, plonked slap-dab in the middle of the most perfect tree lined avenue in up-town suburbia.  The sun shone, the birds sang, the joyful noise of children playing could be heard up and down the street.  The prescription for how the perfect lazy summer day should be.  

She was only young, but she knew this wasn't how things were supposed to be.  She watched as her parents laughed and played with the other children, chased and touched, hugged and kissed.  Everyone except her.  She thought of what her life would be like if she wan't.... what she was.  Her dad would stop mid laugh as his eyes caught hers, to look at her forlornly, only to stop smiling altogether.  He would shake his head and return to the grill, grabbing a beer to drown the disappointment he felt every time he looked at his ......... child.  

Deborah was having a grand old time, a glass of wine seemed always to be in her hand.  She was shrieking with laughter surrounded by her girlfriends, suddenly covering her eyes or mouth with her cupped hand, her friends rubbing her back as they glared in Larrissa's direction.  She was the reason her mommy was so upset, she surmised.  She was ALWAYS the reason her mommy seemed to be so upset.  She didn't know why, but she knew one thing that day.  Today would be the last day that she even tried anymore.  The last day she would wear her best dress, or her prettiest bow to try to please her parent's.  The last day she would be a girl.

Larrissa was 7.

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Larry was sat on the sofa now, in the exact same position his memory would allow him, chin on his knees, arms wrapped around his still skinny legs.  He remembers that afternoon in the garden from twenty years ago like it was yesterday.  Hearing his mothers grating laugh, disappointment laced through her voice, her fake smile.  Seeing his father's face, all warmth and happiness drain from it when his eyes met the little girls.  Larry wiped the errant tear that fell with the cuff of his sleeve, his nose with the other sleeve, as he stared into space.  

Laurent had asked if he needed to talk about it.

About what ?

Anything.  Everything.

Yes, he did.  Everything.  

I want to tell you everything.  It needs to be said.  The past needs to be exorcised.