There were times that he hated his life….like most of the time.

He’d been a good kid growing up.

A big brother, a big help to his Ma.

But then he’d decided to go out into the verse.

He was the smartest boy in his class, the biggest and the strongest.

All his life they’d told him what a success he was gonna be.

Hell he might have been a success.

An important man, if he’d stayed.

But he hadn’t.

He couldn’t really blame them; he’d been the one that had gotten too big for his britches.

But they had been the ones filling his head with the certainty that he was something special.

But he was the one that had decided he was too special for that border moon.

Wasted on it.

Meant for better things.

So he’d gone out into the verse, expecting it to fall into his hand like a ripe plum.

He’d learned more in that first year than he’d learned all his life before.

He’d been a big fish in a small pond, but out here, he was nothing special.

Smart, but not smart enough, big, but there were bigger, strong, but there were stronger.

Not good enough.

He might have gone home then, but he couldn’t.

He was too ashamed.

His eyes had been opened and he saw what a small world it was, home.

He could be something big there.

Something special.

But it wasn’t enough for him.

And he, even if they never thought it, would know that he had failed.

That he was nothing special.

He’d knocked around the verse, becoming someone his Ma’d be ashamed of.

Rude, crude and violent.

The knowledge of how far he’d fallen shamed him more.

And that in turn made him angry.

Made him act worse.

Which in turn shamed him over again.

It was a vicious circle.

One he had no idea how to break

So he let it keep going, and going and going.

Growing farther and farther away from the boy they’d all been sure would be someone worth knowing.

But that had gradually stopped.

Looking back he couldn’t see exactly when it had started.

But he’d have to guess it was the d