Second day

My family had always been on the odd side. My dad was a pinko-commi-historian-professor who always wanted a baby. He was married to a woman who seemingly couldn't have children and that's when he met my mom, a recent divorcée with 2 boys. She was wild, brassy, beautiful, and wanted him. So what if he was married. He fell in love, went back to his wife, and after a little "coaxing" on the part of my mother, he left wife #1 to be with mom #1.

My mom was, as I said, a wild, brassy, beautiful woman - also: brilliant, driven, and angry. After spending a fun summer with my dad, roaming the country high on acid, almost getting arrested on the Canadian border, they settled in to Long Island, where my dad was teaching. She quickly became pregnant with me and my brothers came to live with my parents. She was a therapist and started her practice and they went back to a regular life. Later, she used her brilliance and anger to become a lesbian-feminist-activist and formed a women's group that met in the house. David was 9 - already also very angry, delinquent, and adolescent in many ways. Jason was only 4, a sweet, shy, emotional boy who always wanted to be someplace else.

When I was born, David loved me dearly. He took care of me constantly and while he drove most everyone else away, he cherished me and I grew to worship him. Jason was another story. David had always beat him up, tortured him, and generally made his life miserable in ways that only a mildly sociopathic older brother can do. When my mom informed him she was going to have a baby, he was ecstatic. Finally, a younger brother he too could torture and maim! Finally, it was time for payback!

When i was born, my dad called home to tell them the news. "Jason, it's a girl! You have a baby sister!"
"Oh, rats."