[For Dean]
I'll be the first to admit: I bitched about the island a lot. Fundamentally, it just was not where I wanted to be, and even after nearly a year surrounded by its sunshine paradise bullshit, I was still resentful about that. I'm a glass half empty guy by nature and nurture, what can I say? You spend 21 years in my shoes and tell me if you do any better.
The thing was, though, the place definitely had its perks. The TV in the rec center, for example, where I spent way too much time surrounded by faded shag carpet and Seventies reruns. Cyrano and I had always been more worried about saving our own skins than money, but it was nice that just about everything was free, too. Shit, the biggest benefit of being on that rock was knowing that my brother didn't have to worry anymore-Not about money, not about saving my Auphe ass from the latest disaster to float down the river. He might have continued to be a hard ass, but I don't think I'd ever seen him so relaxed.
Of course, if you'd asked me what I liked best about the place, I'd have said the food. There was a severe lack of chili dogs and greasy New York pizza, but everything was free, and most of it was pretty fucking good. The latest development was an entirely separate bakery where I could just walk in, take whatever the fuck I wanted, and walk right back out. It almost made me feel a little bad for not contributing more to the free love hippie economy. Almost.
The thing was, though, the place definitely had its perks. The TV in the rec center, for example, where I spent way too much time surrounded by faded shag carpet and Seventies reruns. Cyrano and I had always been more worried about saving our own skins than money, but it was nice that just about everything was free, too. Shit, the biggest benefit of being on that rock was knowing that my brother didn't have to worry anymore-Not about money, not about saving my Auphe ass from the latest disaster to float down the river. He might have continued to be a hard ass, but I don't think I'd ever seen him so relaxed.
Of course, if you'd asked me what I liked best about the place, I'd have said the food. There was a severe lack of chili dogs and greasy New York pizza, but everything was free, and most of it was pretty fucking good. The latest development was an entirely separate bakery where I could just walk in, take whatever the fuck I wanted, and walk right back out. It almost made me feel a little bad for not contributing more to the free love hippie economy. Almost.