The Rotten Life of Joseph M. Tages II

Dear Papi: I am going to let you both outlive me. Your wish of my suicide being a thing is coming true. DAMNED BE THE DAY YOU FUCKED HER SO I WOULD END UP IN THIS HELL! Fifty years of enduring your sheer, unrepentant evil has been enough for me. I'm gone! Remember the time you had a hissy fit when we tried that pizza restaurant in Chicago but you wanted to eat Chinese? You "punished" us by having Mom and I dig through the garbage bin outside the apartment building until we found the Yellow and White Pages that Mom had tossed out because they'd expired. I remember. But of course, that never happened because you told a judge that you were just a single guy. Remember when you left me to rot at age 15 in that lunatic asylum were the real psychos were the doctors, nurses, and employees? You told me they would "send you to jail" if you bailed me out. And then two of your colleagues said to me that I would've died if I hadn't found a way out on my own. Righ...

Miki's Garden Grove High School Graduation Photo Jose Miguel Sousa Jr. (November 26th, 1953 - April 19th, 1997) was better known from his childhood by the nickname Miki. I never called him anything else during the 34 years that I knew him. He was a part of my life from 1973, the year we first met. My father was off in Spain applying to medical school and as a toddler who had yet to speak, I would crawl around behind Miki, mistakenly thinking that he was my father due to his then thinner physique, his seventies moustache and long dark hair. Miki was amused by this but when my father got the news, he became a bit jealous. Young Miki in the 1950s Miki Sousa was born on November 26th, 1953 in Cuba, the son of my mother's first cousin Miguel Sousa, thus making Miki my third cousin. He was a cheerful and lively kid who grew into a liberal and affectionate adult. My mom was fond of him and everyone agreed that he had a bright future ahead until his parents moved to Garden Grove, Calif...