at_this_point stork daddy in their lives, their mother started to fade even worse than before. it's hard not to run into one another when you live in such a small house, but they never really talked to her much. she didn't seem to take much joy in anything. if they came home anytime after 8, chances are she had passed out from box wine listening to late night talk radio. the host would intone about late night conspiracies, and aliens coming and taking people away and never returning them. johnny or his brother would wonder what she was dreaming about. and yet, she still moved in the regular world. she still supported them. she was a sort of strange inverted parasite. she was barely noticeable, attached solely to their lives, and siphoning off from herself complete and total support to feed them. it was such a strange process. they never really saw her doing much but sitting around, or pretending to read some paper or free bulk mailing, and yet always in the morning they had lunches packed. and always they saw her on weekends leave for her night shift. and yet, it was strange, she never talked much. it was like in movies when a ghost leaves a body or rises from a grave. a dreamlike moving about of some ritual from some forgotten life. she'd smile and kiss them on the forehead, and sometimes almost express actual frustration or surprise when something went out of the ordinary. but mostly, she seemed to just go out into the night fading into it, and bringing a little more and more of it back with her each time. 041101 ... suicidalchinadoll its not very surprising. that you would choose a dream over reality. 041113 what's it to you? who go blather from