bad_seed raze he tried to drown me once in my own swimming pool. it's the only time i can remember getting away with swearing in that house. he was older than me by a year or two, bigger, stronger, but i had enough adrenaline to give him a good elbow to the guts and wriggle free and call him an asshole when i was done choking on chlorinated water. he's dead now. you could see it coming from the time he was a kid. someday he was going to mouth off to the wrong person or pick the wrong fight, and instead of a slow fade to black it was going to be a violent jumpcut. he chased a girl with a knife once, threatening to kill her. i don't think he even knew her. he just thought it would be a fun thing to do. my favourite memory of him: we're teenagers shooting eight-ball. i'm not a brilliant player, but my stepfather is a shark who enjoys humiliating me at the pool table. we've played enough that i'm getting pretty good and will sometimes give him a run for his money. my cousin, the bad seed, is one of those guys you meet once in a while who will do anything to avoid losing. he tries every dirty trick in the book and some he's just made up. when he scratches he takes another shot instead of giving me my turn. he hits and holds onto the back of my cue stick when i'm trying to shoot. once in a while he'll miss a shot and knock the ball in the pocket with his hand. he does all that and still loses. he stands there stunned with a look on his face that says, "how did i lose? i cheated every way i know how." sometimes it isn't enough to cheat. sometimes you have to earn it. i don't think he ever learned that lesson. 190628 what's it to you? who go blather from