I was born in 1984, about a mile from SLAUGHTERHOUSE 5, close to where A TREE GROWS IN BROOKLYN. My father was murdered IN COLD BLOOD when I was about two. He was killed by some UNDERWORLD thugs who were known round the barrio as THE GANG THAT COULDN'T SHOOT STRAIGHT. My mother, a BLACK DAHLIA, couldn't handle me, so I spent much of my years growing up inside GIOVANNI'S ROOM. At the age of fifteen, I fell in love with a sassy LOLITA; we spent much of our weekends flying kites in the places WHERE ANGELS FEAR TO TREAD, and it was around that time that I met MAURICE, who would later become an undying friend, but fifteen years later, he got afflicted with THE SHINNING and his body got washed up in the MYSTIC RIVER.