Christian Velveteen: The Real Short Fiction Collection
Chapter Nine: Velveteen’s PerforMance Review!
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1benWQHFiSm0i080ook7PHPjy909_KmJn/edit?usp=drivesdk&ouid=108429489415292356305&rtpof=true&sd=true
Jack still looked like an Italian accountant.
But as he stepped from the seedy, seedy motel lobby into the even seedier corridor off which the motel rooms were located, he was pleased and relieved to notice that he was now dressed in his Hot Topic-exclusive black Ramones T-shirt with a front screen featuring the American punk rock band’s seal logo; actual Spanx; his white custom-made hoodie featuring the iconic (in his opinion) photograph of the lead singer from the 1976 debut album by American Rock Band; his brown leather; and a black watchMan’s cap because his Hair was for ****, on top of which he had perched his "Momo" Giancana sunglasses.
Like a Bird freed from her cage, he stepped past the technicians of every species and permutation busily performing their forensic tasks, through the first door on his left into the motel room where Saran’s ATT (Assigned Target Trafficker) had been taken into custody.
As per her extensive food service experience, this particular huMan male (they were always huMan males), who looked exactly like what you would expect a trafficker to look like, was wrapped securely in a freshness-sealed, day-dotted food service container, guarded by a uniformed Boochopolis Police Department Officer.
A similar tableau awaited him in the second room he inspected.
This prisoner had been Prawn Faery (Prawn Faery’s responsibility.
Thus, he was not so much shrink-wrapped like a Chicken filet as he was simply handcuffed and guarded.
Straight-up law enforcement, Prawn Faery had (as she had once told Velveteen) "many resources," but no time for anything.
In the third room, the third prisoner did not need to be restrained or guarded at all.
Rather, he would have to be placed on a stretcher for transport to Boochopolis House, curled up as he was in the fetal position, weeping and rocking back and forth on the filthy, filthy motel room carpet.
Fifteen minutes of therapy with Mamma Gattina had reduced the brutal, hardened trafficker to a sniveling, sobbing heap of quivering shame and helpless remorse.
And then there was Vel’s room . . .
Next: Velveteen’s Room!
Amalia's Story, Chapter Sixty-Two
= Amalia Angeloni Jacobucci
1000 Characters About My Mother #15:
"What happened after the Cub Scout Banquet?"
"That would have been in March of 1965 . . . "
"Here's something! First published April 1965 -- "
"Louis Jacobucci, Casework Treatment of the Neglectful Mother."
"Families in Society: The Journal of Contemporary Social Services, Volume 46, Issue 4."
"Oh, look! They had references!"
“The Protective Service Caseworker: How Does He Survive Job Pressures?”
“Use of Homemaker Service in Families That Neglect Their Children."
“The Team Approach in Protective Service.”
"Character Disorders in Parents of Delinquents."
"There's more."
"That's OK."
Presently . . .
"Loneliness and Isolation in Child Neglect."
"Dispositional Empathy in Neglectful Mothers and Mothers at High Risk for Child Physical Abuse."
"The Training of Neglectful and Unsatisfactory Mothers."
"The Socialization of Emotional Understanding: A Comparison of Neglectful and Nonneglectful Mothers and Their Children."
"In ...
"What?!"
"I didn't say anything."
"How can you say such a thing?"
"I'm not going through this again."
"What do you mean?"
"All this -- denial. I'm done. I'm just going to say exactly what happened as I remember it."
"It never happened!"
"The reason I know it happened is that I renember it. I was eight years old. My brother was twelve years old. I was able to recover the date because I remember at some point in the week preceding the event, our father for some reason had told us, I'm going to be speaking at the Unitarian Church this Sunday at 11:00. It did not seem weird to me at the time, because he was always out of the house anyway. Plus all he used to when he was home was harangue me, so good."
"You lie."
"In fact, I remember thinking, it made sense that he would get something going on Sundays, because that was the only time he was ever even around anymore. Weekdays he was working, of course, and weeknights he was always at one of his many, many important community activities."
"You are delusional."
"Then, I found this article, and it all ...
"I have a thesis. My thesis is: In any woman's life, having children would have to be the most significant event. So, in my mother's story -- "
"Her family wasn't really any different from any of the other families."
"Yes."
"In what way?"
"She and her husband were both very active in community affairs. Both her children went to school."
"What else?"
"They were both boys?"
"Anything else?"
"No. That's it."
"So you said, that one way in which your mother's family wasn't really any different from any of the other families, was that she and her husband were both very active in community affairs. Can you tell me a little more about that?"
"Oh, sure. There was always something going on. Cub Scouts, she was like Den Mother of her older son's Cub Scout Pack. Pack 54. Plus the Comedy Club. Plus I'm pretty sure, she was involved in the kindergarten. She and her husband both. And politics. It was the Sixties."
"Just normal 60's Mom stuff."
"In any case, it's time to forget the past."
