The Life of Buddy

Chapter LXV

In fiction there is a very popular and perhaps over used trope called Big Screwed Up family. Normally families filled with abusive, manipulative people who exploit those around them including members of their family.   They are normally very wealthy but that is not necessarily a requirement.  A impoverished or a middle class can just be as messed up a filthy rich one.  They just have to find other ways of keeping their family skeletons hidden from the world.

 One of Brian's favorite things was to go to the Tv Tropes webpage and read up on the fictional examples of the trope that have appeared in movies, television, comics and other forms of entertainment.  He took much pleasure in reading about these fictional families that made his own big screwed up family seem somewhat normal.  

The last category in the article discussed real life examples of this trope.  He often visited that section as no matter how messed up his family seemed there were actually worse ones out there in there world. The article featured the monarchies of Europe, the Jacksons, and the Kennedys some of the real life families that made his look sane.  And no matter how unbearable life in his family got he could be thankful that he was not a member of a family like the Julio-Claudian dynasty, or the Borgias.

He thought how many of those families made them look like the Osmonds.

And  if one were to scroll down that to the very bottom of the list they would find an entry about the Johnson family of Adamsville, Texas put there by an anonymous user.  The author of the entry does not hold back letting the world know of the sins of the Johnson family.   He seems to take joy in telling the story of the family's history rife with adultery, parental abandonment, and addiction.    Of letting the world know about this messed up clan in some obscure Texas county that most people even from Texas have probably never heard of.  

Brian mused if his father ever learned who the author of the entry was he would tear him up one side and other with a hickory switch and then leave what was the left to the rest of the family.  He would feel the sting of the entire family's wrath for his transgression.

That was why Brian was glad that his father would never learn that he posted the entry about them.

There have been times over the past two years that Brian has felt guilty over his airing family's dirty laundry for all the internet to see.  The embarrassment and shame that he would bring to his family if they ever found out about the existence of the entry.   But at this moment as he waited for his father's explanation that he was certain was going to be filled with half truths and lies he felt no guilt, no remorse, and no shame in what he did.

Kind of like how his father felt no shame when he cheated on his wives with half of the women in Adams county.   And who knows how many women outside the county?  Brian then mused that his father could have scores of children in every county of Texas.  Why stop at Texas he thought I am sure that his infidelty was contained to the borders of Texas.  He's probably planted his seed in every state of the union. 

Maybe he was wrong to feel this way but at this moment he did not care and he was sorely tempted to log back in and add some more information to his entry.  He knew that was petty and vindictive but after that day he had he could not help but feel extremely petty and vindictive.   Nor could he stop the seething rage that was swelling inside of him towards his father for all his lies and secrets.  For the pain that not his choices caused him but caused his siblings as well.  

As Burt looked at his sons he could once again hear the voice in the back of his mind tell him that this was a mistake.  You should not have brought Brian here the voice said you should have just headed back to Adamsville and not let Brian learn about them.  This should have never happened and you were a fool to let it happen.  One more stupid decision you have made in an unending sea of stupid decision and unconscionable actions.