I have a confession to make. One that weighs on me so heavily. One that I think only you can hear. I don’t even really know where to start, and despite having a lot of reasons to justify, to defend, they sound more like hollow excuses to me. I will let you be the judge.
This story starts many decades ago, in Silcox, a small town in Wyoming. My name is Jack De Vaalt, and I was born there. So was my wife, Janice Pershing. The town was run more like a Christian cult than anything else. Strict morals, curfews, you name it, we had it. Everything in the pursuit of purity. I was never made for that. I was made for the pleasures of life. I was made to sit by the ocean sipping a drink. I was made for love. For bliss. Or, as they would call it there, eternal damnation. I got an early start of trouble by getting caught making out with Janice in a parking lot. The only solution? Getting married of course. And so we did. I was 21, she wasn’t even 18 quite yet. We had to get a special approval. But off we want, to married life. It took us a couple years, but we ended up pregnant. We gave birth to our first, and only, child, sweet lovely Nicole Anne De Vaalt. And a few years later, I managed to persuade Janice to leave Silcox and start a new life. We basically had to run off in the night, like rats through the sewers. We picked Las Vegas. For a man like me, the perfect place. All amusement, all entertainment, available. A true haven of pleasure, an endless supply of endorphins at your fingertips. Janice accepted her fate, more out of obedience than true desire of freedom. Read more »