It’s December.

Snowflakes tumble, in pursuit of the ground, with fragile grace. A snow-white December in Italy is beautiful; just like the boy, battered black and blue, in his room. The tragic misfortune that has been bestowed upon this boy is that he is in sin, he is in the sin of refusing his God-made identity:  Andrew Grozo is transsexual.

“I cannot live with this Satan-incarnate in my house!” roared Father Grozo, whilst counting his rosy rosary beads.
“Send me away then! I’ve never wanted to live with you anyway! I hate this family, this country, this religion, I hate everything about this place!” bawled Andrew, who snatched the bible out of his father’s hands and threw it against the kitchen tiles.
 “Get out of this house; never show your face here again! Never use my name as your own!” Father Grozo growled.

*****

Silence! Silently the shadows of guilty minds filter and twist around the decaying grey walls. The snowflakes embrace the ground. The dark, bitter smell of misery and evil leaves a bitter taste in my mouth. Silence! The silence is deafening.
Sicily .Cigarette butts line the mean streets, negligence ensues. Nobody walks through this part of town anyway: rumor has it the mafia controls the area.
As I saunter down the street, duffel bag slung over my shoulder, from side to side. The harsh winter winds whip my black hair into my eyes, temporarily blurring my vision.
HOOOOOOOOOOONK!
The black Cadillac screeched to a stop; the driver menacingly stepped out of the vehicle.
“Your eyes out of order or something, son?” snarled the smartly-dressed driver.
“I ju-ju-just … what do you care anyway?! I’m just some screw-up kid that you nearly ran over!” Andrew shouted, “You should have just ran me over… my life is over now anyways.”
“It sounds like you want to get away from life… am I right?” the driver questioned.
“Yeah… It would be just amazing if I could go to another country and just stay there.” Andrew anxiously answered, whilst fiddling with his gold watch.
“ Let me make a deal with you… I’ll let you fly on my magnificent and breathtaking plane to a wonderful country called Australia, in exchange for… oh I don’t know… maybe that gold watch you have on?” proposed the driver.
Andrew looked down at his gold wrist watch, the same watch he received from his mother on his 17th birthday…
“Take the watch, and take me away.”