This place … this world … what has it given me?  

Everything is filthy, rotten, boring.  What should I expect? 

Suddenly being an only child still meant nothing to me.  It didn’t for my parents, so why should it to me?  Just one more fat jerk gone from the family, right?  Now he’s back, and he still acts the same.  It’s been so long since I’ve seen him, I don’t know what to do.  

And now, now he wants me to go with him.  We could leave forever.  But then, this is the guy who almost helped destroy the universe.  My brother.  Where was he, all these years?  Where was he when I got shoved in the garbage can at high school?  Where was he when mom decided to “play” with Picky Jr?  Where was he when mom and dad shoved me outside with a sled so I could leave them alone?  Why couldn’t he have been there at any time in my life?

He wasn’t anywhere near me this whole time.  No one in my family was.  It was Tracy the whole time.  Even though she was so much more popular than me in senior year, she was still my best friend.  She took the time to get me out of the garbage can.  She’d take King and join me whenever she saw me with my sled.  It’s so much more fun sledding with someone else. She’d actually want to see me, and I’d actually want to see her.  I thought I would want to see my brother, and I guess I do; he’s been gone for so long, and now he’s finally back.  But now he just wants me to get rid of his boredom?  Then what?  Will I go out into the snow again?  Will he have a garbage can for me when I’m not entertaining any more?  How many people has he done that to already?

Tracy … I can’t leave.  If I go with Porky, what happens to her?  Will he kill her?  If he doesn’t need her, what will we do?  I can’t … he can’t … I won’t.  He will not hurt my only friend – the only one who’s actually taken the time to get to know me.  Porky, I have my answer:  It’s given me a friend.