Meet Benji < | Challenge Home Page | > Meet Phoenix

Myles Malone: by the time Myles came along, the perfect little family trio was already beginning to shatter. Bennie was no longer the “perfect dad” and he had long since stopped pretending to be one. Instead, he had begun his quest to find the perfect get-rich-quick scheme. The one that would never end… because that doesn’t exactly exist. Marnie, however, had given up on making Benji the PERFECT son… and decided she would give herself a “do-over” with her next child. So, without discussing it with Bennie, she quit taking her birth control, and set about having another child to dote on.

Enter Myles. Mostly ignored by his father because he doesn’t seem to know how to get into trouble, and doted on by his mother because he seems to be the PERFECT little boy she had always wanted. As he grew up, he somehow thrived in and amongst this dysfunctional family. He didn’t seem to mind the hand me down thrift clothes, the parade of dirty apartments to live in, or the looks the other kids at school gave him. He never bothered with making friends, because he had all the support he felt he needed in his over-protective and super-supportive mother.

Day by day, he continued proving Marnie correct. He always did all his homework, and got the grades to prove it. He helped with the chores in the house, and seemed to ignore – and not even care – about the teasing and abuse he got from both his father and his older brother. Eventually, the two of them decided there was something wrong with young Myles… and they just began to ignore him in return.

Somehow, Myles had figured out how to carve out the perfect life for himself in and amongst the wreckage of the lives around him. How long this will last, however… is anyone’s guess…

(Stay tuned, tomorrow we meet the next kid!)

Meet Benji < | Challenge Home Page | > Meet Phoenix