We Call Them Milky Boys
It means you were or are in the database.
Andrew was not on a milk carton. But he is in the database. What about a kid who is missing but is missing for a reason. What about the kid who is missing and wants to stay missing. Because he understands that to surface would cause so much vitrol and chaos, he would not survive it.
We never think about the kid who honestly believes (and he’s right) that if the parent who abused him gets out of prison, that parent will abuse him again. Only this time more vividly than anyone else could comprehend. Andrew knows that men lie. And they will lie about how they’ve changed. Andrew talked to the parole board. It did not go well.
He’s an elopement risk. He took off. He missed social services by minutes.
“The dogooders always want your ass so they can fuck you.” Andrew grits his teeth.
The problem with survival is that it’s not enough. Living so you might survive can only go on for a while. It is not a life.
Andrew would kill himself but he already tried that. It didn’t go too well, either. I would call him clinically depressed but it’s a meaningless term.That is rather common.
He is now learning how to hold a big (and heavy) dirt bike upright.
In order to ride the beast, you have to turn it on.