Michael Desatio sighed, looking out at his patch of land outside his small house in Vegas. Mst folks woudl say it was a dump, and they'd have one reason to say it--the dnadelions and sagebrush. He admitted, it wasn't the msot "beautiful" floral arrangement. But neither was he. At 6'2", 300 lbs, and wrapped in bandages for the burn thatt now scarred msot of him, he wasn't "pretty" by any definition of the term.

Maybe thats why he joined th family in the first place. He had started off as a doctor. Not a genius, but a good doctor. His specialty was psychiatry--he helped pople feel better about themselves. But after the accident, he was lucky if he was allowed to see patients. So he got moved to the pharmacy. And in the pharmacy, he got approached. By her. Ellies.

"It's always women," he mumbled to himself as he stared out at the dandelions. As much as he hated to admit it, it was nice see a chick not run from him or try to get out ofthe room as soon as they saw him. Maybe that was enough. Hell if he knew.

Michael grumbled. He knew the people in the family wnated him for two reasons--his knowledge of the Vegas medical system, and his access to a prescription pad. Opium, raw heroine, light cocaine, barbs, even alcohol--in small doses. He could easily make a fortune just from his cut, which he did. He then walked over to his mirror, sighing again. "I'm a dandelion. Does everyone think I'm good, nice, or all right? Nope. But my strength, that's my true thing. Jsut liek those pretty yellow dandelions, I won't die jsut because nobody wnats to look at me."

He the looked at an old picture. It was a picture of his mother. "I don't know if I'm gonna get a chance to see you in heaven. But if you can hear me, just now I'm in this for a reason. Got it?" And with that, he walked over and grabbed a waterign pot. He'd tend the dandelions, even if no one else would. After all, the stems make good fertilizer for Leng's tomatoes, after you ground and charred them.

good story mate keep up the good work

Vito steps out of the shadows, and shakes his head he can't understand some of the mans words like "jsut" and "mst".

He continues listening and at the end he smiles, a nice story but hard to understand.

He then turns around and disappears into the shadows.

I found the story rather smooth to be honest. I even enjoyed it. Of course I noticed how his tongue tripped a few times, but it was obviously not done on purpose. I'd like to be a bit more flexible with people who are trying to come out and actually tell a story that has some effort put into it.

Star walks by the small house and stares at the dandelions.  They are her favorite weeds, bright golden flowers that pop up everywhere and make the world slightly more cheerful.  She sees a man staring at the weeds, kicking one of the full blown ones to scatter the seeds.  Nodding her head in acknowledgment she smiles before bending down to pluck one of the tiny flowers.

Do you mind?

He nods his ascent and she picks one, sticking the hardy stem in the lapel of her jacket.  After that she waves again and walks off whistling.

Mike smirks at the different people noticing his musings. He takes a sip of water, not even noticing how much he's been tripping over his own tongue lately. He then smiles, noticing Starshine and nodding cheerily. "Not at all," he replies with a smirk as the young lady plucks a flower and wanders off. "Heh. Glad to see I'm not the only one with odd tastes..." He says as he drinks a bit more water, smiling.

"Good grief, it's cooking out today." Maybe I should hit the lake...

enjoyed your story. keep up the good work!

nice story had fun reading that