I've been talking about weird and bad stuff in the Colosseum.  It may me think of this kid I worked with, years ago when I worked at Frito Lay.  There were three jobs in the rural area where I wound up. I was #3 man (as they called us) with the least seniority. One of the guys I worked with quit about 3 years in. I moved to the #2 spot but became #1 within a month because predecessor had been sandbagging. I'm telling you that sales exploded when I took over his territory.

We had this little bastard I couldn't stand, sort of try out for my job. I loathed this son of a bitch. He was a twisted gaslighting bastard who I could luckily, see through. I have his picture somewhere. I should dig it out.  This is how I get story prompts but anyway, I don't even remember this guy's name, I hated him so much. The other guy I worked with, an Aquarian, did not like him either so he just didn't last.  That's when they sent this kid down (to the country, outside the city).  He was 23.

They sent me down there when I was 26. I was an insane success... number one sales in the state which were double the #2 man, the Aquarian I just mentioned. So they sent this kid down and I liked him right away.  He was personable!

They took a chance on him, like they did with me. In fact, he probably got his chance because I'd made mine pay off. We were similar in that we were very young for this kind of job (where there is no boss). But he had a similar work ethic to mine and like I said, he was personable... we were peers though I didn't realize it when I met him.

I mean, he was a man and I was a woman. He had a wife who was also 23. I was single.  He was also a gym rat, which I was not. I used to tell everyone I had no need to aerobicize (hot at the time), because I worked all day!  But he was a gym rat and I became one when I left this job.  Mostly, I just liked this kid.

No I am calling him "kid". I strongly suspect he was Cancer/Cap and maybe some Libra... seeing as he was married with a structured family. His wife did not work. I was supporting my mother at the time... so we both had dependents. I'd say this: we were both a lot of fun to be around but our lives we're serious.  So we got working and getting to know each other. I helped him, along with the Aquarian, but I primarily helped him because he was doing the job I had for three years. I was able to tell him who was a registered-in-the-courthouse jerk who he should blow off and who he needed to get along with...

So we went on for awhile as he fought to get a handle on his job, which was very difficult. It took me a year and I'm not slow.  He kept up his workouts but his wife was wigging out. Easy to see why. They'd moved to this small town and he was working all the time.  Fast forward...

Fast forward six months, it's wearing on the kid. The stress.  He went to the doctor - he had bleeding ulcers.  Whaat?

I was unfamiliar but I am a natural mom /counselor so I asked him, what's up with you?

Well, his wife was struggling but then he told me about his background.

His parents were divorced, and his mother got custody.  The next thing he knew, he was kidnapped by his day and taken on the run. Yes. From the time he was four or five.

His father dyed his hair and changed his name. He convinced him his mother was a POS and trained him to evade the police... lie at every turn.  He had instructions as to what to do if the police showed up (run, so as to not be sent back to evil man). He had to use these instructions, several times.

Then one day, there was a knock at the door - it was the cops. This kid ran out the back door, as instructed - FBI was there and caught him on the spot. They returned him to his mother, whom he hardly remembered.

His mother was able to un-fuck his head. He came to understand what had happened to him, but not necessarily resolve it.  Can you imagine being 23 and dealing with this shit?

I couldn't. I had different but equivalent shit, I suppose but in this moment, this was a story, the likes of which I had never heard, before or since.

This kid ended up quitting. I tried to stop him because it was a good job. It set me up in many ways. But his wife just couldn't deal with it.  He quit and I never heard from him again. I thought he was on the run with his dad and now on the run with his wife.

I don't know his birthday. Truth is, I don't even remember his name. But what would you expect to see in the chart of a person like this?