The life of Derek

The year was 1992, it had just turned March, and like the rest of 1992, it was extremely boring.  In the womb of a young woman by the name of Heather a baby was almost finished growing.  She found it quite amusing, although quite bizarre, to think that almost 9 months before she was out living her life, doing stuff, going to parties, and now?  Now she was almost bed ridden with something growing inside her.  Almost ready for the said thing to be pushed out of the comfort of her womb into the big bad world.
You see Derek was not entirely meant.  He was a surprise let’s put it.  He was conceived on a One night stand.  The good news is that his mum (or “mom” since he’s American and all) and his Dad kept in contact and his Dad was willing to look after Derek.

After he was born, he was taken in by his father to come live with him and his step-mother.  His Dad thought it would be better for Derek that way, in some aspects he was right.  However in others, he was very, very wrong.
Up until the age of 7, Derek was very badly abused by his step mother Pam.  To the outside world, Pam was seen as a very caring and respectable lady.  In public she always treated Derek like any mother figure should.  However, behind closed doors it was a different story entirely.
You see, someone’s childhood should be a time that they look back upon and sigh wishing they could go back and relive it over and over.  This was not how it was or is for Derek, in fact his childhood and teenage years for him are remembered by the emotional, physical, and sexual abuse supplied by his Step-mother.  Up until the age of 7 he was only ever abused.  He was too scared to tell his dad about it, however, finally his dad found out and something was done about it.
Derek couldn’t take it anymore, so he decided to take drastic action.  He wanted to kill his stepmum.  He confronted her with a knife, however it all went to pot when he was almost immediately disarmed and she started slashing into his back.  At this point his Dad walked in, to say the least he exploded.  He grabbed her and beat her almost to death, then told her to leave.  She did what she was told, she may have been willing to attack a small child but, like most cowards, was not that confident on taking on someone her own size.
After that Derek finally got the mother figure he deserved, she was a lovely woman called Sue who he and his Dad moved in with.  While this was all going on, he started to find out more and more about his biological mum.  She then tried to get in contact with him in which he promptly told her to “F**k off”.  His big issue with her was how promiscuous she was, she barely talked to him and instead went out partying and, well, having sex with more guys just like she did with Derek’s Dad.  Except from that high school was so-so, there was really not that much he recalls from it.  The only thing he does recall was another sad memory when, at the end of his sophomore year, his Dad and Stepmum Sue broke up.  He and his Dad had to move into a (in his terms) “crappy” apartment and have lived there ever since.
When Derek left school he had so-so grades and was in an area with very little job opportunities.  So, a week and a half before his 20th birthday he decided he’d had enough and wanted to try something different, so he decided to join the Navy!
He was a Hospital Corpsman in a hospital in Okinawa, Japan.  He mainly delivered babies and as nice as bringing life into the world can be, it can also be an extremely grim job as well.  To prepare for this job he was given 5 months of “training” which he recalls as “5 months of bullshit which I slept through most of the time”.  However, despite this extremely ahem... intense training, he was definitely not prepared for what was to come.
The second worst baby he recalls delivering had the back of it’s head missing.  Since this was his first time seeing it, it was quite a shock.  However, he delivered 2 others with the same condition.
The worst baby he recalls delivering was born almost 11 months after he had finished training and it was already dead in the womb; the only issue was the mother didn’t know this until it was delivered. Even worse as soon as they delivered the baby, its head came off right in front of her.  You don’t even need me to tell you that this was heartbreaking.  The mother was expecting a live baby that she could feed, care for, and love.  Sadly this didn’t happen and 7 months later the poor woman committed suicide at the age of 29.
While in the Navy he did make one or two friends there, and developed a love interest with someone he was in contact with back in the US.  However the people he liked most whilst he was in Okinawa were the locals.    They were extremely kind.  Funnily enough  though, this completely contrasts with his fondest memory of them.  He and his friend went into a bar and a Metalhead concert was in full swing.  They were the only two Americans there and there was a moshpit.  So they went and joined in.  To say the least they got absolutely wrecked.  Kicked, punched, bitten, he got thrown on the floor and kissed by a random girl there.  The next day he went to work with a shiner of a black eye.
However, while out there he got very badly injured.  He was helping out on a ship and was up on the cat walk when someone wasn’t watching out and knocked him off.  He landed on his knees on the deck below and really badly damaged them.  It was probably the worst pain he’d ever felt in his life. This, coupled with the copious amounts of stress finally helped him to make the choice to leave the Navy.
He officially left on June the 13th 2013.
When he got back to the US, he and the said love interest from before started talking again.  They made the decision to move in together somewhere near where she lived.  However it really didn’t work out and he’s back in the position he was in before he joined the Navy.  Sadly as of very recently he has been starting to develop suicidal thoughts.  However with enough motivation from friends, which he has an abundance of, and family, he will hopefully get over it and get his life back on track.