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Commentary: Evolution of the Young

As you probably gathered, this story was taken from bits and pieces of my own life. I really did live in Ucluelet for a time, and I really did have an experience similar to the one Mikey has.

I think everyone has actually. We males don't really know, at age seven, how to go about dealing with those oddball girls.

We're pretty sure we don't like them.

But we're not sure. There's a little nagging idea in our heads that we like them. But because of our young age, we have no idea what it is about them that might keep us from being real men.

You know, the kind that have no use for sissy girls.

So, we're left with little choice but to go after them. Perhaps with the hope that we can decipher some of the mystery, and move on. We go out of our way to pull a reaction out of them. We want them to scream, stamp their feet, and so forth.

And of course, we don't get to figure any of this out until much later. And even then, it becomes based on frivolous things like looks, personality, or the way moonlight hits her frame in a bathtub surrounded by candles.

In the end, most of us never get very far in figuring those sissy girls out.

And as for the relationship between Mikey and his brother, I am saddened to say that it is not terribly similar to the one I hold with my own siblings. I have three brothers and a sister--all younger. And while I do my best to look out for them, and to dispense advice as best I can, I am mostly a failure in my role of an older brother.

Thankfully, they're rather forgiving sorts.