ABSTRACT
Mark was nearly twenty-one years old, but he did not seem that old, either in appearance or in how he lived. He was of normal adult size, maybe even a little heavier than average, but his face was that of a much younger boy—smooth and hairless, dotted with acne, braces on his teeth. His light brown hair was nicely styled and shoulder-length and he wore wire-rimmed glasses. There was also a distinct immaturity in his social life, more characteristic of an early adolescent thirteen- or fourteen-year-old than of a person his age. His relationship with his stepfather was, if anything, even worse. "Mark and him are like black and white," said Mark. For all his bashfulness, then, there was an undercurrent of simmering violence running through Mark's life. This polarization of emotion was reflected in a peculiar way in Mark's tastes for heavy metal.
