Looking for True Stories

 20th April 2023

Dear (Entertainment Company),

 According to your ad you’re looking for true stories to adapt into things like films and the like. I happen to have written a play inspired by true events in my life.  The true parts are rather brutal and the false parts were a resolution so the true story is there to be made.

 I mean, this is kind of a “The Glass Menagerie” kind of situation where I deal with my abusive family. The problem with the truth is that I never could get my life together, and I live below the poverty line. Still, I’ve done some odd things in addition to living with a toxic family.

 I’ve spent six years working with the homeless, and at both shelters I got canned because I suffered an on duty injury. In college I was stalked by a psychotic writing teacher and now I’m being stalked by a psychotic homosexual truck driver that wants to by pictures of my junk.

 I have to admit here that your ad is a little unclear on personal tragedies. I do have a history of dealing with corrupt animal control people, but that is the most law enforcement story I have.

 In any case, you should sit down and talk with me for a spell. It would probably be an interesting conversation even if you can’t find a story to sell.

 Best,

 

Richard Leland Neal

 

My Dear Cousin - Sign it Away

3rd June 2021

My Dear Cousin,

One of the offshoots of (Pony Girl) becoming (Pickle)’s conservator was that they decided it was time to resolve mother’s estate. She has been dead for thirty one years now and I don’t disagree with this point. Frankly, when I was in college I wanted to sell the house so I would have the money for school.

They told me I would never get my money out of the house. I felt that this should have absolved me from paying for repairs as I was effectively a prisoner in my own home, but if they had wanted to play fair this whole situation would never have come up.

Anyway, I remember the contract being somewhere in the house and (Pickle) asking me if I was even going to look at it. This was the first time he had identified the contract to resolve the estate, and I wasn’t one to go sticking my nose in things.

I read the contract and it listed me and my two siblings as sellers of the property but only (Pickle) and (Pony Girl) as the buyers. Had I signed that contract I would have signed away my home. I’d be living on the street now I believe. After all, I had been told to leave and never come back.

Needles to say, I never signed the contract and I was plenty angry about it and mentioned this a few times to (Pickle). At the third or fourth of these he claimed it was just a mistake, but that was months after the fact. I talked it over with a lawyer or two and they agreed that if it had been a mistake the lawyer who drew it up would have had to correct it for free.

Now that I think about it, if it were a mistake then neither (Pony Girl) nor (Pickle) had read the contract before signing it. I guess I could believe that of (Pickle) but (Pony Girl)? She really had to have read it before she signed it.

I would also have to say that (Pickle) wasn’t surprised when I pointed out that the contract listed me only as a seller. I don’t believe it was a mistake. I believe it was just one more attempt to take what is mine away. It would not be the last time.

Best,


Richard Leland Neal

My Dear Cousin - Contract

1^st June 2021

My Dear Cousin,

I guess this is getting a bit hard for both of us. I was reading through these letters yesterday, and I had to take a walk then I had to put them away for today. Family is a really sore topic for me and, well, I haven’t seen (Pickle) for a while.

I’ll tell you about that later, but this letter is still about him. It turns out that in addition to the bad experience we had with the remodeling he has had problems with contractors. 

I overheard (Pony Girl) saying that he had a window salesmen over to the house one day and signed a contract just because the man wouldn’t leave and he knew that would get rid of him.

(Pony Girl) had to get him and make him tear up the contract after telling him that (Pickle) wasn’t competent to sign it in the first place. Then there was that ridiculous coin collection of his. He had spent more than twenty thousand on it, from what I gather, then sold it all in a day, and I don’t know what he got back but not much.

Anyway, (Pony Girl) became his conservator after this last mess and he wasn’t supposed to spend more than two hundred dollars without her approval. I remember (Pickle) coming home from the court hearing and then him saying that the judge had told her she wanted too much power. That didn’t surprise me.

There was a time after this that he had asked me to take him to the store to buy a fan for his bedroom. I took him to the store and helped him pick the fan out. A week later he got in my face like he was ready to throw fists and yelled “next time buy your own fan!”

I looked at him like he had grown a second head and said “why would I buy a fan for your bedroom?” I mean, he had asked me to take him to get the fan, asked me to help him pick it out, and (Pony Girl) must have seen the bill and put the idea in his head that I had gotten him to buy the fan for me.

I did have three or four hundred dollars worth of fans around the house at the time. We have no insulation and this is California. Still, it comes to me that I should have told him to have his sister take him to the store to get that fan.

I brought this up with (Pony Girl) once and she said “I don’t remember what you’re talking about.” This is typical narcissistic behavior. The natural response to hearing that you nearly got your two brothers into a fistfight over a fan would be to ask what happened rather than dismiss it.

Where she not guilty and really didn’t remember it would have been more of a “what are you talking about” than an “I don’t care”. The always did laugh at my pain. I guess she’s still laughing.

Best,

 

Richard Leland Neal