Everyone says that Santoria Junior looks just like me. They're right, she does. She looks just like me in every way, from her toes to the top of her head. And when people say this I understand that they are asking why, but all I do is reply, “She is my daughter.”
The Lie
The truth and the lie can be found in ones definition of daughter. Santoria Junior is my daughter in that I am the only mother she has ever know. She is my daughter because I gave her life. She is my daughter because I look after her and care for her well being, but most importantly, she is my daughter because I love her. The only way that Santoria Junior is not my daughter is that I did not conceive her. She is not of egg or sperm. I did not carry her in my belly for nine months. But still, she is my daughter.
The Truth

I will start with this post, talking about the characters I have created. There is major distinction between the characters of my childhood and the ones from my adult life. For now I will only describe the latter, as they are far more deep and interesting.

The first character to be introduced is Marco Junior who, together with Giovanni (more on him later), is the most developed of my characters. Marco Junior (a.k.a. MJ) bubbled up in my mind in the late summer 2005, while my wife (then girlfriend) and I were attending college. It became an habit to scream each other "mi-mi-mi" with a very shallow voice. At first it was the tweet of a bird, or the siren horn of an emergency vehicle, but soon the "mi-mi-mi" sound became the first screamings of Marco Junior. What a good time!