Everyone has a secret that they only reveal to a few choice people. But my secret, I can never tell anyone. Not even Angel knew my biggest secret. But I never kept my secret for the reason most people would keep theirs, to simply keep people from thinking poorly of them or some other stupid reason like that. No, this secret I have to keep, because revealing it could put everyone who heard it in danger.
I was born Thomas Cartwright. I was a resident of Lexington, Kentucky. I lived alone, working as a busboy at a local Chili's. Not many people cared to have anything to do with me, especially after learning of my sexual preference. Because of that, I kept to myself. The closest thing I had to an actual friend in those days was Godwin, the albino rabbit I saved from an animal testing facility. My life was routine; get up everyday, and spend the day at work until five, after which I'd come home for a dinner of a grilled tomato sandwich. The next day, it would all start again. The one time I would diverge from that routine was on Friday nights, when I'd stop at the bar on the way home from work for my favorite drink. In fact, it was on one of those Friday nights that everything changed.
I was returning home from my weekly visit to the bar on a cool September evening. By chance, I passed by this alley where I witnessed the event that would bring this life to an end. Thinking about what I saw that night still makes me sick at times. And unless you are unfortunate enough to watch a group of men attack somebody brutally, with broken bottles, switchblades, iron knuckles, the whole shebang, you will never know what I went through that night.
Things got even more complicated when I made my way to the police station to report what I saw. When I described what I'd seen, I was told that my description of one of the people who committed the attack/murder matched that of a long-time suspected Mafia agent. If I offered my testimony, they might be able to have due cause to place him into jail. What other choice did I have but to agree to testify?
However, things didn't end 'happily ever after' after the trial was over and the Mafia agent was in jail. At least, not in the way one would expect. Because I had been the key witness in the testimony against that agent, it was very possible I would be targeted for retaliation by the rest of them. Because of that, they placed me on the Witness Relocation Program. Most people who would be placed on that program would most likely be heartbroken, leaving their friends and family behind. But I had neither, and I hated living in that town with a dead-end job. So, I was fine with being given a new life, a new start.
In no time at all, they found me a new home, in New York's Alphabet City. I was given a new job as a graduate teaching assistant, which wouldn't be too hard for me. I had received a Bachelor's degree in teaching, but I couldn't find any school in the area willing to hire a homosexual teacher. But when the time came to select a new name for me to use, I somehow knew right off the back what name to choose.
"Collins," I had said. "Tom Collins."
I still sometimes laugh to myself at how quick I was at choosing that name. But after all, it was my favorite drink, and the one that I had drank not five minutes before I had witnessed that crime that ultimately led to my new life. And I suppose it even made more sense when my new life began, because my second life easily became my favorite one. Because it was with this life that I met friends who actually liked me, regardless of my sexual preference. Friends like Mark, Roger, and Benny. And as strange as it may sound, I have never regretted that it had been me who had witnessed that brutal and violent crime. If I hadn't, I'd still be wasting away in Lexington, Kentucky, and I'd never have met my friends, my true family, or even my Angel.
And that is why I can never reveal my past life to anyone. Because revealing this information to them might put them all in serious danger. And how could I call myself their friend if I repaid them for their years of love and friendship for me by endangering them all?
AN: Mimi's secret will be up next. I should have it up in about a week, I think.