19XX
A young Lazlo Valentin
"Why are you never perfect like your sister?!"
"I'm sorry mother," the ruler smacked my knuckles, "I'm so sorry!"
"Etiquette is the key to being a real man! How do you expect to hold a brush like your aunt, or wield the scalpel like your father; when you can't even hold a fork!?"
The ruler popped the blisters from the previous beatings. Only after my hands were covered in their clear watery pus did mother stop. I must be perfect but how can I be perfect when someone else already is?!
It was later that night, as I read the papers of Harry Harlow. I read his books but did not understand. Did not understand that one can never please a mother of wire nor a mother of nails.