Background Information

OK, so some of you may have been wondering, "Just what sorts of activities was Hyde up to that would have warranted the attention of a P.I.?" That's an excellent question. Here's what I know (which means, of course, there's LOTS I don't know so let your imagination run wild):

Summer 2006
Hyde and his brilliant, yet socially challenged, friend, Bobby, start hanging out, somewhat obsessively (at least Hyde does), at a downtown club. Hyde's main activities are photographing and filming the crowds and bands, as well as "interviewing" unsuspecting passers by outside the club. In sharing his exploits with us over dinner one night, he demonstrates an alarming lack of awareness of peoples' personal space and the potentially upsetting aspect of being filmed by some stranger. He does not seem aware that he is, perhaps, simply being tolerated as a harmless, eccentric, "old" (for clubbing) man and not embraced as a true part of the scene. He is also drinking, a lot. And giddy (read: manic).

Hyde also begins a website and starts to broadcast a variety of porn, as well as movies with which he was obsessed ("Fight Club"), interspersed with social and political commentary, courtesy of him (remember: one of the two greatest living political minds). I'm not certain of this, but my guess is that he did nothing to ensure that minors could not access his website.

I know about the website and porn because he makes a point of showing me, not only his porn website, but the various porn posters and DVDs he has in his room. He claims his therapist told him he should. I feel certain there must be a misunderstanding but he stands by his belief that she told him to "show my sister my porn."

It is through Hyde's association with Bobby that we move into the next phase.

Bobby introduces Hyde to Steven, a 20-something straight boy of questionable reputation and sanity. One day, Hyde calls Jeckle and says, without any preamble, "I have a roommate."

Now, one could say that Jeckle and I shouldn't have anything to say about this; Hyde is a grown man. However, he is living in our grandparents'/parents' house, full of their belongings. Plus, we know he often exercises poor and impulsive judgement when it comes to his affiliations. People who are allegedly his friends often end up really mad at him (and doing things like breaking into his apartment and stealing our home movies). So, Jeckle reacted with, "What? Who is this person? How did you meet him? How long have you known him? (About a day, as it turns out.) I'm not sure this is such a good idea."

Hyde calls me and gets basically the same reaction. His next move is to go to Daddy at the nursing home, 9:30 at night, to whine, "Jeckle and Heckle don't want me to have a roommate. Whah. Whah." Daddy falls for it, doesn't ask questions, and gives Hyde his blessing. Mom can't, because she has Alzheimer's.

Now, can you predict how this turns out?