[Evorix]

I was sitting at a bus stop in Savannah, Georgia, looking out into the street as a white feather fell to my feet. I picked up the feather and put it in a book that I was carrying, then began to tell the story of my life to a woman who was sitting next to me.

Although I have well below average intelligence, my mother is able to get me into a public school - by sleeping with the principal. On my first day of school, I met a girl named Jenny whose life at times is followed in parallel to mine. Having discarded my leg braces, (used to straighten my spine) I have the ability to run incredibly fast and it gets me into college on a football scholarship. After my college graduation, I enlisted in the army. There I make friends with Bubba, who convinces me to enter the shrimping business with him when the Vietnam War is over. I also met Jenny again, when I saw her in Playboy Magazine. I then go to find her, and discovered that she is a stripper working at a bar. Bubba and I are sent to Vietnam, and after several months of patrolling with the 9th Infantry Division our platoon is attacked. Though I rescued many of the men in my unit, Bubba is killed in action, and Lt. Dan is wounded in both legs, requiring amputation. I was wounded during the battle, and am awarded the Medal of Honor for my heroism.

I discovered an uncanny ability for ping-pong while in recovery for the bullet wound in my buttocks. I start playing for the U.S. Army team, gaining popularity and rising to celebrity status. I eventually play competitively against Chinese teams and win. At an anti-war rally in Washington, D.C. I reunite with Jenny, who has been living a hippie counterculture lifestyle while I was away, and became engaged with another man.

Upon leaving military service and returning home, I endorsed a company that makes ping-pong paddles for a fee of $25,000. I used the money to buy a shrimping boat and fulfill my wartime promise to Bubba. My commanding officer from Vietnam, Lieutenant Dan Taylor, joins me as first mate as a joking promise he made to me. Initially I had little success, but after finding out that I had the only surviving boat in the area after Hurricane Carmen hits the Gulf states, I began to pull in huge amounts of shrimp. I bought an entire fleet of shrimp boats, and "Bubba-Evo" shrimp becomes a household name. I returned home when my mother fell ill; she died soon after. Lt. Dan took over operations of the Bubba Evo Shrimp Company and invests the earnings in Apple Computer and I, Dan, and Bubba's families are financially secure for the rest of their lives.

One day, Jenny returned to visit me, and after some time I proposed marriage to her. She declined, though feels obliged to prove her love by sleeping with me. She leaves early the next morning. On a whim, I elected to go for a run. Seemingly capriciously, I decided to keep running across the country several times, over some three and a half years, becoming famous again.

In the present day, 2010, I am waiting at the bus stop because I received a letter from Jenny who, having seen me run on television, asked me to visit her. Once I am reunited with Jenny, I discover she has a young son, also named Evorix, of whom I am said to be the father. Jenny tells me that she is suffering and dying from an unknown virus which has no known cure. Together we move back to Greenbow, Alabama where Jenny and I finally marry. Jenny dies soon afterward, leaving her son in my care. I talk to Jenny's grave and tell her how well our son is doing in school. On my son's first day of school, I sat with him at the school bus stop. Opening the book my son is taking to school, the feather I put there falls out. As the bus pulls away, I watch as the feather is caught by a breeze and drifts skyward.

That is why I deserve the necromancer.