Entry 17: Kyle's Hygiene is not good

There are many things you can learn from our residents just by taking the time to have a nice talk. But you can learn even more from the things they do when they're "off the hook", meaning acting out, having a tantrum or otherwise displaying generally insane behavior. During these episodes, residents are able to communicate feelings or memories they otherwise wouldn't be able to verbalize. All it takes is a sparking event that reminds them of some past abuse and they're off.

Remember Kyle from Entry 10: Kyle's Mom is Fat? When he showed up, we realized almost instantly that he was hyper-sexualized. Whatever Kyle's incredibly fat mom (I'd guess 400-450 lbs) did to him to make him this way, it was (obviously) sexual in nature and occurred in the bathtub.

We know this because a). we couldn't get him into the bathroom for the first 5 months he was with us without him running out of the house or trying to assault us at the first mention of taking a shower, and b). he loves to show us pictures he has made of "aliens" which coincidentally resemble really fat women with 10 breasts with knives at the ends and huge vaginas with teeth. He says these aliens should be avoided because they like to slash off the penises of little boys.

As a result of this, Kyle's hygiene has sucked for a while. Somehow, a big-ass fungus lump began growing out of his tongue. I really didn't understand what the hell it was and still don't but I want you to just imagine a dirty fat kid sticking out his tongue and laughing about a grey mushroom that is growing out of the center of his tongue.

He got it surgically removed and received a get well card from his mom, who is court ordered to stay away from him, but can still contact him through the mail. In support, she wrote, "Well, at least now you can eat all the ice cream you want for a week." I guess it would be worth it to her to go through tongue surgery if she knew she'd get to eat all the ice cream she wanted.

Then, for some reason, she included two bizarre "gifts" in the letter: a magazine cut-out recipe for barbequed rattlesnake, complete with pictures of the snake being eviscerated, and an old picture of Mom kissing baby Kyle. Mouths open, mind you.

Well this was too much for Kyle to handle. Hell, I could hardly believe it myself. The picture was disturbing. At first I thought Mom was trying to eat the baby. Kyle flew into a sexualized rage, tore up his clothes, stuck his underwear over his head and accused staff of jamming snakes up his ass.

If the mere thought of taking a bath with Mom brings up this much trauma, is it any wonder he doesn't want to keep clean?