Martin Hangston is known by the few people close to him as ‘Marty’, but he actually prefers ‘Marci’. He seems appropriately ‘normal’ outside, just a tad shy and quiet, but that’s ‘normal’ for a young boy his age that lives out in the more ‘secluded’ area of the rural town of Linmun. Martin’s parents aren’t actually farmers, and the plot of land they live on is surrounded by trees rather than crops, but a lot of people think he’s just a ‘farmboy’ from down the road. The truth is that Martin’s father is often away for military purposes and his mother is often away for ‘me-time purposes’. He’s left to ‘man’ the house while his parents are away, with the only other living beings, other than the wild animals, are the three border collies that his mother bought but stopped paying attention to. He found them relatable. Cleo, Callie and Chloe were the names of the three female dogs. Martin sometimes wondered if it was his mother’s way of ‘passive-aggressively’ giving his father a message about how she wanted a girl. Not even Martin’s meekness made up for the presence of his male genitalia. And so Martin wondered if it was a result of how he was born or a result of how his mother wanted a girl and his father was away; the result being the gaudy nature of his underground hideout. There was an old bunker on the property because the previous owner had been paranoid, but it served Martin’s freedoms very well, decorated in all sorts of colours and flowers and posters and clothes. Down in the bunker, Martin wasn’t meek or shy or quiet. He was loud and showy and glad to be alive and loving himself in the mirror. He wore what he wanted, said what he wanted and danced around the bunker to whatever tracks he could play on the discarded CD Player he’d found in the storage room back up in the house. Down in the bunker, Marci felt thrilled and excited about being alive.

Once the music was off and the bunker was locked up, however, ‘Martin’ returned to the house to spend time with Cleo, Callie and Chloe and wonder if when his parents would come home, and if they would notice him setting up a sewing studio in the bunker.