Neon Bible is a shocking story about young boy who was afraid to stay lonely, the boy who didn’t like the world because there was too much pain there and much of it pain he experienced by himself.
It’s a life story of David, a good boy who lived with his parents and was the only child in family. He was smart and calm child, parents never had problems with him and they used to have idyll life with love and cozy family atmosphere. Mother’s Aunt Mae moved to their place when David was a little child and since that time he became his best friend – they always walked together, played or just chatted. This woman was his soul mate because he could share almost all his thoughts with her and she never judged him or said that he was wrong. David didn’t care that he doesn’t play with children of his age, because he was comfortable around Aunt Mae but one day his father decided that he needs to spend some time with other children so he took him to his colleague’s house and left David with his son for a day. When Poppa came for David, he saw him sitting by the house, crying, with caked blood and vomit on his shirt.
After that event the relationship between father and son never was as warm and friendly as before and sometimes David regret it. Then happened something terrible – Poppa lost his job at the factory and since that time the life wasn’t so careless for the family. They had to move to another place, and the knew house was old and ugly, there wasn’t money to furnish it and they used old Aunt Mae’s stage costumes as curtains. David went to school and his first teacher hated him because of Aunt Mae, David felt that hatred and couldn’t understand why this woman was so mean with him. The family was poorer and poorer every day, and once Poppa spent all the money on seeds because he had a dream to build a farm on the hill near the house.
When David’s mother heard that she started screaming there was a scandal, Poppa puncher her and left the house. No one cared of David and he had to cope with all that happened by himself, he felt sorry that it had happened and didn’t know what to do and how will they live without money. But soon Poppa came back and he sold part of the seeds so they had some money to live on. When it seemed that the things are getting better a war started and Poppa was sent to wage war. David left with Mother and Aunt Mae, it was a hard time for them but they were strong and could cope with all the difficulties on their way. Aunt Mae start singing again and it was a kind of revival for her, David helped them to do the house work and it seemed that life was not so bad actually.
But then came the telegram where was said that his father had died on the war, mother couldn’t go over it, he went crazy and wasn’t able to take care of herself anymore. David left the school, he never went to the high school or college because he couldn’t leave his mother alone. Aunt Mae helped him with the housework while David was working at the store. One day he met there a beautiful girl and fell in love with her, he was going to marry her but as it happened, their relationship meant nothing for her and she left David with his heart broken. Life was unbearable for him – hard work and little money plus sick mother at home, it was no longer the woman he loved, it was a strange old woman with empty look, he couldn’t stay with her alone, sometimes she irritated him and he was still thinking of this girl who broke his heart.
The only person who helped him was Aunt Mae, but one day she decided to move to another town because there was a good job so that she could provide David and his mother with money and they will move to her later. David was terrified, he had to left his job and stay with his mother, it scared him. When his mother were dying and there were no one to help him and he was crying like a little child like never before in his life, he was afraid and he didn’t know what to do. He spent all night in the room where his train (his favorite toy since childhood) was, trembling and thinking over what to do. When morning came he still couldn’t decide his further actions, his mother was dead and Aunt Mae was far away. He didn’t have money for funeral. He wanted to hide away from the whole world but the world was knocking at his door both literally and figuratively. The preacher came to his lace to take his mother to the madhouse (nobody in the town knew that she was dead), David drew mad and he killed the preacher, without any reason, he just wanted to stay alone so nobody could bother him.
