Darrell B Cobb

Ambiguous Darrell B Cobb

AMBIGUOUS is a love story. A twisted tale of debauchery and possessive obsession, but a love story nevertheless. Gene Conner Davis never stood a chance at living a normal life. When born, Gene suffers a chromosomal disorder that renders him gender ambiguous - he has a set of plumbing that is virtually non-specific enough to give him a normal identity. His mother names him Jean before his father changes the spelling to Gene - making him, for all intents and purposes, a boy. A disappointment to both his mother and his father, Gene's childhood is spent chasing trouble through the tough neighborhoods of Rochester, New York. His mother is a psychiatric basket case with an alcohol and lithium addiction and his father is a low-level mob associate who eventually rapes and murders the celebrated heart surgeon who lives across the street. And Gene's best friend, Jerry Faulkenauer, introduces Gene to Polaroid photography, sexual experimentation and a host of other unsavory practices - including random vandalism - before Jerry is sent away to juvenile detention for carrying on an affair with Gene's mother. There is nothing positive looming in Gene's future - until the day he picks up a baseball and puts a schoolmate, Frankie Stewart, in the hospital by hitting him in the head with a hundred-mile-an-hour fastball. Suddenly, Gene is a prospect. He is a pitcher. He is also seventeen years old and still trying to figure who and what he really is. Blessed with natural talent, Gene signs a rookie league contract with the Sanibel Swine and moves to Florida. The sunshine agrees with him. The pretty girls tempt his senses. Being part of a team gives him a false sense of belonging. But Gene has just a little too much sociopath in his DNA - and luck is not on his side.