Real Carlo

From PenguinWiki

Joseph Carlos (Carlo) Sandiego is a 39 year old man living near the Atlantic. Born August 14th 1967. He owns a dog named Inu, and has an estranged wife named Liz. He is confined to a wheelchair due to an accident when he was 25 and appears to have lost the use of his legs. There is no medical reason why he shouldn't be able to walk. It is presumed that the loss is psychosomatic, however it would be expected that his leg muscles would have atrophied through disuse.

The accident occurred near the (traffic) lights on (someone pick an appropriate street junction in keeping with the locals in the story); in heated argument with his wife Liz over money and her suspected affair with Big Tony.

Prior to the accident his life was a series of ups and downs; he married Liz aged 17; a happy but hard existence. Short of money he signed up and served a couple of stints in the military; them arranging sponsorship for his college education. He returned from the military a changed man. Moody and mean. Paranoid. He may have been given experimental, untested drugs; but rarely speaks of what happened. What is known though is in the 2 years leading up to the accident he was drinking heavily; he suspected his wife of affairs (unproven) with his friend Big Tony and almost every other man in their life.

Liz tried to stand by him, but his increasingly irrational behavior was getting hard to bear; even wheelchair-bound he'd become abusive; verbally and physically. She eventually left him after confessing to a close friend who put her in touch with shelter organizations who support and protect those in abusive relationships. She filed for divorce not long after and disappeared from his life.

After recent set backs, Carlo has slipped into a deep melancholy. He makes a concerted effort to hide his current state from his friends. To make matter worses he's been hitting the bottle and narcotics hard lately, and religiously playing the up late game shows hosted on the local community tv station.

He's a heavy smoker. Has been ever since he came back from the service. While he's made vain attempts to quit before, with a motto like "A pack a day, keeps the cancer at bay" it's unlikely he will be successful anytime soon.

Carlo suffers from hallucinations of time and reality; imagining himself able to walk; his dog being different breeds, having astounding abilities etc.

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