Marion Jones is by far the most complex character in our story and the most difficult to write. In many ways the story pivots around her and her various relationships. This isn't to say she's a lose woman or anything, quite the contrary. She is a person torn between her squalid upbringing, societal demands to be successful and her blossoming spirituality which she goes out of her way to deny.
Marion was raised by a single-mom in a Tacoma, WA trailer park. Her mother is an alcoholic surviving off welfare and whatever she can con out of the various men she has moving through her revolving door of a life. Her father is unknown.
Her upbringing was one of neglect and abuse. Her mother and her various boyfriends would go on drunken binges for days at a time, leaving her to fend for herself. There was never any food in the home and she was beaten regularly. As a consequence she always felt alone and never really learned how to bond with people. Not having a father left her deprived of any positive male role models.
Because of her natural beauty she was shunned by other girls while the boys always saw her as "untouchable." In short, Marion grew up with a desperate drive to find love - which she looks for in all the wrong places.
In the part of her life chronicled in this story, she has three key relationships - with Hal, his cousin Mikey and her "fiance" DEA Special Agent Ace Spade. To understand Marion Jones is to understand the dynamics of her interactions with these three men.
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