Read Michael Jackson for Free Online Page B

Fred, his eyes wide as saucers. ‘Wow. That is so great.
     I love that. I'll bet it works, too.’
    ‘Hey, guys, did you know 'bout this tree thing?’ Michael then asked his brothers. ‘Touch this tree and we'll have good luck.’
    ‘Nah. I don't believe in luck,’ Tito deadpanned.
    ‘Well, I sure do,’ Michael countered. ‘Wish I could take that log home with me. Then I'd
always
have good luck.’
    ‘Ladies and gentlemen,’ the announcer said as the boys pulled themselves together backstage, ‘here they are, The Jackson Five.’
    The lights went up. It was time for The Jackson Five to take their rightful place in history. Joseph watched proudly as each
     of his sons touched the plaque of the Tree of Hope: First, Jackie; then Tito; Jermaine; Marlon; Michael; then, ‘cousin’ Johnny.
     The group ran out on to the stage as the audience offered its applause. Michael, though, was the last one at the footlights.
     He ran back to touch the Tree of Hope one more time… just to be on the safe side. It must have worked; the boys won the contest,
     an enthusiastic audience response sealing their victory.

‘My poor, poor family’
    Ever since Michael Jackson was a teenager, the public has speculated about his personal life. Straight, gay or even asexual,
     it is fascinating that the sexual proclivity of a performer with as much on-stage sexual appeal as Michael has always been
     such a mystery.
    At an early age, Michael received mixed signals about sex. The message from Katherine was loud and clear; with her strong
     faith as a Jehovah's Witness, lust in thought or in deed was considered sinful. According to 1 Corinthians 6:9, none of the
     unrighteous – ‘neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate men, nor abusers of themselves with mankind’ – would
     inherit the Kingdom of God. Therefore, physical intimacy was reserved for marriage.
    However, from Joseph, who shunned the religion Katherine had embraced, the boys received a message that came more from his
     actions than from his words. In the group's early days, Joseph booked the boys into dives and strip joints. Ordinarily strict,
     he apparently gave his sons free rein at those times, allowing nine-year-old Michael to stand in the wings and watch as the
     male audience leered and whistled at voluptuous women who stripped until naked on stage. Once, Michael watched in fascination
     as a well-endowed stripper took off everything but her underwear. Then, at just the ‘right’ moment, she pulled two large oranges
     from her bra and took off a wig to reveal that ‘she’ was actually a he.
    When the boys played the Peppermint Lounge in Chicago, there was a peephole in their dressing room through which they had
     a clear view into the ladies' bathroom. They would each take turns peering into it. ‘We learned everything there was to know
     about ladies,’ Marlon recalled. (Some years later, the group was performing in London when Michael, thirteen, and Marlon,
     fourteen, discovered a peephole that looked directly into an adjoining dressing room occupied by theatre star Carol Channing.
     ‘Look, she's naked!’ Marlon said excitedly as he peered through the hole. ‘I can't look,’ Michael protested. ‘But she's naked,’
     Marlon enthused. ‘Carol Channing is
naked.
’ Michael took a quick look. ‘Ugh,’ he groaned. ‘She
is
naked.’)
    It's safe to say that these kinds of experiences would impact on Michael for the rest of his life. At nine, Michael was not
     psychologically equipped to fully understand any sexual stimulation he may have received from what he had witnessed, such
     as the strip teases. He
must
have been conflicted: he had an overly rigid view of the world from his mother and an overly promiscuous view of the world
     from his father.
    One of The Jackson Five's early performance numbers was their rendition of soul singer Joe Tex's raucous ‘Skinny Legs and
     All’. As part of the act, Joseph encouraged young