Welcome to Strangeros.

From KCW and Radiotopia.

I'm Leah Tao.

And this is part two of our story about Jack, a tomboy with a sweet soul whose dad shot a woman a hundred times with a machine gun and went to prison for murder,

and whose mom liked two-steppin' for fun and titty dancing for money, as they called it in the

Texas trailer parks where Jack grew up. Jack's mom had been a pretty redhead as a young woman with

a firecracker personality, who liked tight jeans and tank tops and a good

party. But she was too broken from her own life of abuse to properly love her baby daughter Jack.

She got too strong out on horrible men and hardcore drugs to look after her little girl

and keep her safe from the rageful men she took up with.

If you haven't heard it yet, you should go back now and listen to Part 1 about Jack,

because only then will you fully be able to appreciate everything you're about to hear.

When we left Jack on the last episode, she'd been rescued by a kind Christian couple,

Carol and Steve, who'd taken her in when

she was 15 after a dramatic night where she escaped from her abusive uncle.

Jack lived with Carol and Steve and their kids through high school, but stayed in touch with

her mom too, and also developed a relationship with her brother who'd grown up elsewhere.

Jack got a track scholarship to the University of Texas, and at college, Jack realized she was gay.

With this understanding, she began to come into her own, but she didn't come out to anyone in the small Texan town as she'd grown up,

including her mom who had shacked up with

yet another violent man.

I get a call that

...