RANDY

Randy was a tall, good-looking kid that, when I met him, should've been a senior in high school. Instead, he was in the City Jail. For something stupid, drunk and disorderly, something like that. Back then they put juveniles in jail for minor infractions if they were incorrigible, repeat offenders. That was Randy. Yet, he was one of the most likable kids I ever met. Smart, multi-talented, and with a smile that made you feel good.

When Randy was in jail, I would teach him how to develop and print evidence photos in our little darkroom. It was actually an unused stairwell in the jail we blocked off and painted black. Randy was a quick learner and was soon developing and printing better than his teacher.

During these work sessions we'd have long conversations, mostly about his situation. It seemed such a waste, the way his life was going. He said, candidly, that he knew exactly what his problem was. When he got carousing with his buddies, pretty soon they were drunk, then trouble would soon follow. He was hanging out with the wrong crowd.

"Well then," I asked, "why don't you hang with the right crowd?"

"You don't get it." he said, "Because of my reputation, no one decent wants to be around me," he said. "Or their parents won't let them near me."

Took me a while to swallow that one, but when I did it was like a punch in the gut. Advice, easy answers, aren't alway easy for the recipient. Or even possible. I do know he tried but it didn't work.

One night shortly after, I was called to the scene of a homicide. A young, enraged man had tried to crash through the jalousie windows of a house where his girlfriend lived. The father had shot him several times in the chest. I looked down at the face of Randy. He'd evidently been screaming with rage when the .357 slugs put him to rest. The rage I'd never seen before but had heard of and knew was in there.

When a child starts going bad, and travels so far, they come to a point where it's hard to turn around. You have to catch them early and make the necessary repairs. Sometimes a hitch in the military does it. Or a brush with the law. But the courts and juvenile system seldom work for hard case offenders.