To Jerry Butler, wherever you are

[legolyas]

I guess I should make one thing clear right off the bat. I mean the porn star, not the singer. I don't know much about the singer. The porn star, though, is always going to be someone kind of special for me. No, not like that, get that one out of your heads right now. I guess he's kind of what you'd call mine and Golumette's mentor and role model,

Comments

MT's story, continued

[megadrainbamage]

MT hadn't actually participated in any of it, just went along for the ride thinking how cool it was, until his friend with the gun decided he'd rather shoot it out than risk letting the cops bring him in, since he had a pretty long rap sheet by then, and since he was 16, he was worried that he could end up being tried as an adult. And MT said that was when it suddenly stopped seeming so cool, when he watched one of his best friends get shot and killed right in front of him. And the other one driving the getaway car, who was 17, tried to run for it, but the cops managed to tackle him and haul him in, and he ended up getting sent to prison.

Since MT wasn't quite 15, though, and surprisingly hadn't actually gotten busted before that, they hauled him down to the station and called his folks. Which he said scared him more than if they'd decided to send him straight to prison. But I guess his dad told them he was at the end of his rope with him, and begged them to just throw him in juvie, and hopefully straighten him out. Since he had no real record worth mention, though, they needed him to sign an authorization, which I guess he did. So MT got sent to juvie.

And once he got there, he ran into an old enemy who had moved a little over a year before that, who decided to settle some old score with MT that he said he never understood, or remembered. But this guy came after him with a few friends and jumped him. He managed to fight his way out of it, but he said it really shook him up, so he begged to be allowed to call home, and he begged his gram to let him come home. Then she told him that his mom had finally succeeded in OD'ing herself, and she held him responsible for it, since it had been right after he got sent up. And she told him basically never to call home again. Then his dad sold the house, and he and his gram moved back to their former state.

So MT became a ward of the state, and after he finished serving his time in juvie, they moved him to the local boarding school for troubled youth, where he finished high school a year early, surprisingly, and while he was in there, the powers that be put him in touch with the police sergeant in the next town, who took a liking to him and took him under his wing. He gave him a part time job helping out with paperwork and various office duties, and he got him into the cadet program.

And you're right about him being a damned good man. He's one of the finest men I've ever known, and I miss him something awful.

Re: MT's story, continued

[mixter79]

Wow. I never would have guessed that, needless to say. He did brief me on the basics of it, that he got sent up for being an accomplice to armed robbery, but he never elaborated or anything. And the way he put it, I got the distinct impression that he was a whole lot more responsible for all of it. I never once got the impression that he ever blamed anyone else but himself. He was always pretty ashamed of it, and gave me the impression that he'd just plain grown up, straightened out and turned over a new leaf. But cripes, in light of everything you've just said, it's a wonder he survived long enough to get sent to juvie at all. And can you even imagine what that would feel like, getting into trouble over what looks like a momentary bad judgment call mostly instigated by his older friends, getting sent up for your first real offense of any kind, getting your ass kicked by a bunch of hardcases while you were in there, then have your own family flat out turn their backs on you and permanently abandon you like that? I mean, crap, he was younger than my son then.

But the fact that he took the whole approach that he had nobody but himself to blame, and the only one who could straighten him out was him, probably accounts for the fact that he became a cop instead of just another youth crime statistic. Too many kids who end up in juvie blame their situation on everybody but themselves, and until they're ready to accept their share of responsibility and fault, they haven't got a prayer of ever turning themselves around.