I’m not sure how long it was before I woke up again, but when I did, it was to this guy pulling my pants down, I was on my back and he just got my feet out of my pants legs. He started to climb up into the bed and was touching my legs. I pulled my leg back and kicked him as hard as I could in the throat. He fell back grabbing his throat gasping for air, and fell to the floor, I got out of the bed and noticed he was butt naked, I kicked him in the nuts, and grabbed my pants off the floor next to him, I still had my underwear on, I stumbled around trying to get my pants on, and it seemed like he was regaining his ability to breath, I kicked him in the nuts again, and put my shoes on, I grabbed his pants and pulled his wallet out of the back pocket and took all the cash in it. As I was walking past him, he grabbed my ankle, I turned around and kicked him in the face a few times, and stomped his head into the carpet. I went into the living room area and got my coat and went out the apartment door, I was not walking the greatest at this point, I got down the stairs, and made it to the front side of the complex right on Eureka rd. There was a deep drainage ditch next to Eureka Rd, and I went down the ditch and into the concrete pipe under the roadway entrance to the complex, I passed out there. I woke up a few hours later it was close to sunrise, I was freezing cold, I climbed out of the roadside ditch and crossed Eureka and started walking down Pardee Rd. I was about 3 miles away from my dad’s apartment complex, and the area I knew best.
A little while after I started walking down Pardee Rd, I saw a bicycle in a front yard, I grabbed it and started riding, I got about a mile up Pardee, and stopped at the 7/11 and got something to eat and drink with the money I took, I made it to my Dad’s complex, and I saw that his van wasn’t there, but Debbie’s car was there, I rode over to the cut in the fence to the storage yard and stashed the bike in the bushes near the cut, and went into the yard and found a bigger boat that had a plastic wrap on it and picked up a piece of broken glass from the ground and cut a hole in the wrap and climbed inside. I went into the front part of the boat where there was a bed and laid down and went back to sleep with covers over top of me. I woke up to the sound a train going past the storage yard. I got out of the boat and found a open Camper and went looking for a lighter or matches, I found matches for a fire later back in the woods. I sat in the camper until I saw school busses dropping kids off from school in the complex, I made way out of the Storage Apartment complex but not far. I knocked on the door, his mom was home and so was he, he came out and I told him to grab his bike. We rode back into the woods into the Storm drainage pipes and got to our hang out spot. I told him I was on the run again; he asked me what I was going to do. I didn’t have any plans, I just didn’t want to be found, he told me his mom was making spaghetti for dinner if I wanted to eat. Which sounded good to me, his mom had always been really cool, so I felt comfortable there. After dinner I left, acting like I had to get back home, the next day was a Saturday, a day that I would meet 2 more friends that I would have for years to come.
I rode my stolen bike back to the woods behind the apartments, when I got back there were older kids back there that had a fire going and where partying, all of them boys and girls were way older than me 17, 18, 19. I knew some of them, I stayed back away from them, and just hang out in one of the concrete pipes we used for the BMX trail we would ride. After a while they all left and I sat by the fire they had left burning, as it got later, I made my way to the boat I had slept in at the storage yard, and I went to sleep. In the morning I met up with chuck on the BMX trail, we rode the course for a while before 2 other kids showed up, The first kid was Clay he was 13 almost 14, he was taller than me dirty blond hair down to his shoulders and blue eyes, the other kid was Lance, he was 13, dark brown hair with brown eyes, they lived down the street from each other in the subdivision next to the reservoir. These two kids would become part of my inner circle of best friends for years to come. I didn’t know it at the time, but clay would one day save my life, We rode the BMX trail, and I tried all the very dangerous tricks they were doing, some successfully others not so much. Later in the day Clay had to go check in and we all went to his house, Lance broke off and went to his house, I was outside Clay’s house when his brother drove up in a Camaro, he was one of the older kids from the fire the night before. Clay’s brother would also become part of my existence about a year or so later. We left and rode down the main street Mortenview. We got down to the church and sat back in the bushes and Clay had brought some of his mom’s New Port cigarettes with him, my first time trying a cigarette. It was rough, but cool. And all the cool kids smoked so I was just following the trend. I still remember the head rush, and the coughing fit, the worst mistake of my life.
Later that night, Clay and Lance showed me how to break into cars, and find money, change, cassette tapes, and stereo systems. We split apart after midnight, I went back to the boat and went to sleep, the next morning we met back up and took the stuff we got to a guy, he gave us 10 dollars a system. I got 20 dollars; I didn’t really need it because I still had a bunch of cash from the other night. But I learned a way to make some cash if I needed it. For the next few weeks, I kind of just survived, this way, I did sneak into my dad’s house a few times to change clothes, I would wait till both him and Debbie would be gone to sneak in to get clothes. My dad told me years later that he knew I was coming into the house, but he left the key there because he wanted me to have a safe place to go if I needed it. This was after his drinking days.
About 3 weeks after I ran from the group home, I was breaking into a car and a guy caught me, breaking into his car, he grabbed me, and I started swinging on him to get free, he punched me back after I hit him in the face when he picked me up, I woke up and the police was there, and I was in handcuffs. I got taken to the Taylor police station again. They knew who I was and that I was wanted for the AWOL and a warrant for Felonious Assault. Taylor also charged me with 32 counts of breaking and entering a motor vehicle or entering a motor vehicle without permission. The Taylor police transported me to the Wayne County Juvenile Dention center. I went through the intake process again, I was placed on the 5th floor for the Felonious Assault, the kid that I hit in the head with the pool stick was still in the hospital with a closed head injury. I had no idea that pool sticks had a lead weight in the bottom of them. I spent Christmas in the detention center, I still remember looking out the window on New Years Eve, and how cold it was, you could spit on the window seal and with in minutes it would freeze there. While I was at the detention center this time, I didn’t have many fights with other kids only 2 that I remember, but I did spend a lot of time in my room doing push ups and dips, as well as shadow boxing, and punching the outside cinderblock wall. I did have more problems with the Staff, it seemed like I was always Standing in the hall with my arms straight out or doing squats. I went through the Juvenile Adjudication process on my charges, which I pled guilty to. Even though I pled guilty, it still took several months for the disposition hearing, The hearing judge recommended a more secure location, but it was the final decision of the State Case worker,
John was at every hearing with me, because he basically had custody of me, my dad was also present for most of the hearings, and my mom was there for the first, and the last hearing. John also came a few times to talk with me and advise me on what was going on with placement, but his hands were tied with getting me out of there until the judge made his ruling. It was late spring before my cases were all done, John had found me a Placement he Seemed excited about for me, But I had to wait till an opening was available to get me into it. I was already accepted into the program but, they didn’t have any beds available so there I sat waiting another 3 months, it was sometime in August before John came and picked me up to take me to Starr Commonwealth, we got on I94 and drove for about an hour and a half, we talked on the way there he told me about the program, it was a PPP or Positive peer Pressure program, To be totally honest, there was nothing about the program that was Positive.
We got there, the property was beautiful, he drove me around the property, it had it’s own lake, church, museum, and other buildings, the housing units were little cottages, I was going to Oliver Cottage, Ten kids in total in a group. There was adult supervision in some respects, we had two full time counselors, for group meetings and decision making, in the housing unit we had a civilian staff member that kind of keep things in control, they were only there till 10 pm every night. And we had a house mom, we had 2 house moms, the two moms would work a week then been off for a week, they had their own bedroom in the center of the cottage. That room was always locked, she was responsible for making food and assigning chores, each day we had a different chore schedule, she made our breakfast Lunch and dinner. We also helped, I guess her job was to help us learn responsibility as well as cooking, and how to do everyday things. When you first get to Starr you will meet the main Counselor, he had an office in the housing unit. After your meeting he will give you a quartermaster ticket to get you clothes. He would tell one of the kids that he was close to release to have the group walk you to the quartermaster, to dress me out. We walked forever to the quartermaster, where I got a complete wardrobe, there was a staff member there to help if you didn’t know your sizes, you got 5 new pants and button down shirts,5 white T-shirts, you got 7 new underwear and socks, you got one suit jacket and pants, 2 white dress shirts, 2 ties, 2 dress socks, 1 pair of penny loafers, and one pair of blue chuck taylor gym shoes, all this stuff he put into a military style duffel bag, all these clothes looked just like everything else the whole group of 9 other kids had on. Then he packed a backpack with toiletries, a rain poncho, rubber rain boots, he told me that in October we would get winter gear. We left and walked back to the cottage, me carrying everything I was given, I was shown to my sleeping area, and I was bunked up with 3 other kids in one room. The other rooms had only 2 beds in each room the program was peer based, and you had to work up the program to get more privileges. If I had to go anywhere, without the group I would have had to have 2 more people with me, until I reached a certain level, then it switched to duces. This was meant to prevent the new kids from going AWOL or running away and building trust within your group setting. What I didn’t know on the first day was how much I was going to hate this programming model. Or that in a very short period of time I was going to have to learn how to fight 9 kids at one time.