“How did I even get here?” young Chris Kelly wondered as he sat in the bright white jail cell that looked as if it were as dirty as a teenagers room.

He thought about all the things he did to get in the hospital. Then the reasons piled up like a stack of dirty clothes. There were the drugs he had been doing with his friends, the gang fight he was involved in about a week ago, the vandalism of his neighbor’s car, the shoplifting at the convenience store and of course the one that ultimately brought him here: running away from it all.

As soon as he was continuing his trail of thought the guard walked in and told him he had to get up because it was time to eat. Chris looked around the cell and realized he must have been so deep in thought that he missed the bell for lunch.

As Chris made his way to the mess hall he went back to thinking about everything that had lead up to this and like everything else bad in his life Chris Kelly blamed his mother. This was something he always did. He used to think about it but now it was a reaction. It all started when she left Chris and his younger brother Michael.

Chris hated thinking about the first day he sat in the foster home waiting confidently his mom would show up but days grew to weeks and weeks to months and finally months to a whole year and a half before he ever saw her again. He thought about her everyday and everyday his anger grew and grew. Until that day she did show up and Chris was so mad he ran away as soon as they got home he ran to his best friend David Wilson’s house and lived there for a few weeks until his mother came to pick him up. Chris hated his mother ever since no matter what the reason she gave or the love she gave now he didn’t care. The scars were too deep. The worst thing was that he hadn’t seen her in two years.

He sat down next to the only people he had talked to since a week ago when he got to Juvenile Detention Hall ,or Juvy as most as most kids his age called it,. They’re names were Josh Robertson, a sort of chubby kid with a black buzz cut and a weird tattoo that looked like Chinese characters on his right forearm which he said meant “never back down”. The other kid whose name was Tim Anderson, a blonde haired boy who was quiet, well at least compared to the other kids, and always wore a black knit hat with a Boston Celtics logo on the front. However the only conversation he had with them in the three days he had been there was when Chris said,
“Hey” “I’m Chris”
They both replied with heys and what’s ups. After a while they got into why they were there. Joe explained his story first.

“Well I was with my friends and we decided we would go to the store and take some stuff, nothing big just like candy and gum you know the deal, anyways when we got there some lady must’ve overheard us cause we were the store for like 10 minutes just looking and the cops showed up. So we decided to play it cool until my friend Mark just flipped and cried and we all got in trouble. Then about a week later we went back to do the same thing without Mark, like we like him and all but we couldn’t risk it. And just as we bought some stuff and left with it and the other stolen candy and gum a cop watching from the corner of the street. So he asked us to show him the receipt and the stuff we bought and he ended up catching us. Then recognized us as the kids from yesterday and told our parents. It just so happens that my parents were the only ones who wanted to teach me a lesson and send me here. Thankfully I’m out in 4 days.

“Ouch. That really sucks man.” Chris replied.
“Oh yeah it does. It’s so bad in here there’s like nothing to do at all.” Joe said. “So what’s your story dude?” he continued.

“Well long story short I shoplifted like you and then my friends dared me to spray paint my neighbor’s car pink, and his son was in a rival gang with mine and we fought it out cause of the car and I’ve been caught with drugs like a hundred times.”

Both of the boys listening to the story had their eyes practically popping out of their head. Then they both whispered a long “Whoa” of amazement and wonder.

“What’s the big deal?” asked Chris.

“Uhh the big deal is your hardcore man.” said Joe

“Yea why aren’t you in like Alcatraz dude?” added Tim

“I don’t know but I bet there both better than here.” replied Chris and that was the end of any speaking Chris had done in three days.

When Chris started eating he also stopped eating and looked at the “spaghetti and meatballs” they served him. Noticing the disgusted look Joe said to Chris “You’ll get used to it plus spaghetti is the best thing they serve here.” Now Chris was just fed up with it all as he left the mess hall and made his way to his room but almost the second he lay down on his bed to rest one of the guards told him he had a phone call. It was about the Wilson’s

He got to the phone and said “Hello this is
Chris.” Immediately after a man whose voice Chris did not recognize answered with the most horrible news he could’ve received: “I’m very sorry to tell you Mr. Kelly but the Wilson’s house burned today. Mrs. and Mr. Wilson died alo0ng with their son David. I’m so sorry to tell you.

The second Chris heard this he couldn’t do anything. He couldn’t think breathe or even understand what was going on. He went to his cell and crumpled on his bed and just lay there for almost two days. Chris just lay there thinking about what his friend meant to him. All the memories he shared. David was the only good influence Chris ever had in his whole life. David and Chris were like brothers. Chris and his younger brother had been living with the Wilson family for about four years.

Thinking about his life with the Wilson’s made him think about his brother and where he was. Children’s Hospital in Boston. In the cancer wing most likely having chemotherapy treatments everyday. The fact was that Chris Kelly’s little brother Michael Kelly had leukemia. With Mrs. Wilson and David dying he had very limited options for people to bail him out and with Michael’s time running out he had no idea what to do so Chris decided he would sleep on it.

The next morning Chris hated what he was going to have to do. Chris Kelly would have to call his mother. It was the last resort he had no other choice he had been forced into it. She was the only one who could bail him out of Juvy. He needed to see his brother and she was the only way to get him there.

He got to the phone after breakfast and dialed the number after a few “Hellos” from his mom he finally answered in a shaky voice “Hey Mom”

As he said this you could practically hear his mother jump for joy. “Christopher oh sweetie I missed you so much. Are you okay?”

Chris explained his situation and how the Wilson family died. Mrs. Kelly, devastated by every word that was coming from her son, didn’t speak for fifteen minutes straight. She knew what she had to do. She went to Juvenile Detention Hall, bailed her son out, and drove to the hospital to see her ailing son. When she got Chris few words were exchanged.

They got to the hospital and rushed in and asked to see a Michael Kelly. The head nurse let them through the door and for the first time in two years Mrs. Kelly saw her now twelve year old son. Kisses and hugs were exchanged more than once in the small white hospital room that seemed to be cleaned every time someone blinked.

Days and weeks passed and it seemed that Michael’s cancer was fading quickly. After about a month and a half Michael was declared cancer free for the first time in about a year. For the first time in a long time all the Kelly’s were at home together and for the first time in Chris’s memory he and his mother apologized and made up and actually hugged. It was the first time Chris had been proud of himself for something he did in his life. Chris Kelly had finally got his life back together.