Douglas

Douglas shows up to help out. He is dressed in a three piece beige suit. I'm a little confused, even if it's his first time on the job. Douglas is 16. He and Shaun are supposed to help me out with the bag lunches, but the fact that the two are classmates reduces the effective help I receive. Douglas needs to go take a smoke break--before we start. It is 9:30 in the morning and this will not be his last one.

I think about how lonely of an activity smoking is. Then again, most addictions tend to isolate people from the rest of society, unless we're talking about online gaming--but that's another point altogether.

Douglas is from Mississippi. When I ask him what he likes to do in his free time, he says "this." He can't wait to get his own car and get his own place in his name.

Shaun and Douglas chat while they bag chips. Shaun tells Douglas that there's this thing that some bands do where they go out into the woods and jam.
"I ain't goin out to no woods with no white people...I ain't never gonna come back!"
Shaun points out that he's black too, and that this is different. Douglas still isn't satisfied.

Shaun recounts at time at school where some speaker comes in to talk about equality (I assume racial equality). The speaker had said something to the effect of "I know you guys want equality..." to whcih Douglas had shouted out "We don't want equality, we want payback!"

He's a nice kid, this Douglas. He came out of jail and like Shaun, seems to have come from some unstable family situations. When I ask Shaun why he [referring to Shaun] kept coming to the Catholic Worker House, he tells me he liked "the people." I imagine if Douglas keeps coming, it will be for the same reason.