On impulse, I ignored what she said. Normally, such gossip from her was no more than a twisted rumor springing from a distant truth. The idea of four kids I know being responsible for grand theft auto simply was not conceivable. Later, I encountered two of the delinquents who confirmed the rumor as true. The Auto Auction indeed had a broken gate and was short three cars that had yet to be auctioned off. The county police officers finally had more to take care of than innocent skateboarders molesting the streets. They were quick to find who was responsible for the theft, with help from an anonymous person whom one of the car thieves had carelessly bragged to.
Jasper, nineteen and head of the deviant mission, formulated the plan, because his life depended upon it. The other three provided weak rationalizations to cover their actions. Jeremy and Junior, both seventeen, went along for the large sum of money involved and because, "there was no chance of being caught." The chance of being caught was so slim, they chose to hide the cars in a field by the theater where Junior and Jeremy were currently employed. Ryan, only fifteen, was the subject of intense peer pressure. Jasper "forced" him to do it.
Not only did their cleverness about where not to hide stolen goods bring harassment from friends, but soon jokes concerning a possible prison sentence began to circulate. One look at the quartet, weighing an average of 130 pounds (a small fraction of this weight from heavy pieces of shiny metal jabbed through their ears, eyebrows and noses), gave the impression they were not prison material. One kid reminded Jeremy not to "drop the soap" while showering at prison, implying the harsh treatment from fellow inmates that would follow. Ryan innocently asked me if a band called NoFX was touring. I replied, "NoFX doesn't play at prison."
The jokes were funny, but the idea of them actually being sentenced to thirty years in prison was not quite as amusing. In jail they would not be able to skate the deserted sidewalks of downtown Statesville on hot summer nights. There would be no more free red slushy drinks and fresh buttered popcorn from the movies. The melodic sounds of local Christian punk rock bands would no longer fill their ears. The smell of freshly brewed coffee and cappuccino from the Smelly Cat would no longer fill their noses. The irritating Friday night shouts of drunken rednecks in pick up trucks, taunting them for having blue hair, would no longer be heard. There would be no more Sunday morning trips to Western Avenue Baptist Church, which most of their friends also attended. There would be no more rich kid parties to get drunk at. There would be no more Weekend In the Village, Statesville's yearly festival of country music, train rides and cotton candy at the town square; a place where everyone knows everyone else and talks with the family and friends they would ordinarily make no effort to contact. Whether good or bad, if sent to prison, they would miss the small things about the city.
Days later, their destiny still unknown, all of Statesville knew. Three juvenile first time offenders had their names published in the Statesville Record and Landmark. Ryan, a minor, remained out of the public eye. None of their parents handed out severe punishments. Annie's father, however, immediately forbade her to see Jasper after his picture, along with Jeremy and Junior's, appeared on the six o'clock Charlotte news. Statesville has no news, being one the smaller cities in North Carolina. School would start soon with hushed conversations in the back of classrooms from kids who pretended to still be their friends. The teachers would automatically write them off as slackers and not place much effort on determining grades.
The group's punishment would most likely be no more than a few hours of community service: scraping filth and scum from the red brick of City Hall, planting dogwood trees in front of banks, or picking up cigarette butts imbedded in gravel parking lots of public schools . Their sentence rested mainly with whether or not the District Attorney was having a bad day and decided to make an example out of them.
With a light sentence, there would still be unnecessary mocking and disdain from fellow citizens. Even I had contributed. I wondered what possessed them to carry out such a plan, as if some demoniac force had taken them over. This made me uneasy, because I consider myself different than many of my closed minded neighbors. I have yet to hear what became of the four, but I pray they are each all right: Jeremy my friend, Junior my ex-friend, the other two acquaintances. Maybe everyone else in my community will grow to feel the same way and give them the chance they deserve to redeem themselves.