Anneewakee: One Boy's Journey

Chapter 1

ANNEEWAKEE CREST

* Pine Tree and Red Hill

Materials found in nature which man may use according to his ability and ambition to improve the state of his existence in nature.

* The Scroll

Depicts democratic concept of the value of the individual and also the importance of one's relationship to other individuals.

* The Winding Path to the Rising Sun

Signify the importance of striving toward a goal in life, using the self discipline necessary to overcome obstacles which may present themselves in the reaching of that goal.

* Praying Hands

Show the need for a religious concept, the recognition of a power in the universe which is higher than the individual.

* The Dove and Olive Branch

Selected from the book of Noah in the Bible to show that a new life in a clean new world is possible.

                           

Chapter 1

I was in a really good mood the day I arrived at Anneewakee. Things were going pretty smoothly at my home, for a change, and I had just knocked a baseball over the fence so far out that the guys on my ball team had never even found it. I had thought that we were just going to check this "Anneewakee" place out. I didn't know that I would not be coming back. My mother, whom everyone called, "Big Mama" due to her size and her attitude, and my uncle Buddy, had driven me from Chattanooga, to Cartersville, Georgia where we met up with two staff members from Anneewakee and from there, I had ridden with them the rest of the way, in their van.

They had told me, originally, before leaving Chattanooga, that we were only going for a visit. Just to have a look around and see what it was like. I wouldn't be officially admitted until much later. I knew I had to go at some point within the next ninety days because the Judge had ordered that I go but I thought I had time. Turns out I had no time. I knew something was up the minute I got in the van with the men and saw the mesh bars on the windows. Big Mama had explained that I would be riding with them due to some security issues, Anneewakee being a top secret facility or some nonsense, and I had bought it.

I got in the back seat of the van and Big Mama and Buddy followed along behind us in Big Mama's car. The men I was riding with weren't what I'd call friendly, but they did attempt to make small talk with me, nothing heavy, just lightweight stuff like, Where was I from? How did I get along with my mother? I told them I got along fine with my mother but the truth was, we argued quite a bit. I didn't hate her but I had a lot of anger towards her. She had been a raging alcoholic my entire life and had only recently gotten "on the wagon". As a result of her drinking, my sister and I had been bounced around from home to home; family members, foster homes. I had plenty to be mad at her about and so I wasn't exactly a "model child." I got in fights, I vandalized things, I stole stuff. Probably the worst thing I did was to vandalize a church in my neighborhood. For some reason, that freaked everyone out- because it was a church. But that wasn't why I did it. I just did it because I was bored and the pastor was a real dick- never letting me and my friends shoot basketball on his property and being really nasty about it. I thought preachers were supposed to be nice to kids, even kids they didn't like, but this guy was such a dick. He didn't even try and tell us about Jesus or any of the things preachers are supposed to do. So my friends and I broke in and busted up the place and took spray paint cans and wrote all over the walls. I was heavily into Prince at the time and I wrote a bunch of shit about 1999 and I wrote "PRINCE" real big in red paint behind where the choir sat. We did it on a Saturday night so I can just imagine everyone's face when they showed up for services Sunday morning. We had gotten in through a basement window so it wasn't obvious that the place had been broken into. I really never felt as bad about it as everyone seemed to think I should. I wasn't doing it to God, if anything it was done to that judgmental preacher and mostly, just for the kick of it. But you can't hold any of that against me, I was just reacting to the situation I was in. I wasn't a bad kid. Not on the inside.