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Keith before/after Keith
with uneven, goofy eyes searing with pain. He'd been abandoned a few months after birth, left in a box out in the woods to die by his drug-addicted prostitute mother. Not surprisingly Keith had issues with women, always seeking their approval, just trying fill that hole that was left by the absence of an abandoning mother's love. All of Keith's crimes were committed in one gigantic crime spree, spanning not more than a few days and a few nights, aided by a girl that professed her devotion to him, an adolescent Bonnie to his white-trash Clyde. "She said she thought it was a good idea," he said simply, shrugging his shoulders, talking about the dark blaze of glory that landed him in my care. Of course, predictably, she dumped him while he was in placement, sending him the traditional regrets, while at the same time still sowing the seeds of possibilities that would lay between them when he was out. I got Keith to burn her picture one night, in a blatant act of symbolism, hoping to sever him from her and their tainted past together. I handed him a lighter, and we gathered around in a circle on the lawn shivering in the cool night air, as he threw down her picture, along with the letters she had sent, and he set them all ablaze. Gazing deeply into the fire, he rocked back and forth on the tips his goofy eyes alight with malevolence, his face a mask of anger and betrayal. "I FEEL GOOD!" he proclaimed, "I FEEL FREE!" And maybe...for a minute...he was. Keith, always a target, a willing victim, brimming with rage and resentment, perpetually hurt and untrusting, never was quite able to outpace his demons. I saw him for the last time when I pulled out of the parking lot my final day on the job. We made eye contact through the pouring rain. He stared at me balefully, slowly shaking his head in the very picture of disgust. I was just another person letting him down,
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