tiger woes

We fear the rumors are true of our friend and (almost) 18-year old neighbor The Tiger.

There’s reason to believe he’s getting into petty crimes like breaking into cars and possibly using drugs.

Of course we have no proof. And my job is not to hunt out the guilty. But his older tattle-tale sister Jessie told Agent Wife some details that seem to make sense based on recent behaviors we’ve witnessed of him.

Supposedly, The Tiger, along with his brother The Bulldog and another kid Paco are stealing things, pawning them and/or splitting up the wares. And somehow drug use might be thrown into the mix. All three of these kids grew up going to the izzy group food pantry that I use to help operate. I’ve known them since they were 9 or 10.

Why The Tiger, CEO? I mean, as much as I love his brother The Bulldog, I can SEE Bulldog going into this life.

But Tiger? He actually has some amount of hope. He’s great with people. He loves working with his hands. Quiet, but not a loner. He’s one of the only kids I know that made it through the teen years without being obsessed with girls. He was content to sit in his backyard and try to figure out how to get a broken lawn mower running.

He dropped out of school. And as difficult as it is for my middle class upbringing to type this, leaving school was probably a good thing for him. He hated school but he loves working.

Born, raised, and steeped in three or more generations of poverty culture, The Tiger actually has hope of...doing something.

His mom got him fixed up with some sort of government funded disability check since his youth (which I’m totally against that bull shit. It’s a curse). But The Tiger actually figured out that he had the ability to earn more money than the government gave him on a monthly basis. And he was willing to take the risk of giving up the check for good in exchange for working for the rest of his life.

Petty crimes usually lead to serious crimes, which lead to a life of incarceration and so forth.

I’m praying. Communicating to the CEO. Questioning. Whatever.

What should I do? Anything? The Tiger’s not a confessing type. So should I approach him at all? But I’m not supposed to know about this. I want to be his friend, not his judge or nosey neighbor.

We used to be close. Then he became a teen and my wife and I weren’t cool anymore. I’ve never been cool anyway.

I hope I don’t have to resurrect my agent creds with the local jail just to visit him in the near future.