Jake

when I started doing this I was surprised at the number of young people who just lived on the street. a lot of them are run-aways for a variety of reasons. some just ended up here in Vancouver and manage to survive begging and doing the squeegee-kid thing. more than a few get caught up in the harder drugs and everything they lead to. some just seem to get by and smoke a lot of weed and not much more that some beer now and then.
Jake was one of these. at twenty when I first met him he was one of the 'older kids'. he had lived on the street off and on for about five years. he was a skate boarder and could often be found during the day in one of the cities skate parks. nights would find him and some friends camped out in the store fronts of Commercial Drive. some of his friends had dogs with them for safety and companionship.
on Commercial was I first encountered him and his crew at the time. they appear in one of my earlier videos. there were five of them sleeping on the sidewalk in the bitter cold. I talked with them a bit and gave them each a bundle and loaf of bread and some dog food.
they were grateful.
I saw Jake a few times after that. I would stop and talk (as Thanatos) and he thought it was 'pretty cool' what I was doing.
He told me how his parents and him fought all the time over school, a job, his skate-boarding, his lifestyle (or lack of one). He would go home now and then and try but in the end he would be back on the street where he felt more at home,
sad really.
he got to know the odd ffigure in the skull mask and as he became more talkative and I listened he sounded more and more like he was loosing interest in the street and starting to think of doing more with his life. he even talked of volunteering to go give aid after a disaster.

as a part of my duties at work I often go to places that most people really dont want to. today I had to visit a local funeral home. I am allowed in the back or 'preperation' area of the building to talk with their preperations manager.
there on his table lay Jake. I found he had died from a combination of alcohol poisoning and extecy.
I see others like Jake out there now.
when will they learn? when?

I do what I can.