The Juvie Three

Gecko is working in the laundry room at the Jerome Atchison Juvenile Detention Center. He reflects that his fate is probably quite light compared to his brother’s, who has gone to adult prison. As Gecko is folding the uniforms, an attack comes from behind him. His unseen attackers bludgeon him with what he knows to be a bar of soap inside of a sock: “the inmates here could write a set of encyclopedias on how to inflict pain” (8).

Suddenly, the attackers run out and the principal, guidance counsellor, and guard Mr. Bell appears. He tells Gecko there’s a visitor waiting in the office. Once they arrive, Gecko doesn’t recognize the man waiting for him. The man introduces himself as Douglas Healy and explains that he’s created an alternative living program, or halfway house, where Gecko and two other boys will live together with Healy in an apartment. They will attend school, counseling sessions, and do community service. If they mess up, they’ll be sent back to the detention center. Gecko agrees to go.

Healy and Gecko drive to their next stop, the Remsenville Correctional Facility. Gecko waits in the car. In an interview room, four guards bring in Arjay Moran, who is in chains. The guard tells him that Arjay has been convicted of manslaughter. Healy asks Arjay if it’s true, and he says, “I hit him, and he didn’t get up” (15).

Arjay was sent to prison because of the accidental death of a fellow student, Adam Hoffman. Adam was the quarterback of his school’s football team, and the team wanted Arjay to try out. After weeks of mean-spirited teasing, the team attacked Arjay in a park while he was walking home. When Arjay hit Adam, the boy fell and hit his head on a statue, a fatal injury. During Arjay’s trial, the team members described him as an unstable murderer, and Arjay’s lawyer encouraged him to plead guilty to secure a lighter sentence. Arjay refused to compromise his morals and stayed loyal to the truth.

Healy makes Arjay the same offer he made Gecko, and Arjay asks if he can bring his guitar. Healy agrees.

Elsewhere, Terence Florian is on a boat leaving Lion’s Head Island, an “alternative detention program” (17). Terence reflects that as a city boy at heart, his time on the secluded island had been hellish. In the truck, Terence’s counsellor, Kellerman, tells him about the alternative living program and says that Healy requested him specifically. Terence sees the rising skyline and realizes that they’ve driven to New York.

Terence moves into the group apartment, where Gecko and Arjay moved in the day before. Terence inspects the fire escape outside the bedroom window, but Gecko informs him that the gate across the window is locked, and Healy has the key. The front door is also guarded by a coded alarm. Terence invites the other boys to join him in his escape, but they decline. Terence and Gecko get in a fight.

In another room, Healy and Kellerman are going over the paperwork to transfer Terence to the house. Kellerman wants to know why Healy chose those three boys in particular, and Healy admits that they remind him of his own past. He spent three years in the correctional system for an accident, like Arjay, because of his relationship with a rogue family member, like Gecko. Like Terence, he’d been taken from his home in the big city to a facility in rural farmland.

As they finish the paperwork, Healy asked Kellerman what to expect from Terence. After Healy presses him, Kellerman admits the truth: “the first chance he gets, Terence Florian is going to put a kitchen knife right between your shoulder blades” (25). Healy hears the fight in the boys’ bedroom. When he arrives, he finds Arjay holding Gecko and Terence apart. Both have been injured, and Healy’s prized bowling trophy has been knocked over and broken. Healy informs them that fighting will get them kicked out. Outside the window, he watches Kellerman walk away.