When we were young, when we were little kids in grade school, he was really sweet and he did care then and he had feelings. It’s just sad to watch him over the years, to regress(后退) like that and lose his feelings. When people hurt my feelings, I get it over with. I don’t turn hitter. He turned hitter and cynical(愤世嫉俗的). He just takes everything as a personal offence. It all accumulates and he can’t talk about it, so he turns inward.
He’s seventeen now and he’s in jail. So that’s about it. He was my buddy(好朋友) for about four years. But then we went our separate ways. I don’t know where he is. I did last year, but there was nothing left to say. It wasn’t the same any more. He’s a human being; he’s intelligent and now he’s drug addict(吸毒上瘾的人) sitting in jail. He’s wasted.
He was a good little kid, nice and funny. He was everybody’s boy, the little boy you’d like to have for your son. That was him, Mr Nice Little Boy. He had talent I think he would have been an artist. He was always drawing and did good work. He had imagination. When he was seven or eight, he would draw purple cows. Everybody would say. "What are you drawing purple cows for" He’d say. "Purple cows are pretty. When I’m older I’ll be a farmer and I’ll breed purple cows." He was really wild that way. He started hanging around with the older gang members—you know, a tough gang member doesn’t stand around with a paintbrush, drawing. Not in my neighbourhood. So he gave it up.
Now everyone in the neighbourhood is afraid of him. If he wasn’t in jail, if he was walking down the street, everybody would go in their houses. He wouldn’t do anything to them, hut that’s the way they feel because they’ve heard of him now. He’s created this image for himself, and now he’s stuck with it. What happens to the writer when his feelings are hurt ______