Column: Part 1 Of 2

RESCUE MISSION RESIDENT HOPING FOR CHRISTMAS AT HOME

Josh, 22, is in the basement of the Evansville Rescue Mission. He's been
here since the day after Thanksgiving when he got in a fight over marijuana
and was kicked out of his apartment. The black eye has almost healed. The
slightly built young man says he's had a drug problem since he was 16. He
says he spent $50 a week on crank until he found out it was cheaper to make
it himself. He says his friends got arrested, but he never did.

"I got luck," he said.

Josh says he did drugs in front of his mother. He says he stole
prescription medication from his aunt.

"I couldn't hold a job. You stay up all night doing crank and you don't
feel like being an early bird."

He says he stayed at the Rescue Mission two years ago for about a month.
"But the message didn't take. I got reunited with my girlfriend who was
heavy into crank. That brought me in contact with my old buddies and I fell
back in my old routine."

When Josh needed money, he went to his parents and swore he'd get straight,
that he only needed one more chance.

"Mom would start crying and they'd always take me back."

But not this last time.

"They said I needed to have everything stripped away. They wanted me to see
just how lonely the world is when your family isn't there for you."

He sleeps in a room with 23 other men. He goes to chapel three times a day.
He blows into a Breathalyzer every afternoon. A positive test is grounds
for dismissal from the Mission.

"I'm totally broke. All I've got to my name is a 12-pack of Coke and some
potato chips."

Josh has a work assignment later this day to do clean-up work at Roberts
Stadium.

"Day labor. It won't pay much, but at least I can buy a few packs of
cigarettes."

Do you miss the drugs?

"Crank? No. Pot? Sometimes, especially when I hear a song on the radio that
I listened to when I was high."

What about your parents?

"Mom has been very supportive. I talked with her last night and again
today. I don't want her to see me at the Mission, though."

He puts his head down.

"Dad is a different story. He's not the kind of man who could ever tell his
children he loved them. The only reaction I got from him was when I did
something wrong. He wants me to make it and all that, but we've never
really understood each other."

Josh says he's made arrangements to spend Christmas at home.

"I think I'm coming around. I'm reading the Bible. I'm surrounding myself
with more positive people."

He says he wants to be a social worker.

"The money isn't that important. The satisfaction is."

What are the chances that you won't get in trouble again?

"I'd say 75 percent. There are a lot of bad things out there. It's up to me
to stay away from them."