The Story of X is one of the tragic tales of youth in our community. He is twenty years of age and grew up in Basseterre, a virtual orphan. Throughout his short life, a number of good-hearted people have tried to understand the his plight and have offered their love, their generosity, and even their homes to him in his growing up years.
He has lived in some of the best homes; he has lived in the children’s home. His latest home is the army barracks at Springfield. He has lived there for the past four years under the protection and guidance of Lt. Col. Patrick Wallace.
Mr. Wallace is a remarkable gentleman whose mission in life is to help young men and women out of unfortunate circumstances. Although his substantive role is to administer his small army and coast guard, maintain the efficiency of his men and women to the highest level, he is very mindful that in his role as a military commander in a small community, he has a mission to use his limited resources to help to improve the lives and out look of the youth of his community.
Devon Williams was one of the young people who Mr. Wallace has tried to help. Devon prefers to be called Mr. X or BMX for Bad Man X. When he became a teenager this was the name he chose. He just about insisted that all who knew him either called him or thought of him as Bad Man X, and some element of his psyche pressured him to live up to the name that he chose for himself.
He does not look the part of an aspiring bad man. He has a pleasant smiling face, almost the picture of innocence. That is, when he is not crying. He cannot fight and so when he had a difference with his peers they beat him, and he cries because he cannot beat them at fighting.
One of the ways in which he bolsters his bad-man image is by saying outrageous things in the presence of young females. Like all teenage normal men, X badly wants to find acceptance among teenage girls, but having been denied the love and guidance of parents, he does not know how to access that deep friendship, and attempts this by saying the most shocking things in their presence and sometimes about them. The trouble is he says it with a smile because somehow he has the idea that he is being funny.
Of all the places where X has lived and left, I don’t think anybody has even thrown him out. He just leaves when he thinks he would like to rejoin the other Bad Men at the ghetto. When he was leaving the children’s home Miss Martin, the then supervisor, pleaded with him to stay. She pleaded against his hardening resolve and then simply had to let him go.
Whenever he leaves he goes into one of the ghettos where he gets in fights and gets the worst.
His last fight was in the Christmas season 2004. He was stabbed and kicked and reached the hospital where skillful care kept him alive. That was the second time that he was attacked and seriously wounded. Earlier in the month, somebody shot him and he survived. He had not left the hospital for more than two weeks before he was back again with the knife wound and an otherwise battered body.
The first time, true to his BMX persona he pretended to the police that he did not know who had shot him. The second time as he lay close to death he decided to call the names of the four young men who had beaten him almost to death.
The police arrested them and put him under protection at the defense force camp. Here Mr. Wallace and his men became his protectors. Often he behaved so unruly that Mr. Wallace had to order the men not to yield to the urge to strike him. That seemed to have made him more callous and the men, one by one, were forced to ignore him, which meant having nothing to do with him.
Mr. Wallace never gave up on him. He could see beyond his compulsive rudeness into his soul, which cried out for love and understanding; his drifting spirit reaching out for parenting. Mr. Wallace could not be better if Devon was his son. He had him enlist in the defense force, dealt compassionately with his reading deficiency, and exercised the most extraordinary patience with him as he struggled to be a soldier.
It wasn’t easy for Devon. Since the army had now severed his link with the ghetto, he brought his ghetto behaviour to the army and had to be charged and fined so often that he held very little of his earnings in his hand.
The colonel tried to help him to behave by showing him that the money he gives back to the army in fines could be put into a savings account.
I observed with fascination Colonel Wallace’s sensitive handling of this youth as he tried to steer him from the path of destruction.
I too had tried with X. Just after he had left the children’s home he came to the Project Strong. He was homeless, I took him to Trinidad & Tobago on Project Strong’s annual tour and observed him from close quarters. He got into fights with other boys regularly. It was his way to attract attention from the girls. On my walk around the compound one day I was in time to see him assault a fellow-camper who retaliated by giving him a beating.
It was on our return from Trinidad & Tobago that I took partial responsibility for him by renting an old house on King Street, refurbishing it with panel board and paint and paying the rent for him.
It was then that I noticed his taste as he cleaned up the surroundings, painted the doors and settled himself comfortably in this new environment. He washed his clothes regularly, and was always clean and tidy. He loved nice stylish shoes. He smiled with his neighbours who extended their warmth to him.
But he could not escape conflict with his peers who were always hunting him down. That was how they very nearly killed him and that was how he landed in the colonel’s path.
Last week BMX asserted his true nature again. The case of the four men who attacked him came up for trial at long last after three years. The army looked on as the police prepared to give the evidence they had patently accumulated over the last three year period. The judge was ready, the prosecutor was ready and Bad Man X was ready. So were the four prisoners.
As all the court officials readied themselves for the case Bad Man X dropped the bomb which had everybody in the court agape. He announced that he did not wish to go further with the case.
The judge was shocked. He could only remark that the four lads was lucky and that Mr. X had wasted a lot of court time. He had no choice but to let the men walk without even answering for the crime with which they were accused.
As the men walked out the court one of them accused in the gruesome murder of Michelle Weeks was taken back into custody, which made some people wonder if, when his next time comes for hearing on the murder charge, he will also walk without answering.
Mr. BMX hit Colonel Wallace a box between his eyes dazzling him with his incomprehensive glimpidity.
What should the Commander do to Bad Man X?
