Crimes and Misdemeanors

Baranyk swings his chair a bit closer. "Look, you want to get out of here, right?" he whispers, meaning graduate and get out of high school. "Most of all you want to be gone. We both know that. Right?"

The kid shrugs. "Yeah, I've been trying."

"Right now you need --"

The kid interrupts again, yelling: "Come on, man. Why are they snitching me out? I wasn't assaulting on the kid."

It is the first time that either of them has referred to an assault, real or imagined, against the boy who said he was beaten up three days earlier. The boy adds: "He got beat up, but I didn't do it . . . I don't know who did it."

"What was this argument about, the one between the two kids that you heard?"

"They were just arguing, man."

Baranyk decides that is enough for now with the boy. He might bring the kid back later if he can't otherwise learn what triggered the assault. "Remember what I said," he reminds the boy. "Think about how you want to get out of here with your diploma. You -- "

The boy, half-listening, talks over Baranyk. "I've been assaulted before, but I don't snitch anybody out," he says. "I won't back down, but I don't snitch anybody out. I --"

Baranyk cuts him off. "Hey." The change in Baranyk's tone catches the boy by surprise.

"If somebody hits you, you make the good judgment and walk away," Baranyk says. "Are you listening?"

The boy shrugs.