jim carroll

Jim was a 16-year-old high school student living in New York. He played basketball, but he was far too rebellious. He lived with his mother in a low-income apartment; it was just the two of them since his father had divorced his mother when he was very young. At 14, Jim developed a drug addiction. He started stealing money from his mother without her noticing to buy drugs, and along with his group of friends, he would rob stores to fund his habit. Everything remained a secret until Jim's mother found out what her son was doing and kicked him out of the house. Jim continued his downward spiral, robbing stores and using drugs, living and sleeping on the streets or occasionally in abandoned buildings. One day, after Jim had gone to ask his mother for money and she had refused—leaving him in tears—he was walking through the empty streets of New York, until he found a girl sitting on a bench, staring at the road.