"Billy, get in here and wash your hands for

supper! "

                            THE NEXT DAY

Billy and his best friend Harry live in an inner-city housing project. They are both bright kids, but like most young boys, they have an adventurous and wild side. 

"Look Billy I found a  bottle of booze in my dad's old truck! Come on lets have a sip!"

THE DAY FOLLOWING

Billy and Harry go to school together, and they are on 

the track team. The boys are usually the best runners and finish regularly in first and second place. But after their encounter with the bottle of booze last night, they come in fifth and seventh. It seems their throbbing headaches are playing havoc with their bodies. Soon

the boys take up smoking and sneak booze out of their parents' houses whenever they can!

The two boys are in and out of trouble all through high school. Finally Billy graduates by the skin of his teeth. Harry drops out of high school and is arrested for DUI on the day of graduation..

After graduation, Billy and his alcoholic stepdad

have a terrific fight. Billy is kicked out of the house and told to never come back! His mom is

afraid to intervene because her husband is a violent man, and she has no money of her own to escape his grasp.

Billy moves in with Harry at an old run-down apartment building.

Come on Billy, you got to try this, it's a great high! You'll forget all your problems, and feel like a king of the universe!

I don't know Harry, it kind of scares me!

Sure enough, Billy loves his new way to get high and escape the realities of life. Soon stealing, robberies and break-ins become a way of life for Harry and Billy. The two boys now harden into criminals and drug addicts.  Their existence is like a crushed egg.  Morality and decency ooze away.