The next person I encountered in the city was a tall, rugged, gangly man named Jarvis. Jarvis was from Louisiana. He was a veteran and a paint sniff survivor. He became addicted to paint at the young age of six.

His parents left cans of paint open when they decided to repaint his bedroom, they had forgotten to close the paint because they drank too much Coors Light and passed out drunk. Jarvis was in the next room watching cartoons when he was pulled to the paint by the alluring aroma. He became an instant addict after his first intoxicating whiff.

Jarvis later mentioned to me that that was the first time he experienced feelings of pure ecstasy.

During adolescence, Jarvis was arrested several times for sneaking into three Home Depots, and a Sherwin Williams Paint Store in the middle of the night, and opening up cans of paint, not to use, but just to get that exhilarating thrill he received from each magnificent inhalation.

After several trips to the juvenile detention facility, Jarvis decided it would be a good idea to enroll in the military.

After completing his time in the service, Jarvis returned home and hung around the same pernicious friends. They all seemed to have been caught in a timewarp, for the only sign of growth was in their stomachs, due to enormous amounts of alcohol they consumed.

Jarvis quickly reverted to old destructive patterns, and ended up becoming addicted to paint once more, but this time a more dangerous form of paint, spray paint. After destroying numerous brain cells, and having to be rushed to the emergency room far too many times, his girlfriend decided it was time to get him help. She didn't want to see him die, she was the only person who truly ever cared about Jarvis.

Jarvis married her, it was one of the few smart decisions Jarvis ever made in his life. After the marriage, the two of them decided that it would be a wise idea if they left their toxic surroundings and moved into the city to start a new life together.

When I met Jarvis he already went through the full twelve-step process of addiction recovery. He was now a reborn Christian and would thank Jesus for practically everything. It seemed like every sentence ended with the statement, "Thank you Jesus."

I vividly remember the first time I heard him say that signature closing statement; I was over at Jarvis's house and he turned on the water faucet to wash his hands, and when water poured out, he startled me, because he unexpectedly exclaimed with great vehemence, "THANK YOU JESUS!"

There was another time where I attended church with him, and he invited me over afterwards to watch the football game that aired while we were in service. He claimed that he taped the game, but then as we drove back, he suddenly started to panic, he couldn't remember if he actually recorded the game. He was practically sweating and already apologizing to me. When we made it to his home and he saw the saved recording, he grabbed me and shook me with joyous delight and shouted, "Thank you Jesus!" I loved his energy and his zest for life.

He attended church every day, either for worship or for volunteer service. He helped at AA meetings, drug addiction clinics, and mentored troubled youth.

Other than constantly trying to convert me to Christianity, Jarvis was an easygoing and overall great guy. He spoke with a heavy Cajun accent. He was jolly, and had a Bill Clinton sort of charm. He seemed to have a smile permanently plastered on his face, and possessed a loud, boisterous, jolly laugh that could fill an auditorium. A laugh so jolly, that it would even rival the jolliness of Santa Claus himself.

Jarvis and his wife had four children, one girl and three boys. The girl was their first born and Jarvis's favorite child. Every parent has their favorite, even if they don't want to admit it. The girl just became a teenager when I met Jarvis, he struggled with this immensely. According to Jarvis, she used to be daddy's little princess, but now she didn't ever want to be around him. He would reminisce about the days when she was a child and would show me pictures of the two of them together.

Now she was in rebellion. Lying, sneaking out, talking back, smoking cigarettes, wearing clothes that revealed more skin than they actually covered, and posting provocative photos online.

One night that seemed no different than the rest, soon became a night that would haunt Jarvis for years to come. On his way home from work, Jarvis decided to stop at Del Taco for two bean and cheese red burritos, upon parking, he noticed that the car parked beside him contained a pimply-faced teenage boy and his little girl. He peered inside and noticed that they were not only making out, but his little girl was jerking off the little douche. Jarvis's world was shattered at that moment.

Jarvis was not the same after that. He began to drink, heavily. He would fall prey to drunken stupors, and erupt in a drunken rampage at an alarming rate. He would scream, curse, throw objects, slam doors, but that release of rage did not alleviate the pain he felt inside, therefore the behavior not only continued, it worsened.

He wasn't going to church with the same regularity, and if he did attend, he was drunk. Hell, he was drunk every time I saw him from then on. He lost that jolly demeanor that attracted me to him initially, and he seemed to be on the verge of a violent outburst at any moment. Being around him put me on edge, there was a deep-seething, boiling anger that lay beneath his piercing blue eyes, and his body language conveyed dangerous unpredictability.

As Jarvis's mental health deteriorated, his daughter's poor behavior amplified. She lost all respect for her father. She resented him, was disgusted by him, and her attitude was one of arrogant disobedience.

Months after the incident, a familiar night of Jarvis yelling at his household was unfolding right on cue, but this time, when his daughter spoke back, she added a few stinging insults that wounded whatever was left of Jarvis's remaining pride. Those insults did not bode well for her.

Jarvis slapped his daughter in the face and then reached back to slap her once more, but his loving and patient wife jumped in to rescue her daughter. Jarvis's wrath he had for his little girl was tragically displaced to his once cherished wife. He beat her, badly. He broke her nose, fractured her orbital bone, and smashed many other bones in her once handsome face. She no longer looked human after the beating, she resembled an old, rotten, bruised plum.

Jarvis was arrested, but his wife didn't give up on him. She had faith that things could change, that the two of them could rekindle their love, and recapture that once strong family dynamic that she felt so utterly blessed to have, but her efforts proved frivolous.

Jarvis would say that he wanted to change, he would make some minor improvements, but then without fail, would have a relapse and transmute back into the drunken asshole whose mission it was to make everyone around him as miserable as he was. He was quite successful at that mission.

It was unfortunate, the chasm that Jarvis was trapped in was too deep to escape. His wife's precious hand could no longer reach him and rescue him from the darkness he was enveloped in.

After a few more years of melancholy, Jarvis's antics had finally taken a toll on her; she was broken, beaten, despondent, an absolute shell of herself. Her parents advised her to move back to Louisiana and take the children. She listened. She divorced Jarvis and was granted custody of the children.

Heartbroken, lost, full of self-contempt, Jarvis could have easily spiraled further downward, but he didn't.

I think his family leaving him finally awoke that part of him that was still of some value. That part of him that was willing to fight, willing to take responsibility. That part of him that he forgot existed.

Jarvis stopped drinking and told me he was going to leave the city and move back to Louisiana to get his family back. He gave me a warm hug and told me Jesus loved me, and then handed me his state of Louisiana beer koozie.

He flew back to Louisiana that day.

I haven't heard from Jarvis since. I hope he got his family back, and learned from his mistakes. Only time will tell.