Looking Back: The Great Paint Job

Growing up in Krypton, I first met Rev. Jon at a Sunday school Christmas party. I was starting Primary 5 next year, and he would be the Sunday school teacher. He got to know me really well, particularly from observing my unruly behaviors. Years later, while he was training to be a pastor, I was invited to his wedding; two years later, he was posted to my church. In late July 1996, while still in Krypton, we met for lunch ostensibly to talk about my upcoming shoplifting case. On the way to an eatery, he put two and two together.

"Let me ask a pointblank question," Rev. Jon said. "Did you write those things?"

He was referring to the various messages written on church grounds. Most of them were critical of a youth fellowship that I recently left. It was on a Thursday night some weeks ago. Armed with only a black marker, choice messages were scribbled on the concrete floors in three places of the church. On a Sunday after that, another one was left in a men's restroom, on a wall above a urinal with an arrow pointing to it. My handwriting was unmistakable, and the messages' contents pointed to me. 

"Let me ask another pointblank question," Rev. Jon continued. "Were you at Judy's wedding?"

Judy was part of that youth fellowship, so were many of the people – current and past members – that she invited.

"No, I wasn't invited," I replied.

"Were you at church that day?"

"I was."

"What did you do?"

I had no reason to lie to someone that had known me for 13 years, so I told him what happened.

Saturday, June 1996. I arrived at church at about 1pm, two hours before the wedding. There was one person in the sanctuary finishing up on the wedding decorations. I walked down the aisle and noticed the sides of each pew had two stalks of flower arranged in an X shape. Wednesday from The Addams Family TV series came to mind. She often talks about her favorite doll by making a throat-slicing gesture because the doll was headless. That gave me an idea. I waited for that person to finish, made sure no one else was around, took out a pair of scissors, and began cutting the head off the rear stalk. By the time I was done, the X pairs looked like the picture below on the right. When Rev. Jon said no one noticed that, I was mildly disappointed.

Decapitating the flowers wasn't part of the plan. It just happened to be the right opportunity at the right time. Making sure again that no one else was around, I began the plan. To the right of the altar was an upright piano. I removed its fallboard and upper panel, took out the paper strips from my backpack, and stepped on the damper (right) pedal. That caused the dampers to be raised above the strings. I placed the strips between them, released the damper pedal, and put the fallboard and upper panel back to the way they were before.

People noticed the piano's new distinctive sound, and not just the ones that were at the wedding. Both worship services' congregations heard it the following day. But no one tried to find out what caused it. After the 11am service, I went to the piano and removed the paper strips, restoring its original sound. The strips were made from scratch paper, folded twice to a 1-inch width, and each was as long as the length of an A4 paper. I spent weeks testing them on another upright piano, so I knew it would work. 

That was it for the moment. I went to the next building, into the conference room and waited out. The conference room windows overlooked the parking lot. Not only did I saw when the guests arrived, but also who and the cars they drove. Since they weren't showing up right away, I looked around for something to do. I saw a box of carrom seeds, and spray-painted the yellow seeds black. That was not enough. I also spray-painted the red seed too.

 

When the guests started arriving, I made a mental list of cars to target. There was a guy I envied because of his superior musical talent; I learnt he drove a red car. Someone else drove a Mercedes-Benz, and another a Jaguar. The owner of the Jaguar must be some important guy – better than me. I continued waiting till 20 minutes past 3pm, and then proceeded to the parking lot. Starting with the first car on my list, I went to one wheel, unscrewed the valve cap from its stem, took out the super glue from my backpack, coated the lining of the cap, and quickly screwed the cap back on the stem. This was repeated for the other three wheels, and then to all the cars in my list (including the red car, the Mercedes-Benz and the Jaguar).

A month earlier, I did a practice run of this super glue caper also at a wedding. It took longer than I'd like and only with one car (or maybe two). As for the wedding itself, I was invited to this one but not to Judy's. Since I didn't attend the latter's wedding, I had the benefit of more time. Her wedding was not yet over when I was done with the super glue caper. Was there anything else I could do? What I did next wasn't part of the plan. I looked at the Jaguar, its emblem reinforcing its haughty, expensive exterior and screaming, "I'm better than you!" The spray can still had juice, so why not... give the cars a Great Paint Job on their headlights, taillights, decals and emblems. I did at least three cars, but could only remember the Jaguar and the red car to this day. Painting the Jaguar emblem was gratifying... so gratifying... out-of-this-world gratifying.   

According to Rev. Jon, the Great Paint Job became a police case. They determined that it was an inside job, and that the culprit had grievances against the church. I had left shortly during the reception, but not before another brother Ray spotted me. We acknowledged each other, and I was out of there before the police showed up. In the weeks that followed, the Great Paint Job was all my church peers talked about. In July, one of them – Joe – asked me about it because our peers were suspecting me. He was the first to hear it from me. 

Rev. Jon was the second person to know about the Great Paint Job directly from me. He tried to persuade me to turn myself in. I was scheduled in the following month to travel to the United States for further education. Doing six months in prison would jeopardize that. The price was too high. However, I was willing to do the next best thing. I told Mom. She said to not mention a word of it to anyone, and hope that Rev. Jon would do likewise. 

Did I already mention that painting the Jaguar emblem was gratifying? It certainly was unforgettable. I was particularly proud that the entire endeavor was a total success. Flowers, piano, super glue, carrom seeds, paint job – not a single hitch or complication. I did what I set out to do and then some. The best part about it was I got away with it.

The Great Paint Job's genesis didn't happen overnight. It took several months of ruminating and planning, a large dose of resentments, rage, vindictive and self-loathing, lots of childhood trauma, and a recent history of self-destructive behaviors. I started acting out through theft and vandalism – more thefts than vandalisms – after returning from military detachment in Nov 1995. There was no justification for what I did, but I used them as excuses. What I was going through then had nothing to do personally with Judy, but I struggled to deal with my ill feelings towards the youth fellowship that she, the invitees and I were part of.  

August came. After serving 1 week in prison for shoplifting, I met with Rev. Jon again for lunch. He reported on his conversation with Mom, respected her wish to not tell anyone, and wasn't particularly happy that neither Mom nor me told Dad about the Great Paint Job. Given my history of self-destructive behaviors, Jon insisted that I needed professional help. I agreed, but it would be years before I got around to it. After lunch, he gave me a Bible. Within a few days, I was on the plane to the United States. It would be a while – 8 years – before we would meet again.

By the end of 2011, I was at Step 9 in my 12-Steps program and was trying to make amends to people I had wronged. I reached out to Rev. Jon, and owned not only the Great Paint Job but also the acts of vandalism on church grounds. However, I was unable to connect with the one person that most deserve the amends: Judy. All efforts to contact her resulted in no responses. It's a fair assumption that she already knew and wasn't willing to forgive.

Looking back, I now realized how much I was loved. I told 4 persons about the Great Paint Job, and others found out through them. Yet none of them gave me up to law enforcement. I know this because I had returned to Krypton for vacation five times without any incident. Even though I didn't face up to the Great Paint Job, I was already on the self-destructive path that ultimately led to me taking responsibility for another offense. It was the beginning of a long and difficult road ahead before I found recovery.