#caleb reed

Heartbreak After 17-Year-Old Activist Caleb Reed Is Found Shot Dead – CBS Chicago

Heartbreak After 17-Year-Old Activist Caleb Reed Is Found Shot Dead – CBS Chicago — Read on chicago.cbslocal.com/2020/08/03/heartbreak-after-17-year-old-activist-caleb-reed-is-found-shot-dead/

RADIO UP. TAILGATE DOWN. HERE’S TO THE BOYS WHO RUN THIS TOWN.

NAME: Caleb Reed AGE: Thirty TITLE: Baker NEIGHBORHOOD: Fox Avenue

THEM OLD DIRT ROADS MAKE FOR A LONG RIDE.

There has, quite honestly, very little in Caleb’s life that wasn’t centered around food in some way. Even his birthplace of Austin was more determined on the fact that the city was where his father was fronting his next restaurant. Christopher Reed was billed as a man who had pulled himself up by his bootstraps, working his way up from cooking in diners in his small Texan town to pulling in Michelin stars at his own establishments. His marriage to a beautiful French pastry chef and his son’s subsequent birth were just the icing on the cake…so to speak.

Growing up meant becoming more familiar with kitchens then the schoolroom, although, to be fair, the two meant quite the same when it came to his parents. But while Caleb sat patiently through his father’s lessons, mimicking as best he could, it was his mother’s work that fascinated him. The other adults thought it had to do with the promise of sugar, but Caleb liked to think his mother sensed that it was more then that, even then. There was something comforting about the moments when the icing was piped out just right and it was even more fun to try to figure out what flavors would mix together.

Everything screeched to a halt, however, when Caleb was ten years old in a car accident that killed the driver on impact and his mother critically injured. She died later in the hospital while the doctors examining Caleb found that his blood work came back with something that couldn’t be a result of the accident—type one diabetes.

And just like that Caleb’s access to sweets became limited with his father focusing more on ensuring that his son knew how to cook. He explained it away that the boy needed to know how to produce all sorts of food for his new diet, but it soon became clear just what Caleb was being primed for. Which was why he took a particular delight when, at eighteen, he announced to the assorted company amassed to celebrate his acceptance into culinary school that he would be studying pastry,

It gathered more then a few raised eyebrows and even some assorted laughter from his classmates when he had to test his blood sugar or administer insulin via his pump during certain taste tests. But Caleb was determined to excel despite it, making it clear that he didn’t expect to treat his condition as a handicap. He had had enough of being coddled from his father, after all.

For a time, graduating with high honors seemed enough to please his father. But that began to change as Caleb insisted in interviews that he would only be joining his father in the kitchen as a pastry chef instead of as a sous chef. Things only got worse, at least in his father’s eyes, when photos began to emerge of Caleb swapping something more intimate on outings with his former classmates than some beers. It turned into their biggest fight yet where Christopher accused his son of wasting his potential and scoffed at his “delayed teenaged rebellion” of fooling around with other boys.

A few slammed doors later and some hastily packed bags found Caleb in Ross County. It was refreshing to be away from the constant bustle of all the major cities and, with any hope, it would be the one place he could open a shopfront without being connected back to his father.

SNAPSHOTS

01. Diabetes has always been a touchy subject for Caleb. It’s impossible to hide when he basically carries another organ plugged into his side. He gets tried of people trying not to see it, though, or, worst yet, attempting to regulate his blood sugar for him.

02. Much as he may whine about his medical issues, though, Caleb prides himself on creating treats that other people can enjoy regardless of whatever issues might affect their own diets.

03. Caleb has the small outline of a cupcake inked onto his inner wrist, which he might have gotten when drunk at least half to piss off his father.

CHARACTER STATS

the description of the drawing I pulled from my Deviantart page