AMY SZPARA

PHOTO: Annie Mae Davis of Paulina holds a picture of her 17-year-old grandson, Gregory Davis Jr., inset, who has been missing for nearly two weeks. (Staff Photo by Amy Szpara) PAULINA – A St. James Parish teen-ager has been missing for almost two weeks, and according to his grandmother who adopted him and raised him, he never goes far from their Paulina home without leaving a note telling her where he is headed. Annie Mae Davis last saw her 17-year-old grandson, Gregory Davis Jr., Aug. 15, and the last she knew of his whereabouts, he was leaving their house to get a haircut. “I gave him money to go get his hair cut. School was going to start, and he needed a new haircut. He wasn’t mad or anything. We never had a cross word,” she said recently, adding her grandson was going to her nephew’s house for the haircut and he lives nearby. According to Annie Mae Davis, she did not worry when Gregory did not return right away. She just figured he was visiting relatives who live in the area, but after checking with all the family members in surrounding towns, she became very concerned. No one had seen the boy at all. “I thought he was at his father’s in Lutcher, and they don’t have a telephone, but usually he’ll call me from somebody else’s house,” Annie Mae Davis said. “I thought, Well, I’ll go pick him up at his daddy’s.’ He hadn’t seen him. I said, He didn’t sleep here last night?’ He said he hadn’t seen him.” She called the St. James Sheriff’s Office, but so far there has been no news, and Annie Mae Davis said she is desperate to learn something of her grandson’s whereabouts. “It’s so hard,” she said, her eyes watering. “I don’t know how much more I can take. I can’t eat or sleep. I wish I could understand.” School started two days after Annie Mae Davis saw her grandson last. Gregory Davis Jr. was to start his first day of 11th grade that Friday at Lutcher High School, but he did not show up and has not been there yet. “He never told me that he didn’t want to go to school. We went and got all his supplies and his clothes,” said Annie Mae Davis. “People keep saying maybe he didn’t want to go to school, but he didn’t say anything like that.” According to the anguished grandmother who has raised her grandson since he was seven years old, Gregory Davis Jr. has never run away before, and all of his friends live right in their neighborhood. None of them have seen him since Aug. 15. “He’s not a street boy. He doesn’t run the streets, and he doesn’t mix with a lot of people,” she said, adding that he doesn’t drink or smoke either. “He might go to a movie. That’s about it, and I usually go with him. I sat through Jurassic Park, and I didn’t want to see that. He would go with me to the grocery. He’s close to me. Yes, indeed, just like one of my own children. He knows how I worry. He knows I’m worried.” The sheriff’s office has questioned some of the family’s relatives, but Davis is worried that a good bit of time has gone by. “I know he’s 17. I understand that, but adults do go missing. He’s still a person,” she said. Annie Mae Davis said she will continue to work with the sheriff’s office and will be contacting other places to get help in finding her grandson. “I just want to ask him to come home. He knows I still love him. I want to tell him to please come home, and if anyone knows where he is, tell him to come home or tell me where he is,” she said.