Blank Variables???

[Deathtenchi]

Hi, I am an admin on my friend's Vb, but you see he is dumb and needs me to help him with the PHP part. I'm stumped. I try to make the image in the background of the category box random, but when i try to put the variable $image in the template, it always appears blank on the page. I tried putting the code in functions.php, and then again, in the php include, and nothing. In the template i just put <td background="$image" ... </td>. what am I doing wrong?