He acted like he was on a business trip. This fact had come to me when I was replaying the first time he walked into my infirmary in my head for what seemed like the fiftieth time. Most inmates carried around a sense of doom, as if this was Hell and not a prison. Others had an aura of menace about them, as if being here was just like being in a boarding school: all fun and games until the big guys stop you. But Michael wasn't like that. He was friendly to me; always polite and flashing me smiles. He would often be in a good mood, as if he was on vacation, staying in a five star hotel and not in a cell with only some hard-ass convict and a toilet for company. And he would start chatting to me as if I was another holidaymaker too. However, there were times when he would be silent. After an amiable greeting, he would sit quietly, tapping his fingers on the table. But I never found out what he was thinking no matter how many times I asked. Michael has many secrets. The one I found most shocking is that he has a wife. After that I suspected that he couldn't do, or have done, anything else that would surprise me.
Or so I thought.
I am shocked. I am stunned. Michael is standing in front of me in the middle of the infirmary. And he is telling me that he plans to break out of prison. That he has been planning to break out since the first time he stepped through the prison walls. And he wants me to help him. I feel a mixture of panic, guilt and grief rise up in my chest as he admits that becoming my friend, gaining my trust, was also part of his plan. But the joke is that we were never friends. I was never his friend. To him I was more of a partner in crime. A colleague even, that is if I agree to help him. As I stare at him in disbelief a small voice in the back of my head says that I was right. Michael was here on a business trip. Because with Michael, it is just business.