Kevin sat inside a small, dimly lit restaurant, drinking a cup of coffee and thinking. He looked at his watch, it was nearly nine at night. He wasn't going back to Chicago—not yet and it was too late to try to make a third attempt to see Harry at the prison, so the only thing left for him to do, was to get a hotel for the night until the morning. For in the morning, he had plans to stop giving this pathetic man named Harry Lyme such a hard time and listen to him. He sighed as he picked up his cell phone off the table and began dialing. He knew his mom would not be pleased knowing he wasn't going to be home that night. When Kate answered the phone, he frowned slightly.
"Mom, hey, um, its Kevin." Kevin said in a slightly low voice. "I don't think I'm going to make it home tonight. Um, there's—something came up where I have to go back to my dorm, something about fees or something."
Kevin sighed with a deeper frown as he listened to her talk, because he knew she was going to ask a million questions: what's wrong? What happened do you need money? Kevin sighed again.
"No mom, I—I don't need money, of course." Kevin said in an almost agitated tone. "I have plenty in my account, I—I'll just see you guys tomorrow night, ok? Alright, love you, bye."
Kevin clicked off quickly. He hated lying to his mother, aw but what the hell, it wasn't the first time. He left a ten dollar bill on the table before getting up to walk out.
~The Next Morning~
It was nine in the morning, when Harry was sitting in his prison cell, thinking about the previous day's events, Marv's death, that rude ass kid coming and acting as if he was too good to accept Harry and Marv's apology. Boy the previous day was just full of shit. He looked up and rolled his eyes when a guard walked to his cell and began unlocking it.
"Lyme, you've got a visitor, lets go." The guard said as he opened the cell door.
Harry looked up at him with a frown.
"What? I—I don't want to see whoever it is." Harry said coldly.
Harry knew who it was, course Harry did, it was the kid but then Harry remembered a previous thought, a thought that quickly changed his mind.
"Alright, I'll let the visitor know." The guard said before closing the gate to Harry's prison cell back.
"No, wait." Harry said quickly. "Um, I—I'll see this—visitor."
The guard looked at Harry suspiciously. It was a suspicion that guards like him were trained to have against prison inmates. Slowly, the guard opened the gate again.
"Sorry for the confusion." Harry said as he was led out to the big lunch room where visitors met with inmates.
When Harry walked out to the lunchroom, he saw Kevin sitting there in a white shirt, blue jeans and a blue jean jacket, a baseball cap on to cover his long, blond hair and he was puffing on a cigarette. Harry sat down across from Kevin and briefly looked at him.
"So you're back—for?" Harry said in a low tone.
Kevin quickly put out his cigarette on the table and threw the cigarette to the floor and looked at Harry with a raised eyebrow while blowing smoke into his face. This made Harry instantly angry. Harry had about all the abuse he could take from this kid. Harry refused to have some punk ass young kid treat him like shit, all to just to get forgiveness from him.
"Look enough of your mean bullshit, Kevin McCallister," Harry said angrily with a frown. "I don't care if I want your forgiveness or not, I'm not going to sit here and be subjected to your fucking rudeness. I mean I'm a human being too damn it."
Kevin looked at Harry with a surprised look, and his words instantly burned Kevin with guilt. Kevin sighed and looked away with a slight frown.
"You—you're right, I'm sorry." Kevin said in a low guilty voice. "Look, I wanted to let you know that I've been doing some thinking and I—I forgive you and Marv. I know it comes too late since Marv is gone but, at least its not too late for you. When you get out of here, you can leave knowing I've forgiven you."
Harry stared at Kevin with a serious look, a certain look, it was a look that Kevin had seen from a movie character once, from the character, Nicky Santoro in the film Casino, when Nicky really was angry with someone or when Nicky was about to kill someone, Nicky would give this cold, mean spirited look. It was the same look that Harry was displaying at that moment.
"When I get out of here?" Harry said coldly. "Kevin, I'm NOT getting out of here. I've been rejected for parole THREE times since being in here and I'm in here on a thirty year sentence. I'm up for parole again in three months and I'll probably be rejected again then too. I'm gonna fucking die in this prison. No, there's no getting out for me."
Kevin looked down with a surprised look and frowned briefly.
"O—Oh," Kevin said with surprise in his voice. "Well, well why? Why do they keep rejecting you?"
Harry looked down and sighed and briefly closed his eyes and then shook his head.
"They keep rejecting me because I don't have any education," Harry said bitterly. "I only have a fifth grade education, I don't have a plan as to what I'm going to do for work when I get out of here or where I'm going to live. So how are they gonna let me out? I'll be back to doing the same ole shitty crimes I did before I went in here. Where am I gonna go? For a second I thought about going back to Vegas, but then I came to my senses and remembered I was banned from that place YEARS ago by the law and by the Mob."
Kevin raised his eyebrows in surprise.
"Wow, why are you banned from Las Vegas?" Kevin asked.
Harry scoffed and shook his head again.
"Because of some dumb shit I did when I was a bit younger, years and years ago, back before I changed my name to Harry Lyme." Harry said. "It was horrible, I fucked up a lot of things for myself and for others and I was going to be killed by the mob but they gave me a second chance and let me go and said if they ever saw me in Vegas again, I'd be dead. That's when I met Marv two years later and—so I can't go back there."
Harry sighed and shook his head.
Theme Song: "Lean On Me" ~ Glee Cast ~ (GREAT song and you should hear it, its an absolutely moving song!)
Kevin stared down and thought quietly. He then looked back up and raised an eyebrow at Harry. Kevin couldn't believe what he was about to propose to Harry, but Kevin was guessing it was more of a strong urge that flowed through him, than just his own will making him about to do what he was about to do and say.
"Um, how—how about I tutor you so you can get a GED?" Kevin asked with hesitance.
Harry looked at Kevin with a frown and then he scoffed and smiled briefly.
"Yeah sure, and then what are we gonna do next?" Harry asked "Sing Kumbayah? Nah, ah, that's alright McCallister."
Kevin looked down and briefly laughed, that was quite funny a comment, in Kevin's mind.
"Nah, I'm serious, Harry." Kevin said with a brief smirk. "Look you're trying to get out of here and I'm supposing when you get out here, you're gonna fly straight and shit, so the only way you're gonna be able to get out of here is if you got your shit together, ya know?"
Harry stared at Kevin, trying to decipher if he was for real or not. Harry shook his head.
"Yeah but still, that's just the first thing," Harry said. "There's the factor of a job, a place to live—its just too much to tackle on from here, so thanks but no thanks."
Kevin sighed and nodded.
"Look, we'll tackle the job and housing issue after you get your GED." Kevin said with a smirk. "Right now though, I think getting a GED would be the first step."
Harry frowned and scoffed.
"Yeah but Kevin, I don't HAVE money for a GED." Harry said with a frown. "I mean, look around, I'm in PRISON, do I LOOK like I have money?"
Kevin nodded again and sighed.
"I'll pay for the GED." Kevin said. "What is it, like—sixty bucks? That's nothing, I'll take care of it."
Harry looked at Kevin with absolute shock and surprise.
"Wait, why—why are you willing to help like this?" Harry asked with a suspicious tone. "Just yesterday you told me to fuck off."
Kevin laughed briefly and shrugged.
"Yeah, but then I did some thinking and—I'm willing to forgive, Harry. I don't do enough good deeds as an adult like I did as a kid, and so now maybe this is the time I can—despite what you and Marv did to me years ago."
Harry looked down with a surprised look. He then looked up at Kevin and smiled.
"O—k, alright," Harry said. "If you're—if you're really willing to help me, I—I'd appreciate it."
Kevin nodded with a brief smile before taking out another cigarette from his jean jacket pocket and a lighter and lighting the cigarette and taking a puff.
"Good, so I'll come everyday and tutor you for about four hours," Kevin said before taking a puff of his cigarette. "It should take about a month, if you're smart and catch on easily, which I have an inkling that you will."
Harry looked away and laughed.
"Damn kid, you almost make me wanna hug you." Harry said with a smile.
Kevin laughed and stood up.
"Nah, don't do that, I'm not ready for you to touch me yet and if ya do, then I'd have to punch the shit out of ya." Kevin said with a smile before taking a puff of his cigarette.
Harry laughed.
"Wow, you curse like a sailor, kid, I thought I was a bad curser." Harry said with a brief laugh.
Kevin sighed and shrugged.
"Live a life like I had and you would too." Kevin said seriously. "It wasn't all roses with me getting to eighteen years of age. A lot of tough times that caused me to start swearing, smoking and a whole bunch of other bad habits. Anyway, see ya tomorrow, nine a.m. sharp. I'll bring the materials, you just bring your thinking skills."
Harry nodded and stood with a smile. Kevin waved quickly while taking another puff on the cigarette and turned to walk away.
"Oh wait, um, Kevin?" Harry called.
Kevin turned back and looked at him.
"Um, thanks—thank you, you don't have to do this—go to this extra step but you are, so thank you." Harry said sincerely.
Kevin shrugged and nodded.
"Sure, see ya tomorrow."
Kevin walked away and actually felt great about himself. Not only had he given forgiveness to his two former enemies but he was doing a great deed for one of them… TO BE CONTINUED…..