Chapter3- Prison Life

"Get out, prisoner!" yelled an irritating voice that woke me up. I quickly unbuckled and jumped up. "Hurry up, we don't got all day!" the irritating voice called. I wanted to say some choice words to him, but I stopped myself. I climbed down the ladder and was brought inside. It was a small prison, only about 24 cells. Even for a prison, it was very dirty.

"You're sentenced to five years of prison," the officer said as he slammed the gate. The slamming sound of the metal gate made my heart rise up into my throat. I was in denial. It was unbelievable. Five years. Five long, harsh years, stuck with a cellmate. I looked at my cellmate. He was giant. Tall, muscular, and just plain big. His chin wasn't trimmed and he had a patch over his eye for some unknown reason. Probably lost it in a fight. Tattooed on his shoulder was a picture of a skull and he was wearing giant steel-toed boots. He didn't seem to be too promising. I had nothing to do, so I went over to the bottom bunk and fell to sleep.

"Wake up prisoner!" said an echoing voice. I jumped up and banged my head off the top bunk.

"What?" I said in exasperation. I hated to be woken up abruptly.

"Put this shirt on!" said the guard who had thrown a striped shirt through the bars and into the cell.

I got up, went over to where the shirt was, picked it up and stared at it, hesitant to put it on. It was a dirty, white and black striped shirt. It looked like it was pre-owned and never washed. I slowly took off my shirt and with a disgusted face, put on my new shirt. It smelled like a combination of spoiled eggs and elderberry. I was tired of all this excitement, excitement being used sarcastically. So, I went back to sleep.

When I awoke and sat up, the rough voice of my cellmate startled me. "You missed lunch."

"What? What time is it?"

"Two o' clock."

"Already?"

"Yup."

"They don't even wake anyone up for lunch?"

"Get used to it. Nothing in jail is fair.

"You must be used to it. How long have you been in here?"

"Eight years."

"How much longer do you have?"

"Forever."

'Do I dare ask!?' I thought. 'Ah well, like it matters!' "What did you do?" I asked.

"I murdered my wife and daughter," he responded.

'Why did I have to ask?!?' I thought.

"What did you do?" he asked back.

"I was a thief. I only have five years." There was no more conversation between the two. I was too afraid and my cellmate wasn't used to talking. As time passed, I decided to shine my necklace. I reached down into my shirt for it. It was gone! I jumped up and looked all around. I couldn't find it anywhere. After hours of thinking that it couldn't get worse, it got worse. I had lost my necklace.

After about two hours, a guard came up to the gate and said, "Time for supper. Come on." He opened the gate and my cellmate started to walk out. "Are you coming, prisoner?" the guard asked me.

"No, I'm looking for something," I replied.

"There's not that many places to…"

"I'm looking for it anyway!" I said angrily.

"Okay, okay," the guard replied. He escorted my cellmate away.

'This is my chance,' I thought. I started looking through my cellmate's stuff. There was nothing there. I couldn't find my necklace. 'Where would I have lost it?' I thought. I thought and thought and thought some more. The last time I remembered wearing it, was on the jet. 'They must have taken it from me when I was sleeping!' I thought. That was the only possible time I could have lost it.

I laid down on my bed. My cellmate was escorted back in. He must have finished eating. I just figured that I couldn't get my necklace back. The thought of that made me cringe. As I lay there, I fell to sleep.

I woke up early in the morning. I knew this because none of the lights were on. I tried to go to sleep, but I just couldn't. I had too many thoughts in my head. Thoughts about the past, present, and future; but mostly about the past.

Eventually, everyone woke up and a guard came to bring them to breakfast. I was extremely hungry, since I hadn't eaten anything the day before. The food was surprisingly good. I was served with waffles, French toast, sausage, and orange juice. For some reason I expected the food to taste horrible. Anyways, I enjoyed it, and after I finished, I was brought back to my cell. I had to do something, so I started a conversation. "What's your name?" I asked.

"Timothy Francis Ferdinand is my full name, but you can just call me Charlie," he responded. I was surprised. "What's your name?"

"You can call me Erik." I didn't know what else to say. I looked around for something to discuss. 'Ah hah!' I thought. "What's that red button for on the wall?" I asked.

"Well, if you press it, somebody would come to escort you to the gymnasium. That's where we play sports and exercise.

"Oh, I didn't know that."

"Well, what did you think we do on our spare time, just lie around?"

"That's what you've been doing."

"We go during the night. I would have woken you up if I knew you wanted to go."

"Oh." I was so happy. Finally, there was something that I could look forward to. Even though I wasn't good at sports, I would have a little action in my life for the next five years.

Suddenly, foot steps and voices were coming from somewhere. "What's that?" I asked.

"It's probably somebody coming to bail somebody out.

"Really?"

"Don't get you're hopes up, boy. They come to bail out friends and family."

I was saddened, but I still walked up to the bars and peeked out. There were three people, a teenaged girl, a woman, and a man. The first girl looked about my age, the woman looked about 23, and the man looked like he was 21. As they got closer, I realized that the girl might have been 17 instead of 18. The girl had shoulder-length dirty-blonde hair, the woman had long black hair and the man had blonde spiked hair. As they approached, I just clutched the bars and prayed. When they reached my cell, the woman skimmed Charlie and I quickly and said, "Come on, there has to be somebody better than this," and they moved on. But the girl's eyes looked onto Erik and stayed there; even though her body left, her spirit wanted to stay.

A few seconds later, I responded, "Darn it!"

"I told you so," Charles replied.

I laid down and was disappointed. I decided that I would never get bailed out. Nobody knew me there. The only people that knew me were the Vatiulus. I wished I was back with them, stealing. Even though I despised stealing, I'd rather be doing it than what I was doing then, nothing.

I heard footsteps coming from the other direction. 'It must be them again. They must have found who they were looking for.' But the group didn't continue walking. They stopped at my cell. The guard opened the gate and the girl walked in. "Are you sure?" the guard asked.

"Okay." the guard replied. "Prisoner! Get up. These people are bailing you."

"Really!?" I yelled excitedly as he jumped up. The woman whispered something to the man.

"Really," said the guard in an irritated tone. "Come on, follow me." I grabbed my bag.

"Bye, Erik," Charlie said.

"Bye!" I said happily.

I followed the girl, woman, man, and guard to the front office. We entered and were greeted by and old lady, "How may I help you?"

"They're going to bail this prisoner," the guard answered. "You can handle the rest."

"Okay," the woman started, "what's your prisoner number?"

"Prisoner what?" I asked, confused.

"Turn around."

"Wha? Okay" I turned around.

"Okay. Number 38." I turned back around. "Now sign these papers," the lady demanded. The girl signed the paper in three places, and then Erik did the same.

"Now, just go into the back room and get changed out of that filthy shirt." I did what she said and changed into a new, clean shirt. "Okay, that's all! Buh-bye!" She threw the shirt away. We all left.

When they got out, I was first to talk, "Thank you, thank you, thank you, and thank you more."

"You're welcome," the girl replied.

"By the way, what are your names?" I asked.

"My name is Leslee," said the girl.

"My name is Lulu," said the woman.

"You can call me Cloud. Nice to meet you," replied the man. He shook my hand and said, "So, what's you're name?"

"Oh, it's Erik!" I said.