I woke up, in the same open cell, in amongst all the other prisoners. But she wasn't there next to me. And I stared at the place she used to sleep. And I felt empty but glad, because she was free.
The afternoon was setting in, and then I saw her walking towards me, her old lined face smiling at me. She summoned me to her, and simply said 'Alice sun, Darlene sun is here.' I followed her to the gate and she led me to the entrance. I ran to the side gate, and caught her hand through the bars.
'Why, did you do it?' she asked me, she was still unsure about my innocence but tried to direct her question towards yesterday.
'Does it matter?' I asked, seeing her real meaning.
'No.' she replied.
'Because if I say that I did it, you won't forget me and you'll hate me, and if I say that I didn't you still won't forget me.'
'Either way, I won't stop until we're together again.'
'You need to forget me Darl. You have to go live, get out of here.' I wanted to tell her I did it for her and what the truth was. At least to give me some hope. But I knew it would take over her life.
'I can't.' she smiled at me. 'You told me it would be ok.'
'It is.' I said. 'You're going home?' It was a question as well as a statement, as I saw the car behind her, her father looked at me smiling. Almost telling me I'd done the right thing.
And Hank stood closer waiting till Darlene was done.
'You have to go,' I told her. She knew it had more meaning than what it plainly stated.
She squeezed my hand and pressed her face against the bars to kiss me on the cheek.
'It'll be ok.' she said.
'It already is.' I replied. I let go first, and she walked backwards towards the car. Hank casually strolled towards me.
'What you did was brave.' he said.
'I've screwed up all our lives. It's all I could fix.'
'It's not over yet, I'll keep looking.'
'Just let it be.'
And so I wait, holding onto my somewhat false hope.