Come Down From Your Fences

Chapter 21

He wanted to hit something. No, scratch that - he needed to hit something.

The kid had been released earlier today. The scene had been a touching one:

"See ya, Dallas. Keep out of trouble," Tony said cheerfully as he stepped through the door to the cell he'd been confined to for the past four months.

"Whatever. Get a fucking life, stupid, and try not to be such a loser," Dally offered as his own special brand of parting advice.

"Yeah, Winston, I'm gonna miss you, too."

Who would have thought he'd be stuck with someone even more pathetic than Tony and his feelings and his need to talk all-the-fucking-time?

Well, apparently someone in the Oklahoma penal system thought it'd be funny to place a sobbing, sniveling pansy in a cell with Dallas Winston. Torture, it seemed, was now permissible and they were determined to go to any lengths to make the remaining two months of his sentence as miserable as possible.

He'd had the cell to himself for two peaceful hours. There was no one there to question his every move, no one to try and start a conversation with him, no one to annoy the shit out of him just by breathing too loud. It was the best two hours he'd spent in a long time.

He should have known it was too good to be true.

"Got a new friend for ya here, Winston." The guard said as he unlocked the door and ushered in a new occupant.

"Don't need any more friends, if it's all the same to you," Dally said, taking a drag on a cigarette as he stood by the barred window, his back to the cell door.

The view sucked, but at least it wasn't gray cinderblocks The sun was setting but the sight left him unmoved - he couldn't see what Johnny had been talking about. Just some stupid colors, big deal. He thought for a moment that maybe he was colorblind, maybe there was just something he was missing.

All he saw was the sky getting dark, which to him was a good thing. Nighttime was when he thrived; he loved the darkness, loved the danger. He hated the daylight; it revealed things and made it harder to hide, harder to pretend. At night, he could imagine he was back in New York, the pulse of the big city beneath his feet.

Even in the fading light he could see his life in Tulsa for what it was, and right now all he saw was dirt with a few sad patches of brown grass. Everything was surrounded by a tall, chain link fence topped-off with a wicked looking coil of barbed wire. He'd never really thought about just how depressing it all really was - how cut off from the world he was in here.

"Yeah, well ya ain't got much choice in the matter seein' as how you're still a guest of the state for 60 more days," the guard said, interrupting his thoughts.

"58 days," Dally corrected under his breath. He heard the door close and he could sense a presence behind him, but he still didn't turn around. He wasn't in the mood for this right now. Two hours of peace and quiet weren't enough.

That peace was shattered by a pathetic whimper that sounded behind him. "Shit," Dally muttered. Grounding out the cigarette on the windowsill, he turned around.

His new roommate was standing in the corner, clutching his meager belongings while tears ran unchecked down his chubby cheeks. "Shit," Dally said again. "I don't need this right now."

He sat down on his bunk and shook his head. The kid didn't move. He just stood there, shaking and crying.

"Well, are ya just gonna stand there all goddamn night? You're creepin' me out, kid." Dally's annoyance was quickly turning to anger as the boy didn't respond and his sobbing grew louder.