The Sister

Chapter 2: Starting Anew

    “You boys have worked enough to bail yourselves out,” the cop said to us one day. “I’ll send the money into the government’s account and you boys can get out the day after next.”

     I did not look up. I simply patted my bed in a rhythm that I was doing before.

     “Really?” Moe exclaimed in excitement. He approached the door and looked directly at the cop. “How I know you ain’t pullin’ my leg or somethin’?”

     “Here, this should prove just about everything,” he responded in disgust. After shoving a couple pieces of paper through the door, Moe snatched it like some wild animal.

     I wasn’t looking at either of them. I just kept patting my bed, enjoying the tune that was going through my head. I wasn’t too excited. That same cop had come up to us a year ago with the same message. Only that time he lied and laughed at our dumb faces.

     “Holy gosh!” Moe screamed. “We’re gettin’ out!”

     I rolled my eyes and did not meet his.

     “Gosh! Gosh! Hey Steph! We really gettin’ out!”

     Although I did not believe him, an odd feeling began to bubble inside of me. A mix of excitement, fear, anxiety, but most of all – disappointment. Only because I had that gut feeling that the cop and Moe were playing the joke on me as a team.

     “You deaf or something man?” Moe screamed at me. He did not climb the bunk where I slept, but he tossed the paper up at my head as a paper airplane.

     I finally turned my head. Moe was staring up at me with excitement glowing in his eyes and the cop was still there, apparently getting impatient. My eyes scanned the bed until I saw the sheet of paper. Snatching it up I looked through the whole thing. It was no joke. There were our names: Maurice Collins and Stephen Hopes. Underneath our names all sorts of other crap that talked about our crime and the time we spent here. The last paragraph was the one that excused us of our crime and someone’s signature. (Probably that judge.)

     I felt myself shaking nervously afterwards. I’m not sure whether tears started falling or if it was just sweat. I couldn’t tell at that time and I honestly didn’t care. The only thing that rang through my head was my family and their faces when I asked them to bail me out. What would they say to me now? At this point, I wanted to remain in jail for the rest of my life….

     I threw the paper back down to Moe and he handed it back to the cop.

     “You boys should pack up,” he began. “We gonna take you back home before sunrise. Don’t tell nobody you getting out, understand?”

     Moe nodded vigorously although I doubt he heard what the cop had said because the moment the cop was out of earshot he screamed aloud, “We’re free!”

     I wiped my forehead. At that point, I knew for sure that I was sweating and not crying. I pressed my lips together and breathed through my nose. Although the place was cold, the area around me seemed the have been several degrees above normal.

     “Shoot! Man, I can’t wait to see everyone!” my friend exclaimed. His face was now turning red. “Wonder what the world’s gonna be like now…,” he added dreamily.

     I gulped when he said “everyone.” How was it that he wasn’t going to be nervous to see his family? Or maybe, I could ask myself why I was being nervous. At that time, I was nineteen. My birthday was in a month so I was pretty much twenty. I was a big man, so why was I afraid of my little family?