Diamond Gang

Chapter 8: Rico

Three months went by, and John dreamt in prison of accomplishing big things in life. He had more dreams locked up than out in the streets free. As scheduled, the lights were out in his unit at nine-thirty PM. Some prisoners went to sleep while others turned into gargoyles. No matter if it was dark or bright, there was always someone watching, and John wanted to make sure he had a lookout person just in case something went down. There was a lot of ungodly activity going on once the darkness took over. Out of nowhere, thunderous screams were heard in the pod, "Get me out of here!" inmates cried. All the prisoners were awakened at six AM to go through a shakedown and headcount. Later, they received their breakfast at their door. John got his food as he tightened his lips. He received his breakfast and sat by himself on his mattress. He saw that some inmates threw their food and drinks at the correctional officers.

John held onto his plastic spoon and played with it around his fingers as he stared at the prison walls. Sometimes, John woke at six AM and was ready by his door to do his job duties as a janitor or sewing clothes. When John swept the kitchen floors, he always looked at the windows to see the birds fly. Those prison tasks helped John stay away from psychological trauma.

As John went through his life in prison, he could not stand being in a cell for more than ten hours. Every time John was in his cell, he looked at the walls. The walls had a dark past that made John feel sick to his stomach. When terror conquered the brain, John got flashbacks of everything he had experienced. John felt the walls get bigger and bigger and felt suffocated. The walls laughed at him for being a fool. His shadow imitated every crime he did until all he saw was his past and never his future or present. No matter where he was in prison, the walls and John's dark shadow always followed him. John felt like a nobody as his actions haunted him. It was hard for John to adjust to prison; there was no privacy for John. And there was zero privacy when he went through shakedowns, headcounts, and lockdowns. John witnessed men fight and die. The only good part in prison was that he was able to call mom and write her letters.

As the years went by in prison, it got worse. John made enemies of other cliques. A man named Jose had beef with a good friend of John, Chris, for stealing his girl scout cookies from his cell. Frighteningly, when Chris was walking down the hallway in the pod, Jose came out of his door and began to fight him. Chris screamed brutally loud from the pain.

A few days went by, and John threw water on Jose's face after John heard him brag about his fight he won against Chris. The next day, John walked by Jose's cell. Jose saw him and aggressively dragged John into his cell and locked the door. John tried to escape but could not. He was in a room with a man all alone. He was scared; he did not know what Jose was going to do with him. Out of fear, John began to attack him. They both began to fight deadly and threw each other towards the walls. Right away, a correctional officer came and broke the scene with a lockdown. Jose got sent to disciplinary segregation. John was thankful that he was not sent to the box.

John saw many things in jail ... things he would remember forever. All the spine-chilling encounters that John went through caused him to become a quiet boy for the rest of his years in prison.

After the seven years were over, John spent one last night in his prison cell. John woke up from his sleep and realized he was unable to open his right eye and mouth. He saw Officer De Medici sewing his eyes and mouth. John got up from his bed and moved around the cell with pain on his face. Suddenly, John was able to see and saw his mouth stitched like a voodoo doll.

John woke up from the dream and touched his face to feel stitches. He opened his jaw and shut it twice like a Christmas nutcracker. Later, a guard was ready at the door to walk him out of prison, "You did your time!" he said. After John went through the processes and gates, he was finally out. John went through a cultural shock as he was unable to adjust to the society around 1986. He was finally free from the walls, but his shadow still followed him no matter where he went. John did not learn anything in prison. He came out as the same person as he was when he came in. John was all over the news that he was out of prison, and gangsters wanted to hunt him down for all he did when he was in the streets.