Krokodeilos

Part 1

"You are under arrest!... ."

"Who me?" Ed replied.

"... You have the right to remain silent! Anything you say can and will be used against you in a court of law! You have the right to an attorney! If you cannot afford an attorney, one will be appointed for you!"

Waiting for Ed to resuscitate in a Neurosurgery hospital after the brain tumor operation, I didn't think I will pass from the experience of losing a dear person again. Katherine, his adorable wife, only God knows how much I envy the bastard. The doctor calls for her only to enter the room. I feel It's been a month of Sundays since I was left outside. Fogging the glass up with my breath, and for a moment I couldn't see out what's happening. She starts crying, and I didn't know if they were the tears of joy or sorrow, without hesitation I hold her closer.

"Tell me you are not going to take him back to prison." she said.

"I won't." I couldn't resist her request, "And tell him that he owes me big time."

"Thank you, thank you."

"I have to go now, my dear."

"Stay 'til he wakes up, he'll be glad hearing that from you."

"It's Okay, I've pet to feed." waving goodbye.

After a while, Ed returns to his consciousness, to find out his wife besides him.

"Ed, Ed, do you recognize me?" she asks him eagerly.

"Of course I do, idiot." he hugged her tightly.

"Finally I made you admit our friendship, Panoptes. Why everyone is idiot?".

Closing his eyes, he can see in his mind's eye how he ended up inside the hospital.

"It's funny how time flies since you have been not only arrested, tried, and convicted of committing a capital murder, but also disappeared under unknown circumstances."

"What do you have to say about that Mr. Upton?" Judge Grim asked.

"I your honor?" shocked. "Killed someone, that's nonsense... I'm innocent for God's sake."

Unluckily, his picture of innocence found the coldest and heartless judge of them all. Even Korah's wealth which captivates the public's interest, cannot shake his integrity.

"Just for the record, the witnesses' testimony says that you and the criminal have look-alike faces. Therefore, I'm finding you guilty." He adds. "Denial (The Nile) isn't just a river in Egypt."

"I didn't do it."

"Don't you dare disavow the truth in my court, Cleopatra." He aroused to anger. "Let's end this once for all, by the power vested in me by the state of Texas. I hereby order you to serve a lifetime sentence at Krokodeilos, where I hope he will mummify you."

Meanwhile, two attendants start speaking quietly to each other.

"What was that again?" He asked.

"A maximum-security prison, where only the most outrageous of criminals enter, and merely corpses leave."

The desire to know is killing him. "Eh?" He asked for more details.

"I read something about it once. Like the Panopticon, it's a prison known as a living hell. A penitentiary designed to allow all the inmates to be observed by a single warden without being able to tell whether or not they're being watched."

He continued, "Moreover, its apparent aim is not extermination, but rehabilitation. In other words, it doesn't restrict nor distort the body with chains and throw it into the darkest depths, but through the cognitive surgery performed on the mind and spirit."