To the Depths of My Heart

Inside

The cell, Tom thought, was no better and no worse than the hut on the island. Sure, in the jail, he wasn't able to run on the beach and the food was nowhere near the freshness of what he'd become accustomed to but he was able to talk to people. There were real people around him and, just as the island's silence comforted him at first, so, too did the noises of civilization. He knew here that the other prisoner who shared his cell, a man by the name of Nick who'd been arrested for petty theft, the officers, even Makai, were not figments of his overactive imagination. He'd begun to question his own sanity on the island and never thought he'd be as relieved as he was to return to the city.

Though Makai was working tirelessly to get Tom freed, the process began to drag on. What he'd imagined would take hours stretched into days, then weeks, until he'd been imprisoned for a month. 

He didn't lack good conversation as Nick proved to be adept at not only keeping up with Tom's natural chattiness but also grasped the scope of his literary and pop culture references with ease. The two of them talked into the long hours, before the guards called lights out, and became fast friends. Tom even confided in his new friend the message from Kama that he believed came from beyond the grave. While Nick seemed apprehensive at first, his own experiences with the paranormal allowed him the open mind needed to accept it and he, too, believed that perhaps the legend and Tom's experiences with Cora were related. 

There was a benefit to having another Haole in the jail - something Tom found out in his first jailhouse skirmish. Nick had his back, even when the two of them were threatened by a large man with a plethora of Polynesian tattoos that covered almost the entirety of his body. Tom accidentally began the fight in the common room by innocently backing into the man and stepping on his toes, which were unprotected in the jailhouse issue foam sandals they all wore. In a flash the man had Tom in a headlock, his grip strong enough to snap his neck, if he so chose to. Nick, thinking more quickly than his friend, immediately grabbed one of the few metal and plastic chairs and bashed the Polynesian in the back with it, not enough to hurt, just enough to stun him. The man let go and all three of them earned two days in the solitary rooms. 

After Tom had been detained for a little over a month, Nick was released - his case reduced by way of plea bargain and his sentence given as time served with one year of probation. Tom was bittersweet. He was happy for his friend, but sad that there would be no more late night conversations and that the one man who understood him was leaving him. He was sure there would be a new cell mate soon, but he was apprehensive about who it would turn out to be.

He didn't need to worry about a new cell mate, nor did he need to worry about scuffles in the common room. The day after Nick left, Makai visited. Unlike their other visits, which had been held in the visitation hall with a piece of plexiglass between them and a phone to allow them  to talk, Tom was led to an interview room, not unlike the first room he'd been taken to when he arrived at the justice center. He sat down at the plastic table and waited, nonplussed when Makai entered the room. They'd been through that dance before and it had yet to produce any results. 

"Haole," Makai said with a glowing smile as he sat across from his incarcerated friend. "I have some good news."

Tom sighed. "Am I free?"

Makai shook his head. "Not so simple as that, my friend," he answered. "I've got a judge to hear your plea, though."

"My plea?" Tom cocked his eyebrow. He didn't like the sound of it.

"You plead guilty to resisting arrest and aiding and abetting a known criminal and you go free. Time served." Makai took a deep breath. "I'm sorry, Bruh, but that's the best I could do. The Feds were completely unwilling to go any lower than that."