Confinement

Chapter 3

"I'm stuck in here for three days" I start thinking out loud.

"I'm stuck here with you too mate. What were you thinking?" the voice sounds like a whisper. Am I hearing things?

"Hello? Who was that?" I'm starting to get scared. Am I going crazy?

"Head towards the end of your cell. Sit on your bed and lie down facing the wall next to where my cell is," the voice. I've heard it before. It's solitary confinement though. I'm not meant to have contact with anyone. I do as the voice says, slowly.

"Uh... Hello?" where is this voice coming from?

"Juvies government funding got cut once. It just so happened to happen while they were nearly done construction on these cells. There is a small hole just big enough for us to talk through." I remember where I've heard this voice before. It's the short kid who was the first to speak to me.

"You're that short kid from the yard. Yeah?" I question him.

"I hate when people call me short but yes that was me. I'm Charles. You said you were Argus, correct?" This guy didn't look like a Charles

"Yeah I'm Argus," Charles' voice has changed since the yard. He seems nicer now and not as rough. It's around dusk now. I start to see a faded moon come up from the wall, still a little hidden from the sun. Charles and I haven't spoken since we first got in here, I wonder what he is doing. Maybe he is doing the same thing I am, sitting on my bed with my back against the wall and my head between my knees.

This almost pitch black room, filled with regret, has got me thinking. What would have happened if I didn't hit that guy on the yard? Why can't I keep my hands to myself? Why am I getting punished for defending myself? Am I a monster? Do I deserve to be here? Should I go to prison next year? I lie down on my bed. Staring through the window at the stars. I start to doze off when I hear Charles start to snore. What if I killed him? What if he lay another victim to my hands?

Its morning when I hear something come from my door.

"Breakfast" a guard says through a little panel in the door. He slides open a little hatch at the bottom of the door and slides in a metal tray. The light from outside the door reveals two slices of toast and some margarine on the side. Great! I love bland breakfast I say to myself sarcastically. I walk over to pick up my breakfast and the guard is still standing at the door.

"Argus. You have a visitor today. I'll come get you at 12," then the guard walked away. A visitor? Mum and dad? Friends? Who is it?

"I heard you have a visitor," Charles says.

"Yeah, do many people get visitors?" I question Charles.

"Every now and then. Most people are too ashamed or embarrassed to come see someone in juvie," Charles informed me. I eat my breakfast on my bed staring through the window at the rising sun. I doze off again.

"Why did you do it? We got into a fight but you didn't have to kill me did you? This is all your fault."

I wake up to the sound of my door being unlocked, sweating from my forehead. I rub my eyes.

"Bad dream kid?" the sarcastic guard walks through the door and looks at me. "You got told you have a visitor. I'll have to handcuff you and walk you to the meeting area." This is it. The moment of truth. It is time to see who wants to see a killer. I'm walked to a meeting area. There are 5 windows next to each other with a wall in between each other. I sit at the chair closest to the door and wait anxious to see who it is.

A lady comes from behind a wall and sits in the chair in front of the glass before me. I've seen this lady before, I think I remember her from the trial, I tried to forget everything from the trial, tried to move on.

"By the look on your face I don't think you remember who I am?" The lady says.

"No not really sorry. I think I saw you at my trial though." I answer. The lady is staring at me weirdly, almost as if she's offended that I don't know who she is.

"That's right. I was at the trial. I'm Coni Jedet. You and my son got into a fight." As she says this all the memories start flooding my brain. The mum of the kid I killed. Why is she here? I'm guilty enough. This shouldn't be happening. What do you say to the mum when you are the reason her son isn't alive anymore?

"I remember you now. Why are you here? I mean, if I was you I wouldn't want to ever see my face again." I question her

"Since the court case and you being in here I just thought that I would come to you and let you know a little bit about my son. My boy's name was Jimmy, he was a bright kid. He has just broken up with his girlfriend and he wasn't thinking straight. If Jimmy didn't leave the house then maybe you wouldn't be in here, maybe he would be alive." A tear starts streaming down her face.

"I'm... I'm Sorry" as I say this I'm trying to hold back all my emotions with no prevail. I slowly feel the tears stream down my face like rain on a cold winter's day. The guilt is eating me alive. It feels like the world has just been dropped on my shoulders.

"Five more minutes" the guard says. Coni and I sit crying until it's time to go.

"Why did you do it? Why my son?" Coni asks me through her sobbing.

"I don't know. I'm sorry." As I say this the guard comes and takes me away. Walks me back to my cell.

"You've got some guts kid, I know most men thatwouldn't have the balls to do that" the sarcastic guards voice iscompassionate. He shuts the cell door. Locks it and walks away. I lie down inbed crying, staring out the window for some answers that I know I won't find.