The Life Of A Ventriloquist

Journal Entry #20

"McCalister get up, it's time to go." One of the officers yelled, beating his baton against my cell bars.

I jumped up in a panic, and stood up as he opened the cage door and let me out. He instantly put cuffs around my wrists and led me to a bus with others on it. I walked in and instantly got stares from all directions.

"McCalister?" Ventriloquist?"  "Adam?"  "What?" Were a few of the whispers I heard.

I sat down in the nearest empty seat and looked out the window when I felt eyes on me.

They're watching you. You're gonna be on the news buddy. You shouldn't have done it. You shouldn't have turned yourself in. Chester whispered to me in the back of my head. I closed my eyes and dosed off again.

Next thing I knew, we came to a hard stop. I jolted forward in the seat. I looked around and seen the prison. There was a fence around it and tall guard towers with open windows and officers standing in them with guns. There were a bunch of people in Orange suits standing around what looked to be the courtyard. There were wood picnic tables and a big patch of grass that people were socializing on. Walking around, talking, arm wrestling.

There was a row of blue pay phones and a long line of men waiting to use the only three they seemed to have, and a long line of 3-in-a-row bleachers to the right of them.

One of the guards stood up and faced us from the front of the bus.

"Alright men, listen up!" He began. "My buddy Chad here is gonna open the bus door for you. I want the first row of seats on the left to go, then the next ON THE LEFT, so on and so forth until the left side is completely empty. Then the right I want to do the same thing. Right row, don't get up until the left has officially cleared out. Alright? We good?" He held two thumbs up with a questioning face and everyone held up thumbs aswell.

Along with the rest of the left row, I stood up. I was in the fourth row of seats. The first two got up and walked off, then the next, then the next. I was sitting in a seat by myself, so I just got up and walked to the front and out of the door. My hands were still bound in front of me so I had to be careful stepping down from the bus. I got off and instantly made my way in the door, feeling the stares from every direction. It seemed as though the whole prison went silent. I could hear quiet mumbles coming from everyone around me. Too many to understand what they were saying.

As I walked through the doors there was a guard showing people where to go. He was pointing one man in one line and another man in the other.

"Stand in that line over there." He said as he pointed his black baton at the line to the right.

I walked over and stood in line, waiting to be unbound. I Still had the cuffs around my wrists.

I noticed that the guard was making people strip, bend over and cough, then asking them their shirt and pants size, handing them an outfit, a towel and a bag of shampoo and body wash, and making them take a shower and get ready. This wasn't something I'm looking forward to. There was only two more people ahead of me. One was tall and bald, and had a tattoo on his hand of a doll with button eyes and a stitched smile. The other one was a little taller than me but not much, had black spiky hair, a leather jacket with a white T-shirt under it, black loose-ish jeans and black and white high-top converse. He looked back at me as the guard was dealing with the other man.

"You ready to get this over with, puppet man?" He asked. His voice was deep-ish. He gave me a half smirk.

"That's not who I am anymore. Just call me Adam."

He laughed.

"Ahh man you gotta realize. Here in the lions den, we don't go by first names. I've been in here a couple times. I know. I'll call you McCalister. Names Lacklustré by the way." He turned around, it was his turn.

The guard stuck the key in his cuffs and unlocked them, and he freed his hands like it was no big deal. Like he said, he has been here a couple times. He's probably used to it.

He took off his jacket and gracefully put it in the bag the guard was holding, then slid his T-shirt off and revealed his abs. Not that I was surprised. He seemed like he worked out a lot. He slid his converse off, then his pants, then his black Calvin Klein boxers and put them all in the bag.

By that point I looked away. Drowning out what he was answering and waiting for it to be my turn.

The guard grabbed another bag as I stepped up, placing the other one in a pile on the floor.

I held my hands out and he put the key in and unlocked them. It felt like heaven to have them off finally. Like freedom.

I started by taking my shirt off. I tried to feel a little confident, considering that woman used to kneel at my feet and practically beg to have me in bed with them.

After I finally got stripped of my clothing, the guard bent down.

"Alright, force yourself to cough." He said awkwardly.

I done as he said.

"You're good to go. What size pants and shirts do you wear, and what's your name?"

After I told him what he asked, he wrote my name down on the bag with my old clothes in it and set it on the floor with the rest, handed me my Orange outfit, a bag and a towel. I walked off in to the showers and waited for one to be open.

Once one was open, I went in and set my clothes, towel and the bag of toiletries he gave me on the metal chair, turned the water back on and tried to ignore the fact that there were other men in the showers on either side of me.

This is your new life, dumbass. Accept it. Chester whispered in the back of my mind.

He was right though. This is my new life. I have to accept it.