EVIDENCE

HELL HOLE

Short, Part 3 Preview

He lay in his bed and wondered how the fuck he got there and how right he was when he went there to visit Smiley a month and a half ago and had a feeling that he, too, was going to end up there.

He was pissed off and he hoped he would get bail on his court date the next day. After lunch they had yard time so P went to the yard. He wondered how come there were no black guys on his range and how come most guys looked like a bunch of bitches. The small boxy yard was about eight meters wide and twenty meters long, it was surrounded by four brick walls and it had a chain-link fence as a ceiling. There were two basketball nets, one short at about eight feet and the other one nine feet. P played a bit of basketball with Raza and some kids and dunked the net a few times. It was a hot, sunny day with a clear blue sky and P looked up at it through the chain-link fence ceiling and wished he was outside. T.Y.A.C was on Horner Avenue in south Etobicoke in west Toronto and his building where he was living just two weeks ago wasn’t more than five kilometres away. He wished he was there instead with his brother G and he wondered what G was doing, he also wondered if he was ever going to get out again.

After yard time, which was thirty minutes, the guards locked them back up in the cell where they spent pretty much the whole day. T.Y.A.C was a twenty-three hour lockdown facility; they had one hour of range time per day and half the range was let out at one time. First, cells 1 through 7, and then cell numbers 8 to 15 or vice versa. At range time P called his mom’s house to see if she could come bail him out. She told him she would come to court and try and P was happy about it because she never tried bailing him out before, on the contrary, but now she was on his side so he was happy about it.

He thanked her and told her he’ll see her at court the next day. He then called G, they spoke for awhile and P asked him if he remembered when they were smoking blunts in his car and he told him he had a feeling he’s going to get locked up and somehow he knew it would be better for him in the end. G told him of course he remembered and then P told him Escobar was supposed to go by his dad’s work and drop off his car. P gave G, Escobar’s number to call him and set it up, and they talked a bit more till P said ‘lates’ and hung up.

After the phone call he went and took a shower. The showers were at the front of the range and there were three shower stalls, each one with a small plastic door that covered you up to your waist. P washed himself with a soap bar and shampoo the jail gave him. After a long shower he dried himself off and put his jail uniform back on, a burgundy track suit. Range time was done and they locked them back up in their cage. P played some cards with Raza till dinner which they ate in their cells and after they watched TV till eleven. P was hoping to get bail the next day. He went to sleep and he was a bit nervous knowing his freedom was in some strangers hands. He didn’t like the feeling at all.

 At five the next morning a C.O came to his cell and woke him up and told him to get ready for court. P got dressed and Raza told him good luck. P said ‘dun know’ and he went on the range where other inmates were waiting. After a few minutes C.Os came and opened the range, they patted down each inmate and they brought them downstairs to the bullpens.

There was a bullpen for every different court house, so since P had Brampton court they put him in the Brampton court bullpen. They waited there for the paddy wagon and the guards brought them some breakfast, a bowl of cereal. P ate it and the guards brought down more inmates and around 7 am the paddy wagon came. They handcuffed the inmates together by the hands and they put four or five on each side of the paddy wagon. P didn’t talk to anyone since they were all like a bunch of little kids to him. The paddy wagon drove up Highway 427 to 401 West. They passed by P’s building on Eva Road which was right on the highway and P looked through the small metal holes that blocked the back window, “That’s my block yo, I used to smoke blunts all day on the side of that building.” He said it more to himself than anyone really, wishing he was there. It was literally thirty meters away. It was so close and yet so far. P felt sadness filling him, knowing there was nothing he could do to get there.