Jailbird Tango

Part 22 - Outside Letter, Sweater Weather

I sat at the Host's desk again, eagerly ripping open the prison envelope. Yancy's handwriting had improved since last time. It was still chicken scratch, but a little easier to read. He was going on about how cold it had become at the penitentiary, and that the other inmates were a little jealous of the sweater I gave him. He remarked that Tiny stole it once, making him '...angrier than I's been at them in a while' I chuckled at the thought. It was only reasonable that he would be possessive over something like that.

I shook my head at the next line, '...them guards even let me wears it in solitary...' He had been sent there for fighting one of the others over the sweater. All I could picture was Yancy sitting on a cold and hard bench, shivering from the cold, bundled up in the only sweater that I could give. Was it warm enough? I could picture the fear on his face as one of the guards probably dragged him in there, the same face when I called the guard over in one of the visits. 'Oh Yancy...' I sighed, running my hand over the page. 'It's only a sweater, no need to do something like that.' I mumbled to myself.

He went about more details of prison life, especially all the fights that he seemed to get into. '...Tiny thinks I shouldn't leaves them. We're family and these friends of youses don't seem the friendliest to youse. So, why should I's trust what they tell you to tell mes?' He wasn't wrong, some of the others weren't the friendliest, but I assumed that's because I was still an outsider.

He asked more in depth questions about the manor, saying that he wasn't sure that he wanted to come here, because of the chaos of the others. Two steps forward, one step back. I had another meeting with Dark on the progress and they were not going to be happy about this.

It was a shorter letter than last time, it felt like more was being left unsaid. Though, there was a little star above one of the lines talking about the sweater. I turned the page over, to see a little crossed out line down the bottom. It was hard to read. '...I really like youses sweater. It smelt good, especially when I's wore it to bed.' I read it over a couple times. He was still frustrated at me and the information about the manor, and yet, he wrote something like this. I frowned, blinking and looking at it closer. 'Is he... saying that he likes how I smell!?' I asked in confusion. Turning the letter over and reading over it, before rereading that annotation. 'Is he?' I shook my head and laughed at my own stupidity. Of course he wasn't, he was just talking about the sweater smelling decent compared to prison clothes that didn't seem to be washed that often.

I set about writing my response, trying not to say too much about the sweater, when there was a knock at the door. Absentmindedly I called out, 'Come in' expecting it to be Host or Yan, and yet, with the quiet ringing noise and the cold dread, it was Dark.

'Dark... How can I help you?' I asked, involuntarily putting on some of my customer service voice.

'Shall we have the meeting in here? Or my office?'

'Uh, in here I guess, since you're here'

'Right.' They sat down in the armchair whilst I stayed at the desk. 'I have been informed that you're keeping letter correspondence with Yancy.'

'Yes.'

'And it is proving useful?'

'I suppose so... He still isn't very open to the idea of freedom.'

'I see. It is... a little disappointing for you I am sure.' Dark said, crossing their legs. I instinctively raised an eyebrow. What did he mean, disappointing? Disappointing in that he didn't want to be around, or that he still wanted to see me but not be free?

'Uh, yes.'

'Considering your freedom depends on it.'

Right. That is what he was talking about, my returning to everyday life. Whatever that was. It was almost so long ago that I stumbled across the Host.