Long Islanders

26 - Behind Bars

The prison door closed behind Jimmy and Henry as the security guard stamped something on the tops of their hands. "Protect that stamp," the guard told them seriously. "For if that rubs off, you two aren't coming back out."

Jimmy looked down at the visitor stamp on his hand and swallowed. He and Henry had come to visit a friend who had been arrested and thrown into jail, Robert, both of them stubbornly believing he was innocent of the crime he had been accused of.

Henry gave Jimmy a worried look, his eyes reflecting the same fear Jimmy felt rising within him. The two boys held their stamped hands gingerly against their jeans, their eyes continually darting down to check that the stamp was still there as a security guard led them through another door into a meeting room. It was like the stamp would vanish if Jimmy took his eyes off it for too long.

"You have fifteen minutes," the guard told them, leaving the room. The door shut behind him with a heavy clang.

Jimmy glanced at his hand again before looking up and around them. The dreary, grey room was making him claustrophobic, and Jimmy was by no means claustrophobic.

The door across from the one they had entered through opened and another guard walked Robert in. Their friend was dressed in orange and had his hands cuffed before him. The guard walked him over to the bench, had him sit, and fastened the chain in the middle of the table to the handcuffs on his wrists. Then the guard retreated to the corner.

Jimmy and Henry just stared at Robert, Jimmy keeping the palm of his stamped hand flat on his leg. Then they slowly crossed over to the table, sitting down across from Robert.

Jimmy didn't know what to say. He had come in here to see his friend, to sympathize with his plight, firmly believing he was innocent.

Now? He wasn't so sure.

You may belong here, Jimmy thought, glancing down at the stamp on his hand. But I don't.

There was about a minute of conversational exchange between Henry and Robert, but Henry was faltering in his words and Jimmy knew he felt the same way that he did. So when the conversation died, Robert's short reply fading away, Jimmy stood up to leave. Henry jumped up to follow him, not to be left behind.

They showed the guard their stamped hands and they were allowed out. Jimmy barely breathed until he was in the parking lot again, with the sun shining upon his face. Then he took a deep breath as they headed for Henry's truck.

"He did it," Jimmy blurted.

Henry just nodded. "I know."