Time Through Time We Remain Untamed.

Chapter 2-TIME'S UP

       The sun rays filtered in through the small bar spaces only to find the young man ready awake. Well, he wasn't exactly young anymore but that was neither here or there. The man stood up ready to start the day. He fixed his worn out orange overalls and grabbed his small, plastic stick waiting for his door to open. Right on time, the buzzer was sounded and the electric door slid across the concrete floor. A big smile graced the man's lips and he walked out quite glad to get into his routine.

  “OK EVRYONE!! WAKE UP! THE BEAUTIFUL MORNING IS HERE!! GET THOSE LAZY, CRIMINAL ASSES UP! GET UP!” his overly cheerful voice carried through as he ran his stick along the metal bars of the each door. He could hear the prisoners slowly respond to his calling, most complaining about the disturbance in the early morning.

   “Heyyyy, Mo Xuanyu! Shut up! It's tooo fucking early for this shit!! Go back to your cell!!” One cellmate shouted from his room catching the attention of Xuanyu. He walked over to the cell door and wasn't surprised to find his good old buddy.

“OSCAR!! WAKE UP! I knew it was you complaining. Everyday it's the same old story. I thought we were over this my friend. Just raise your hairy, smelly butt up like the rest and we can start the day together,” Xuanyu said gleefully as he hit the bars over and over annoying the 6'5 large man inside.

     “ENOUGH! I'm already up. Fuck! You know one day I'm going to just beat the hell out of you so that you won't be able to do this shit!! It's sooooo annoying!” Oscar grumbled his thick aussie accent carrying through.

   “You wouldn't dare even if you had the chance. You love me too much to do so. Anyway, let's get going already, I don't have the time for you.” Xuanyu replied as stepped away from the door as it opened and Oscar came out.

     “That's what you keep thinking but one day that cockiness of yours will land you in trouble. Mark my words.” he grunted as he stretched his large body. A carefree laughter broke through as Xuanyu turned back to face him.

       “It's not cockiness if it's the truth. Now stop trying to ruin my day and get into the programme you grumpy brute.” Xuanyu replied as he continued with his morning duties and woke up that section of the Interstate Berlin Prison Camp. By the time he reached the last cell door, all the 250 prisoners were awake and the prison came to life.

Mo Xuanyu was able to finish in time and duly went to the cafeteria for breakfast. On the way he was greeted by most prisoners from the recent ones to oldies. He was a beloved fellow since he was funny and lively, a bit unorthodox at times but one of the few who made prison seem like a long vacation period rather than a sentence. That and also the fact that he was among the people who had stayed the longest in that prison. It was probably his 14th or 15th year but no one knew for sure.

     He greeted everyone happily before settling next to lovely Oscar and gulped down the star quality breakfast of the Germans. They ate like a family, sharing their night stories whether real or imaginary then proceeded with other activities that the officers allowed them to participate in. Mo Xuanyu settled himself in the library as per usual for the next 4 hours. If you had told him that he would one day be voluntarily and actively reading books for that long before, he would have laughed in your face and asked if you were ok in the head. There was no way he was that studious no matter what. But all that changed when he came to prison. Turns out that there was a lot of free idle time in your hands once you were locked away from the world and Xuanyu found solace in books to keep him sane.

    There was also another reason why he read. It reminded him of someone, someone that meant a lot to him and someone he wanted to still feel close to even if it was through books.