Fish: A Memoir of a Boy in Man's Prison by T. Parsell (ready to read books TXT) 📕

alone, and Brett would be safe.

Slide Step stared at me, shaking his head. "I don't believe you, sometimes."

"What? I don't want you be alone, that's all."

He shook his head and smiled, and the sadness returned to his eyes.

I was washing my hands at the sink, when someone came up from behind and playfully covered my eyes. Startled at first, I realized quickly they were friendly hands.

"Hey, Pepper."

"So how do you suppose Mr. Efferdent is doing right now?"

"Mr. Tidy Bowl, is more like it," I said. "How are you?"

"A lot better than Chet. That's for sure. He's probably tryin' to get his gums around that sorry ass pork chop they served for lunch right now."

"In the hole," I grinned.

"A pig in the poke," Pepper smiled back.

I dried my hands and was about to leave when Pepper stopped me.

"So what's this scandal I hear about you and Scatter?"

"Huh?"

"Oh, c'mon, Mr. Innocent Blue Eyes. Momma wasn't born yesterday."

"How'd you know?"

"I didn't," she said, "until just now."

She smiled. "I heard Chet ask you about it the other night."

I felt my eyes widen.

"Relax, I ain't gonna say nothing."

She looked down at my crotch, and then back up again.

"Do you think Slide Step knows?" I asked.

"I dunno." She looked down, again.

"I can't, Pepper," I said. "I'm in enough trouble, already."

"Relax, honey. That man ain't gonna do nothin' to you. Don't you know how crazy he is about you?"

"Thanks," I said, putting my hand on her shoulder. "I hope you're right."

As I turned to walk out, I noticed Black sitting on the bench by the shower. He must have heard the whole thing.

After the last count, I grabbed my plastic mug from the back of my locker when a con banged on my door.

"Slide Step wants you to come take a shower," he said.

"I already took one."

"He wants you to take another."

"Why?"

"He says grab your robe and come now."

He walked off, but I could see Slide Step talking to someone at the end of the corridor. The guard, behind him, stepped out and locked the office door. "I already took a shower," I yelled after the con.

"He said come anyway."

Slide Step waved at me then disappeared before I could protest further.

I grabbed my towel and toiletry kit and headed down the hall. It didn't make sense. He knew I'd already showered, after we'd had sex earlier. When I got to the end of the hall, he was gone and the guard's station was empty. They must have off making their rounds. To my left, I noticed Pepper and another inmate sitting together just inside the dayroom. They both stopped talking and looked up at me.

I went down the other hall and slowly opened the shower room door.

Slide Step was sitting on the bench, on the far side of the room. Was this my punishment for what I'd done? I stepped into the room and someone closed the door behind me. Slide Step told him to keep an eye out. It was Scatter! I froze in place and looked at Slide Step.

"I have a surprise for you," he said.

I turned around, and Scatter smiled.

I was terrified and confused.

"Go on," Scatter said. He nodded toward Slide Step.

"C'mere," Slide Step said.

I hesitated.

"C'mere!"

I saw a shadow from around the corner of the wall, and I heard voices, but the echoes inside the shower room prevented me from knowing whether the voices came from inside or out.

My mind raced as I walked toward Slide Step-thoughts of Black, Scatter, and Pepper. How Slide Step hadn't touch me earlier. He had a smirk on his face as I got closer and cleared the opening to where the showers were. Out of the corner of my eye, I felt a figure standing in front of me, but I was afraid to look.

"Go take a shower," Slide Step ordered.

I turned, quickly, to see who was there. The shower blasted hot water and filled the area with steam. Out from the shadows walked Brett smiling.

I looked back at Slide Step.

"Go for it, Squeeze!" lie said.

20

Compromising Choices

It was a normal weekend in early November, and Dad showed up just like he'd said.

"I don't care," Mom said. "You can't have them."

"You've done this before, God damn it, and you're not doing this to me again." He raised his hand, as if to slap her, backing her into the kitchen table. "Get in the car, kids!"

Rick was already there. Connie stood at the back door.

"Daaaaaad!" I screamed in protest.

"I said, `Get in the car!"'

"Don't you dare," Mom shouted.

"God damn it! `Get-In-The-Car!"

Connie obeyed. I dropped my GI Joe doll and ran toward my room, so I didn't see him slap her. Please Daddy, I thought, Don't make me choose.

I walked into the County Jail with a "cat in my stride" -the slow rhythmic swagger that I learned from Scatter-it was supposed to communicate that I was street-wise or institutionalized to lessen the odds that I would become a target. Slide Step warned me that because the county jail was so transient, it could be more dangerous than prison.

I had been in the bullpens all that day, shuffled from one to the next, as they sorted and shifted through hundreds of prisoners.

A deputy walked past the bullpens calling my name, "Parsell!"

"Yeah?" I stepped over several bodies to get to the front of the cell.

He held my wrist to the bars to confirm my name on the plastic hospitalstyle bracelet they put on me when I arrived. "Open Four," he yelled. "You have a visitor."

I stood there stunned for a moment, but then smiled as the gate lurched open under the noisy hum of the electric motors. It must be my brother, I thought.

We walked past the showers and through the Intake area where my fingerprints had been taken, just a few months earlier. So much had happened to nee since then, that it seemed like a different life to me now. A flash went off in the adjoining room, and I remembered