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

team and the only homosexual, which is why (I believe) the others hassled me about working on the newspaper.

"She's going to fuck it up for the rest of us," O. J. said.

O. J. was one of the reporters. He looked like the then-famous football player who appeared in rental car ads on TV, but that isn't how this O. J. got his name; he'd tell us many times. He was Otis Junior, the fifth or sixth junior in a row.

"My daddy was Junior, and my granddaddy they called June Bug, so they named me O. J. -long before that other nigger won the Heisman trophy."

I stared at him in confusion.

"See!" he said. "She probably doesn't even know what I'm talking about."

"I'm not a she," I said. "I've got a dick."

He and the others shot me a dirty look.

"Watch your language, bitch. Can't you see there's a lady here?"

I looked up and saw Miss Bain standing in the doorway.

"Sorry, Miss Bain. I don't like being called a girl."

She nodded at me and glanced disapprovingly at the others.

"Whatever you are," Rodney said, "None of us want you messing it up for us."

"What are you talking about?" I asked.

By being on the newspaper, we were granted free access throughout the prison, to follow up on news stories, but the other guys were worried that I would ruin that by getting caught having sex in one of the units.

"If you get caught," O. J. said, "they'll take that privilege from all of us."

"I'm not looking to do anything!" I wanted to ask, "What about you guys?" Who's to say they wouldn't be out raping a fish or forcing some gay guy to blow them?

"All right," Miss Bain said. "You can knock all that off right now."

"I'll knock it off," Lee said, his eyes trying to check out my ass.

The others laughed, and Lee winked at me.

I was angered by how they'd pick on me one minute and then the next, turn nice and ask if I'd go off and have sex. But of course that only meant my servicing them.

"Now we can let go of stereotypes while your working with me," Miss Bain said. She walked in and sat on the edge of a desk. "I've hired Tim because he can type, better than anyone in here, and because he has shown some other talent ..."

"Yeah, we know about that," O. J. said.

"I said that's enough!" Miss Bain sounded annoyed, but she didn't raise her voice. She didn't have to. These guys wanted to stay in her good graces.

"I can't believe how you all are treating him!"

O. J. and the others shifted in their seats.

"I would expect some of you, at least, to have some sensitivity to prejudice and discrimination."

"It's not the same thing," 0. J. started to say, but Miss Bain cut him oft.

"Yes it is. It's not black and white, or even a gay/straight thing, it's...'

"It's in the Bible," 0. J. said.

"And we all know how closely you live your lives by that."

0. J. smiled.

"The Bible also condones slavery. Did you know that?"

"Hey Miss Bain?" Lee said. "Why are you sticking up for fags?"

She stood up and closed the door. "Open your journals, gentlemen, and write down these words: Hate and Ignorance. As reporters, you're going to need to know the precise meaning of words."

She sat on the edge of her desk. "This is not about homosexuality, Lee, its about hate and ignorance, and though you may think you know what those things mean, I want you to look them up anyway. As long as we keep focusing on where something is landing, instead of what it is that's being tossed about, we're going to keep missing the point."

A couple guys nodded.

"Whatever Tim's lifestyle is, is of no concern to me." She looked around the room. "Now this isn't just another job assignment, and if you came here because you wanted a free pass throughout the prison, tell me right now. I'm sure we can find something else for you to do-in the kitchen."

Spaulding started to say something, but Sherry Bain held up her hand.

"Now listen to me, because I only want to have this talk once. While you're working with me, I expect you to behave like gentlemen, which means I expect you to treat each other respect and with some degree of dignity." She glanced over at me.

"Words can be a powerful weapon, but as gentlemen, I'll expect you to leave some of that out there on the yard. Because I don't really need to be hearing about your bitches and ho's and fags and ... some of those other things." She looked at 0. J.

Everyone laughed, at the way she pivoted her head back and forth as she said it. She was acting very "street" all of a sudden, and it seemed out of place coming from her.

Spaulding said, "You being a woman, in the field of male corrections, you must be especially aware of these kinds of issues."

Miss Bain stifled a grin. "It probably has more to do with my upbringing, but, yes, wading through some of these back waters has been an interesting challenge. Though not as difficult and you might think."

"Since Spaulding is your editor, he is going to question your words and check your facts. We need to be as accurate as we can be, so we'll teach you how to do this," she said, "with everything."

"To validate our stories we'll look for contradictions and challenge our assumptions. When following up on something, always keep an open mind, because you never know where it where it might land you."

"What do mean by that?" Rodney asked.

"Well, let's start with a simple question," she said. "How many of you thought you were given a square deal by the system?"

No one raised their hand.

"None of you?" She looked around the room. "0. J. What was your school like?"

"It was pretty messed up," he said.

"Any sports programs?"

"We used to, until they cut them out."

Lee said, "That shit is for