“I was.”
“Look, tell me the truth. I’m a fair guy. What do I care if you done something you shouldn’t have.”
“I didn’t do nothing I shouldn’t have,” Aiello said.
“Well, you did do something then, huh?”
“Nothing.”
“Come on, A, what’d you do?”
“Nothing.”
“I mean, after you left Louise?”
“I went to look for you.”
“And before you found me?”
“Nothing.”
“Did you blow the whistle on Harry?”
“Hell, no!”
“You did, didn’t you? Look, he’s dead, what do I care what you done or didn’t do? I ain’t the Law.”
“I didn’t turn him in.”
“Come on, A.”
“He deserved what he got. But I didn’t turn him in.”
“He deserved it, huh?”
“Yeah. He was rotten. Anybody rotten like Harry...”
“Shut up!”
“...should have the whistle...”
“Shut up, I said!” I slapped him across the mouth. “Did you?”
He dummied up.
“Answer me!”
“No.”
I slapped him again. “Answer me!”
“No.”
“You did, you punk! You called the cops on Harry, and now he’s dead, and you ain’t fit to lick his boots!”
“He was a killer!” Aiello yelled. “That’s why I called them. He was no good. No damn good. He was a stink in the neigh...”
But I wasn’t listening no more.
We fixed Mister Aiello, all right.
Just the way Harry would have liked it.
Solitary
by Jack Ritchie
The three months in solitary had made Eddie a model prisoner. The warden didn’t expect any trouble when he let Eddie go...
Jake shook my shoulder. “You want to spend these last couple of minutes saying goodbye? I’m the sentimental type.”
I sat up and let my feet dangle over the edge of the bunk. “All right,” I said. “Goodbye.”
Jake’s eyes studied me for a few seconds, his mouth edging toward a thin smile. “You strained yourself.”
He peeled back the paper of his chocolate bar for another bite. “What does it take to make you happy?”
I rested my elbows on my thighs and stared at my shoes.
“Jeez,” he said, after a while. “I hope I get a live one in here next.”
“Sure,” I said. “Put in for somebody who keeps his yap moving.”
“It don’t have to be much, but at least something. All you ever done since we been together is stare at the ceiling.”
“That’s what I done,” I said. “And I’m broken-up it made you so sad.”
Jake waited for a piece of chocolate to dissolve in his mouth. “According to some of the boys, you made a lot of noise when you first come here.”
“Just like you still do. But I bit too.”
“Them three months in solitary done something, though, didn’t they?” He licked sweetness from his fingers. “I thought they ain’t allowed to keep you in that long.”
“It slipped somebody’s mind.”
The first bell sounded and I got off the top bunk.
Jake put on his cap. “Here’s my hand,” he said. “If you got the urge, you can shake it.”
I shook hands with him and then we waited at the cell door for the second bell.
When it rang and the locks sprung, we stepped out on the steel walk. I marched to the main floor with the rest of the men and there one of the guards told me to fall out.
It was O’Leary who took me through the gates and out to the administration building.
“I like quiet guys like you,” he said. “No fuss. No bother. You can come back any time.”
“Thanks.”
We went up the concrete steps. “Heard you were pretty tough once. But that was before my time.” He glanced at me with guard laugh in his yellow-brown eyes. “We bend them or we break them. Nobody walks without a stoop for long.”
I sat on a hard bench in the warden’s anteroom with O’Leary beside me. There were no bars on these windows and the one o’clock sun made free patches of light on the floor. I stretched my legs into some of its warmness and let it seep through my trouser legs.
We lay on the bank beside the pool and watched the high clouds for awhile and then we looked at each other. Her legs were slim brown and she rested her cheek on her arm as she faced me.
Her hair was golden with sun and had the softness of smoke. It responded to the faint flow of wind and I looked into the gray eyes that were waiting for me.
O’Leary poked me with his club. “Wake up, Collier.”
“My eyes are open.”
“But you weren’t seeing anything.” He crossed his legs and shifted on the bench so that he could look at me. “Let me guess the first thing you’re gonna do when you get out. Will you have to pay for it or have you got it waiting?”
When the warden was ready for me, I went in alone and sat down in front of his desk.
He picked up my file and scanned it briefly. Then he tamped the papers to a straight edge and began to talk with words that had lost their accent sharpness because they had been memorized.
I had paid my debt to society and I should not cherish bitterness. I could become a useful member of society if I worked hard. I must avoid bad company. I must not drink.
My eyes went to the calendar on the wall behind him. It was cheap and glossy, but it did show a green valley. A valley green and hidden in security.
Her hand was soft in mine as we walked and I could smell the crispness of the ferns beside the stream. We stopped beneath a large oak to look at all the quietness that belonged to us and my arm went around her waist.
The phone on the warden’s desk was ringing and he picked it up. He listened with his head cocked and then spoke. “I’ll take care of it in a couple of minutes. Just as soon as I finish here.”
He put down the phone and his mind lingered on other thoughts. Then he returned his attention to me. “Did I cover the point about getting permission before you leave the county of your residence?”
“Yes, sir,” I said.
His eyes dulled for a look into his memory. “No, I didn’t,” he said. He inspected me coldly and then resumed talking.
When he finished, his thumb carelessly riffled the records. “Well, that’s that. Just be a good boy and we won’t see you again.” He consulted his watch.
“You could have got off more time,” he said. “But those first wild years didn’t help you any.” He smiled slightly. “Ninety days in the hole made you a different man, didn’t they, Collier?”
“Yes, sir,” I said.
“It’s the best way to handle the trouble makers. A few months alone with nothing but the dark. They can’t stand that.”
He enjoyed his reminiscent smile. “I’m hard, but I’m fair,” he said. “Anybody who cooperates with me won’t have a hard time. You learned that, didn’t you, Collier?”
“Yes, sir,” I said.
He laced his fingers in front of him. “Any questions?”
“No, sir,” I said. And then I got up and went out to where O’Leary waited.
It was two more hours before they opened the last gate for me. I stood outside on the walk in my new black shoes and looked down the line of cars in the parking lot.
Amy sat in a small sedan that needed repainting and she blew the horn when she saw me. She got out of the car and hurried toward me and she was out of breath when she put her plump arms around my neck.
My eyes examined her face and went to her brown eyes. “You wear glasses,” I said.