Subject: I Get To See My Friends
Wow. You think you know a person. So I’m reading in my room when I hear my door open. I look up, and it’s the Tough Guy off the block, Mr. Jersey Shore. Always working out, calling people “bad”, and once threatened Beau.
“Ey, Bud,” he says as I turn from my book, “They’re out there waving to you. They’re all out there.”
“Really?”
“Yeah!” He gestures with his head for me to follow him. “Come take a look.”
At first I honestly wonder if this is a trick of some kind. Will I be led into his cell, only to have the door closed behind me and the snot pummeled from my brains? I go to my door to check it out, but the guards are watching. I start heading down the stairs, trying my best to see the windows that look out to the street. Tough Guy comes out of his room and gestures to me again, “Come on in.”
At this moment the guards are both turned away, so I hop back up the stairs and casually walk to Tough Guy’s room, as if it is my own. When I enter, he and his bitch are waving out the window.
“He was just waving to me,” Tough Guy says to me. “Go ahead.”
I take a quick look. I see Ian with a sign that says, “Stop the police state”. I can see him smiling, and others in the distance, including Chris, a new mover who is a stand-up comedian and karaoke staple. I wave, and Ian waves back, with a smile from ear to ear.
I quickly left the room saying, “Thanks, guys. I appreciate it.” They go back to their window and enjoy the view. I’ve never seen either of these Tough Guys smile like they just were. Genuine, not like after a snide comment, but like the smile one has after receiving an unexpected gift. For a few minutes, they were just children, happy to see friendly strangers and communicating in the most universal language: a smile and a wave.
“Free Staters are here!,” one of the other inmates announces. It is a happy day in cell block R, and I assume Josh (another liberty activist incarcerated here) is enjoying the same view.
How lucky I am to have friends like these. Moving to Keene was the best decision that I ever made.
