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DOING HARD TIME
~ Chapter 5 ~
From the Narrative of Caleb Fisher:
I awoke to find Harrison shaking my arm violently.
"Get up, you bastard! What the fuck are you playing at?" he
yelled at me. Uh oh. This was not good. My glance went from
his face, with wild rage in his eyes, to his hand, holding what I quickly recognized as the newspaper article about his
conviction.
"You knew who I was all along, didn't you?" He glared at me
with undisguised suspicion. "Was this all some sick game to
get me to sleep with you?"
Okay, I admit it - I didn't need to ask him his name to know
that he was Harrison Ridgeway. I even knew the details of
the crime for which he'd been sentenced here. I'd intended
to reveal everything to him, but not so soon.
But his last comment irked me. "Let's get one thing
straight. I didn't make you sleep with me. You came on to
me. Until then, I didn't even know you had gay tendencies!"
I retorted.
He fell silent, aware of the truth of my words. I'd never
intended to let him give me a blowjob, but I'd been so caught up in the moment that I let my lust get the better of
me. It wasn't every day a beautiful young man offered to
suck you off.
Harrison quickly recovered. "That doesn't put you in the
clear. You pretended not to know who I was. And I trusted
you!" he shouted.
I took a deep breath. "Now calm down and keep your voice
low. You don't want to wake up the other inmates now, do
you? I'll explain everything. But first you need to look at the front page of the book in which you found that article."
For a second it looked like he didn't care if he woke up
anyone else. Then begrudgingly he picked up the bible from
where he'd tossed it on top of the cabinet. He opened the
cover and stared at the name written on it.
"Caroline Spencer," he read softly. He looked at me in disbelief. "Aunt Carol?" he asked.
I nodded. He sat down heavily on my bunk.
"How ." his voice cracked. "How is it you have her bible?"
"I was her brother. Her son gave it to me when she died," I told him.
Harrison looked at me, stunned. "Her son . you mean Josh, don't you?"
Again I nodded. "Joshua is my nephew."
From the Narrative of Harrison Ridgeway IV:
I could have handled any explanation that Caleb might have given me, but not the one that he actually did. I suppose I should have realized it sooner. It wasn't coincidental that I'd been reminded of Josh twice that day. There was a physical resemblance between Josh and his uncle. Well, Josh's hair was curly and black, but that aside, their facial features were similar. And there was the fact that Caleb had called me by the nickname only Josh used, `Harry'. He'd even let slip that he knew he was exactly twice my age, which was impossible since I'd never told him mine and people generally assumed I was younger.
"When Joshua found out you'd be incarcerated in this prison, he asked me to protect you. He's still in love with you, you know. Always has been, despite how you treated him the one time he tried to tell you. He doesn't know that you aren't completely straight." Caleb gave me a piercing gaze.
I wished I could sink into the ground. If I'd felt guilty about how I'd treated Josh earlier, my guilt was now multiplied by a thousand times. I realized how stupid I'd been, shutting Josh out of my life and making friends with the wrong people instead.
"I didn't know," I whispered. It sounded like a lame excuse, even to me. "I didn't want to know."
Caleb looked at me in revulsion. "You know what I told him, when he asked me to protect you? I told him he was an idiot to still think the best of you, after what you'd done to get you in here in the first place. I didn't even know then that you were so deep in the closet, you would beat up an innocent guy just to protect your secret."
Caleb's words served to make me feel worse about myself than I already did. He was right. It was my fault that an innocent guy was laying near death in some hospital. But he didn't know the full story.
"Caleb, I know you're disgusted with me ."
He cut in. "It's not so much you I'm disgusted with. I'm also appalled with myself. I let myself get carried away with you."
"Caleb, please listen to me. What happened with Josh . you're right about that. I lashed out at him, because I couldn't face the truth myself. But about the other guy, Dean . that's where you're wrong. I never hurt him. Well, at least not enough to land him in hospital."
I took a deep breath and began the story:
I was hanging out in a bar with my friends. By friends, I mean my girlfriend, that is, ex-girlfriend's brother, Michael and his buddies. We were busy watching the basketball game on TV. But I noticed this guy, who kept looking at me. I didn't know it then, but his name was Dean Winters. He was my age. I could tell he was attracted to me.
It was uncomfortable. I mean, he wasn't bad-looking or anything, but I knew there was going to be trouble if my friends saw this going on. They were a bunch of homophobes, and the only reason they let me hang out with them was because I was the (straight) boyfriend of Michael's younger sister, Melissa.
I tried to ignore Dean's glances in my direction and concentrated on the game. My worst fears were realized when Michael nudged me. "See that guy over there - he's been staring at you all night."
"No, really?" I said weakly.
"You'd better teach him not to stare before he tries anything, eh?"
"C'mon Mike, I'm sure it's nothing," I said.
Michael looked at me condescendingly. "What's wrong, Harrison? Scared of that gay bastard? I'm sure you don't want me to tell Melissa her boyfriend's a sissy."
There was no way out of it. Damn them, I thought, looking around. I saw Dean heading towards the restroom at the back of the bar.
"Here's your chance - go confront that SOB for staring at you," said Michael, pushing me in front of him. I reluctantly walked to the restroom. Michael's friends were following close behind. When the restroom door opened, Dean came out. He smiled to see me, but his smile faded when he saw Michael behind me.
"Outside," said Michael, opening the back door that led out into the alley. Dean looked scared. Michael gave him a shove out the door. Dean stumbled over the steps and almost tripped.
"Look, guys," he said in a shaky voice. "I don't know what I did to piss you off but I'm sorry."
"Our friend here doesn't appreciate being ogled at by faggots," said Michael, putting his hands on my shoulders. I was feeling more than a little worried now. "Harrison, tell him."
"Um . yeah, I don't like to be stared at," I told Dean. He looked relieved, and as a matter of fact so was I. Now they'd let him go and forget all about this.
"Okay, I'm really sorry - I promise I won't do it again." He turned to go. Michael's arm snaked out and grabbed his shoulder.
"Not so fast! Harrison here is going to teach you a lesson for staring."
The fear returned to haunt his face. "Come on guys, I said I'm sorry."
Michael looked at me. "You're not letting this go like that, are you? Geez, assert your rights man."
"It's okay, I don't really mind ." I let my voice trail off, realizing what I'd said.
"You don't mind?" Michael wasn't the only one staring at me; his friends were too. I realized I had to act fast to defuse this situation before they suspected me of being gay. I looked at Dean and apologized silently for having to do this.
"Of course I mind! Keep your eyes to yourself!" I said angrily, and threw a punch at Dean's face. He reeled backwards and probably would have fallen if not for Michael's grip on his shoulder. I saw the hurt look on his face and felt guilty when I saw that he had a split lip. Anyway they'd let him go now, so that would be the end of it. I was horribly wrong.
"You gays need to be taught a lesson," said Michael. Suddenly, he punched the poor guy in the gut. As he doubled over, the other guys joined in the melee. Dean was crouched on the ground, trying to protect his face with his hands.
I didn't know what to do. I wanted to tell them to stop, but was afraid they'd accuse me of sympathizing with gays. But the decision was taken out of my hands when they heard the distant wail of police sirens.
"Come on, let's get out of here!" yelled Michael, dragging me with him.
"You can't just leave him there like that!" I shouted at him. He stared at me in disbelief, and just shoved me aside before running for his car.
I wanted to follow after him, when I heard a choked cry. I looked back to see Dean's motionless body lying on the ground. I couldn't just leave him. I hurried to bend over his body. I winced when I saw the damage they'd done to him - five guys on one.
He was still conscious, but barely. He looked at me and the expression on his face was heart-wrenching. I realized he was choking and tried to raise his head. I stopped when I felt something wet and sticky. I slowly removed my palms from under his head and stared at them. They were stained with his blood.
I didn't realize the police had arrived until I heard the officer order me to get away from the body.
"And that's what really happened," I concluded my story. I couldn't face Caleb. I didn't know if he believed me or not. After all, the jury hadn't.
There was silence. Then Caleb said, "Harry."
To be continued .
Please let me know what you think of the story by emailing me at justinr_88@yahoo.com. I love hearing from you guys and will try to reply each of your messages personally. Thank you. Part 6 will follow soon.