A Prison Break

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CHAPTER 2

I have an on again-off again relationship with AA, not as a full member though. I had been on again for three weeks when I took a seat on the wooden pull-out bleachers in the high school gym for Lana's graduation ceremony. I was trying to do my best today. I even had a sport coat and tie on, in spite of the fact that it was unseasonably warm for early June.

I couldn't recall much from my own high school graduation exercise, except for the period before we all walked into the gym. We were in the auditorium waiting to form up into two lines to march into the basketball court. I remember it had seemed ass backwards to me, but knew it was in the gym because there was more seating for all the families. I had been sitting on the edge of auditorium stage with a couple friends waiting for some assigned teacher to tell us to line up, when Mrs. Cantrall walked up.

She said she was very glad to have had me in her English class, that she hoped I continued my writing, and told me to drop by her house any time, that her husband who taught creative writing at the university had read my short stories and would like to meet and talk with me. She added that they both thought the stories showed talent and great potential for me as writer. I told her I really enjoyed her class and that, yeah, maybe I'd stop by sometime. I never did, and I've always regretted it. She was the best teacher I ever had, very intelligent, and she truly cared about all her students. I heard she died a few years back, cancer or something.

I don't want to think about how many regrets I'll have when I'm sixty. If I live that long.

I was the only "family" Lana had to show up for the ceremony. Barb's parents had disowned her and their grandkid as soon as Barb got a job after finishing high school. I never thought Barb gave me the whole story about that. Lana said I didn't have to come today, that it wasn't any big deal, but I figured that might just be bravado on her part. Even if she hated Barb, she had to be missing her today, her graduation day, a milestone in one's life, at least I guess it's supposed to be for some people. Lana had actually passed every course she needed to get her diploma. I was a little surprised. I never saw her do a minute of homework. I guess she might not be as stupid as she acted sometimes.

It felt stuffy in the gym, which gave me a taste for a Budweiser tall boy. Everyone around me, the parents, grandparents, aunts and uncles, were all smiling, talking, laughing, as we all waited for the show to begin. After ten minutes, I loosened my tie. I gawked at a blond who seemed harried as she walked along a row to get to her seat next to her waving older sister, at least they looked like sisters. Some of the guys stood up to let her pass which just made it more difficult for her to get by in the bleacher type seating. They probably just wanted to rub their bodies against her. She was very hot, nice T and A, pretty face. Late 20's. She made me remember I hadn't had sex since October.

Barb hadn't been granted conjugal visits, at least she hadn't mentioned she had. Her in prison, me totally sober while I was there, I didn't even ask her about it. I had a feeling I'd not be able to get it up if she had been granted the visits. I figured the fuck room wasn't even going to be "sleazy motel" good. It was a medium security prison. I thought medium meant conjugal visits were possible. I had no idea about any of it, nor had I tried to find out any information. I guess I could at least ask her about it next week. Maybe the week after that. Maybe I should let her bring it up. This was the first week I wouldn't see her. Visiting day was Sunday, today.

She told me to come here instead. A month ago she said she wanted to get Lana something nice as a present. I suggested I get her three or four classic novels. I thought it might get her at least in the habit of reading before college. Barb made a face at me and told me not to be ridiculous. I told her to just tell me what to get. She rattled off the names of a few clothing stores I should try to get catalogs or sale papers from, bring them the following week and she'd pick something out. I bought the gift this past Wednesday night. I even wrapped it and put on the card from Barb. I had gotten the card a couple weeks ago and during the time Lana walked away from the visiting room table to get candy or something, Barb had written a brief note and signed it.

The band started playing that standard graduation song, and the capped and gowned students began marching in. The music instantly caused a lot of twisting and neck stretching in the stands, parents and relatives trying to see Johnny or Janey, and of course numerous camera flashes. I'm only 5'-9" but I didn't have to elongate my neck to spot Lana. She was the one who looked too short, too petite to be a senior. Maybe that's an exaggeration. She had once said she was 5'-1", and with heels on she was, well, taller relative to the heels. She was probably closer to 4'-11" actually. She was sandwiched in the line between two girls who were both overweight and tall, which made Lana look even skinnier and shorter.

I didn't pay attention to any of the speeches, the words at least. The valedictorian was a dishwater blond chick. Pretty enough face I guess, maybe a bit of baby fat, but I really couldn't tell anything about her body, except that her lower legs were average. The guest speaker was some state legislator, a woman I never heard of. She droned for a while about the importance of education. She wore those half glasses, the ones with the lenses cut horizontally, and had a chain attached to the temple pieces. I hate those glasses and those chains, or maybe it's the people who wear them I end up hating. By the time everyone got their diplomas, and the ceremonies drew to a close, it felt like I'd been in the gym for three or four hours. It was actually about half that.

I had told Lana I'd wait for her outside by the big oak tree. I had also told her I was going to take her out to dinner at a decent restaurant. I was waiting on giving her the gifts until 4PM or thereabouts. Barb was going to try to call at exactly 4PM. We'd drive home, wait for her call, then go to dinner. It would take some time to drive into the city.

As everyone got up to leave, I tried to spot the hot blond I had seen arrive late, but I didn't see her. I joined the slow river of people trying to exit. After the bottle neck at the gymnasium doors I moved quicker in the foyer, meandering my way though the first clumps of graduates who had rushed out, grinning parents, and so many flashes from digital and film cameras that if I was a vet, I'd probably have hit the floor and shouted, Incoming!

At the big oak tree, I pulled out my Marlboros and lit one. A minute later a guy dressed in a much better suit than my sport coat walked up to me smiling.

"Hi, how are you today?" he asked.

"Fine. How 'bout you?"

"Great. It's a wonderful day. My son's graduation. You have a graduate in the group?"

"Yeah." That's all I said. I didn't want to tell the guy anything and was wondering what the hell he was doing talking to me. I took another drag from the cig.

"I guess you're unaware that the campus here is a smoke free zone."

"Really?"

"Yes, it is."

I held my cigarette down and watched my ring finger flicked the ash. I looked the guy in the eyes. "Thanks for telling me. Now, if anyone is wondering and asks me, I'll be able to tell them." I raised the Marlboro and took another drag. The asshole's jaw tightened for a moment, then he turned and picked a course through the little groups of happy people and disappeared.

There were three smoked down to the filter butts on the ground at the oak tree when Lana finally walked up, not wearing her academic gown. It was balled up in her arms with the mortarboard cap on top. She held it out towards me.

"Here, take this for me."

My jaw clenched for a second. I tossed the fourth butt on the ground and took the gown and cap from her. Some friend had picked her up when I was in the shower. I hadn't seen what she was wearing. It was a tight tank style minidress that only went to mid thigh. Not some spring pastel, it was black, as were her high, spiked heeled pumps. The style I hated that had a thin strap around the ankle. I thought they looked like hooker heels. She had a lot of dark eye shadow on and dark red lipstick, which to me always made her look even younger, like some grade school girl who got into her mother's makeup.

"So," I asked, "wanna head to the truck? I've got a couple things to do before we go to dinner, so we gotta go home first." I hadn't eaten any breakfast or lunch. I half wished we could go to dinner immediately. It would take at least forty-five minutes to get to the restaurant.

"Dinner?" She made a face.

"Yeah, remember? I'm taking you to that fancy Thai restaurant in the city. You like Thai. We talked about it on Wednesday and again last night."

"Oh, that? Oh... I forgot all about that. I'm going with Cindy to a party now, actually two parties, so like I'll be home really late." Her cell phone rang. She pulled it out of her little purse and answered it. "Yeah, in a minute. I'm telling him right now." She thumbed it off.

I was pissed about the dinner for a moment. I was actually hoping we might have a nice time. She was a hot little thing to gaze at if nothing else. "Look... can you delay the partying? Come back home for about an..." I looked at my cheap watch. It was 3:20PM. "For an hour or so, because..." I exhaled sharply. "Listen, it was supposed to be a surprise, your mom's going to try to call you around 4PM at the house so we can accept the charges. She wants to congratulate you, you know, graduating."

"Oh... gawd... I just talked to her last week. I'll talk to her next week, during the visiting hell. I'm not going home."

I got pissed again. "Look... delay the freakin' partying for a goddamn hour. Barb wants to congratulate you on graduating... she wants to talk to you today."

Lana made another face. "Who cares about all that congratulations shit. It's just high school. I'm going to that party. I don't know when I'll be home."

She abruptly turned and strode away. My blood boiled with anger as I watched her damn hot apple ass sway. She thumbed her cell and started talking. I turned and headed to the truck and then the house. On the way, I picked up a cold twelve pack of Busch. I finished one by the time I pulled into the driveway.

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CHAPTER 3

I put my tool box in the truck. Nobody had wanted to get a beer. There weren't any single guys on the crew. Fridays they all wanted to get home and start their weekends. Wednesdays, "hump day," was better for getting someone to go for a drink. I tossed my soft wall cooler on the seat, then pulled the back forward and dropped my hard-hat behind the seat. I stood outside and looked at the house for a couple minutes. It was almost all framed in and sheathed. I liked it at the point it was, sheathed, but no wrapping on nor any of the windows or doors installed. I liked looking at the bare, simple, geometric shapes and forms.

I got into the truck and drove towards home. I stopped for one beer on the way, then a short stop at a liquor store for a fifth of Southern Comfort. We had worked a little later than usual to get a dozen more sheets of OSB on the roof to finish it off, so I didn't get to the house until roughly 6:30PM. I walked in through the mud room.

Lana was standing in the kitchen, her shitkickers on, another tight, black miniskirt, a bunch of stupid big jewelry around her neck laying on her purposely ripped black T shirt. That goddamn dangling chain was hanging from her eyebrow. Her arms were folded across her chest. She had black leather bands on her wrists, which reminded me of my studded leather handcuffs. I had used those on Barb quite a few times. She loved those kind of games.

Lana nearly shouted, "Where have you been?!"

It was five days since her Sunday graduation ceremony. She had stayed out all night after that. I left for work on Monday and she still hadn't returned home. Since then, we had hardly spoken a word to each other. We rarely ate any meals together, I usually ate at home, she usually went out in the evenings and either didn't eat or probably ate fast food. I set the bottle of Comfort on the counter, then opened the fridge and grabbed a cold beer. I popped it open. I took a few gulps then sat at the kitchen table and started unlacing my work boots.

"Where have you been?! I've been waiting for you!"

I pushed one boot off and started unlacing the other. "Gee... let's see, Friday... not quite the weekend, oh yeah... I was working, building a house. Did you know I'm a carpenter?"

"Yeah, it's Friday. I need my allowance. I need it right now. Cindy's coming over in a few minutes."

I looked at her. My brow pinched. "You need your what?"

"My allowance!"

"You graduated last Sunday."

"So?"

"You're out of high school. You don't get an allowance anymore. I told you that."

I bent down again and finished getting my boot off. I took another gulp of beer, then picked up my boots and set them in the laundry/mud room. I went back to the fridge and looked inside. I didn't feel like making a burger. I wasn't sure what I wanted to eat. I sat at the table, lit a Marlboro, then sipped my beer. I was surprised Lana hadn't said anything more. My surprise was premature.

"I want my allowance. I... I don't have a job yet. I need money to... to live."

I took a drag and looked at her. "You need money for fun and extravagances. Your basic living needs are taken care of. There's ground beef in the fridge, you have a roof over your head, your own private bedroom, a bed. Your living needs are taken care of. You're very lucky to have all this. A lot of people don't." My voice lowered and I did nothing to hide my irritation, "If you want other things, go out and get a job."

Her jaw clenched, her eyes glared, her nostrils flared. Her arms unfolded and went to her sides. Her hands balled into little fists. "You're an ass... did you know that? You're nothing but a big, fucking asshole!"

I knew I was lucky I hadn't opened the Comfort, because if I had a few shots of that, I would have grabbed the little bitch and slapped her hard across her face. Maybe she saw in my eyes that I was considering it, because she turned and stomped to the front door, opened it and slammed it closed. I heard a car pull into the driveway. I then heard Lana's voice.

"Let's fucking get out of here!"

I took a deep breath and exhaled slowly. It was the first time in my entire life I had ever thought about slapping a woman, at least in anger like that. Yeah, I was very glad I hadn't had any of that Comfort. I got up, pulled a glass from the cabinet, a few cubes from the freezer, opened the bottle and poured myself three fingers.

*

Two days later we were on our weekly drive to the state prison. We still weren't talking, which was fine with me. I admit my gut was a little knotted though, not due to the silence, but because I knew it was going to be one of the really crappy visits. Barb was probably still sad, or depressed, or had reached the angry stage now, regarding Lana not being home a week ago to take her call. She was probably also to the point of blaming me for it, for at least part of her daughter's disregard and self-centeredness. She'd need to blame someone other than herself and I'm the only one available.

In addition to that probability, I was 99.9% sure Lana was going to bitch non-stop about no longer getting an allowance. I knew she'd lie, say it was impossible to get a job, tell Barb she had filled out a hundred applications, say it was so hard to get a job because she didn't have a car, and on and on and on. After we had the damage repaired, we had sold Barb's car to help towards paying her fines and attorney's bill. I figured that had really made Lana angry. I was certain she had been thinking she'd get the car when Barb went to prison, but she hadn't shown any anger or disappointment about it, which had really surprised me.

Since March, I had talked with Barb a half dozen times about the allowance thing. I told her I wasn't going to budge on it. I told her that again a week ago when she called the house. I had a feeling she was going to try to get me to back off the decision when Lana would cry or get mad at the end of her hyperbolic, theatrical, emotional presentation to Barb about it. I knew the little bitch could work up tears whenever she thought it'd pay off for her. Although, Barb might be pissed off enough about that call a week ago and stick to her guns, well, stick to my guns actually. I would also point out that $30 a week for an allowance had been a hell of a lot of money for doing absolutely nothing around the house.

I'd also tell her that new home starts had slowed down again according to the news and what Jim had said the other day when I asked if we'd be working through the summer without any layoffs. He said he thought there'd probably be layoffs, which usually meant me. I'd be first to get an "unpaid vacation." Jim had said that once, told me to look at it as an unpaid vacation. What a fucking prick. I wasn't sure if I had the right employed quarters to qualify for unemployment benefits. I was usually laid off during the winter months if there weren't a lot of starts. Winter was usually for finish carpentry. Jim said he had no reservations about my finish skills, but had some about my starting on time skills. What a fucking prick.

It was a warm day. Lana had her bare feet planted against the dashboard again. She had that tight black miniskirt on again too. I wondered for a moment if she had a half dozen of those or just wore the same one when she wasn't wearing her tight black jeans. She still had too much makeup on, but not as "Gothy" as usual, which was another reason I thought she'd try to manipulate Barb during the visit. I was glad she didn't have anything dangling from her eyebrow ring. I had wondered a few times if she had her nipples pierced. I hadn't seen any rings on them poking against that nearly see-through camisole she wore in a couple of those pics on that internet page.

The visitation went the way I had anticipated. Barb started out being hurt and pissed about the phone call, but then Lana twisted the facts so much so that it was outright lying, saying she was sorry she missed the call but that I really hadn't explained it very well, and she had told me days, no, a week or more before graduation that she was going to a party right after the ceremony, that she now wished she would have been home and wished I had told her in a less confusing way so she had understood what the hell I was really saying. She then changed her story, saying I hadn't really told her there was going to be a call, that I had just said there'd be a "surprise" at 4PM at the house. She added that I had been drinking anyway, so she thought it was all just some stupid joke.

Barb was angry until that last lie from Lana. Barb looked at me at that point, even though I wasn't loaded when she finally called at 4:40PM. I only had a couple beers, maybe a shot of Comfort too, I can't recall, and anyway I had been completely sober at the gym.

Then Lana laid on the "I'm so sorry, Mom" crap, telling her how she knew how important it had been to Barb because it would have been so important to her too, talking to her mom on her graduation day. It really wasn't her fault though. She worked up the crocodile tears after that, even a couple sobs tossed in. They hugged for nearly two minutes, the guards letting it slide passed the 15 second time limit.