500: An Anthology of Short Stories

Quinn detested it when Sharlene visited him.

“Your presence here aggravates me. You shouldn’t be inconvenienced like this. Why do you bother to come see me, Sharlene?”

“Quinn, don’t say such things. I’m your sister! It’s never an ‘inconvenience’ to visit you. I hope the guards are treating you well?”

“Well enough,” Quinn admitted grudgingly. He couldn’t reveal to her that since his incarceration, there had never been any diminution in the torment they subjected him to.

“I saw Harrison yesterday. He was very optimistic that your appeal will be successful, that your sentence will be overturned.”

“Harrison will say anything to keep you as a client,” Quinn responded angrily. “That attorney is as trustworthy as a crocodile in a pool of innocent babies.”

“Quinn! Why would you use such an awful comparison?” Sharlene blurted out, looking around in embarrassment at the other visitors staring at her outburst.

“Visiting time is over! Please make your way to the exit now!” a stern-faced guard barked, banging his baton against the bars for emphasis.

Sharlene placed her hand up against the window separating her from her brother. She smiled weakly at him before reluctantly leaving the room.

“Quinn! Back to your hole, convict,” another guard shouted at Quinn. Quinn rose obediently; his body tensing for the blow he knew would come from the guard as he passed him. Trent was one of those who took sadistic delight in abusing Quinn.

Back in his monastic cell, Quinn pushed the button to release his bed from its hidden recess.

“If only I hadn’t believed Paul’s damn story!” he chastised himself as he flopped down onto the surprisingly comfortable mattress. The bed came replete with bedding and pillows, and it was the only comfortable item in the entire cell.

“Why was I so gullible to believe him?” Quinn asked himself. He nearly jumped out of his skin when a shadow detached itself from the back wall and answered him.

“Because you’re a good Samaritan, unfortunately.”

It was Morris, one of the guards who was more humane. Quinn steeled himself for a bout of beating. Morris made no move towards him though. Instead, he folded his hands and simply stared at Quinn.

Morris wasn’t one of those who had ever beaten Quinn, but he was capricious, which in Quinn’s mind made him far more dangerous than any of the other guards. After about ten long seconds had passed, Morris finally spoke. What he said was so remote from Quinn’s expectations that the despondent twenty-six-year-old struggled to think.

“Your sister … has she said anything to you about me?”

“What? Why would Sharlene have anything to say about you?”

“Because we’re in love. We plan to get married once you’re released.”

“Wait! What are you babbling on about?”

“Paul has been ‘persuaded’ to reveal your innocence. You will be released tomorrow.”

Quinn could only stare mutely at Morris. Nothing made any sense to him.

“Be grateful, brother-in-law. Not everybody gets such a reprieve,” Morris said in parting.