GOODtime Charley (Now On Goodnovel, Meganovel, and On Webnovel)

Prologue: That Feeling Of Vindication

 Prologue: That Feeling Of Vindication

 Cellblock 8, Conyers County Penitentiary, Conyers County, District Of Colombia...

        Icy cold air and the sound of paper flapping in the breeze had been the only things remotely pleasant about the surroundings of twenty-one-year-old inmate 360059 also known as Charles Edwin Bayler or "Charley" as he was known for most of his life, Charley Bayler had been a rather ruggedly handsome young man, given to messy long dark locks that draped over his shoulders more often than not with an unkempt beard, build wise he'd been a tall drink of water when standing at an impressive six foot, two inches and he had developed a good deal of muscle since his adolescence hitting the iron at the gym prior to his arrest and made something of a decent living for himself as an auto mechanic at Bateman Automotive Repair, a place ran by Carter Bateman his former boss and a man that had been something like a father figure to the rather troubled young man. Carter had one son, a constant screwup hooked on drugs and alcohol by the name of Julian Bateman who had not liked the look of Charley or his closeness to his father, and a daughter named Jennifer Bateman who had something of a crush on the handsome Charley Bayler despite being a teenage girl at the time. Charley paid her no special attention, seeing her as the little sister he never had despite her crush.

In his downtime and off days from working at the shop among the Bateman family, however, Charley was a rather surprisingly talented artist and spent a good deal of his wages from the auto shop buying pencils and paper to indulge his childhood hobby. He often was asked to draw for special occasions and made decent side hustle money from his efforts due to his unique talent for drawing anything he saw in absolutely fine detail so long as he had a pencil in his hands and a sketchpad or a piece of viable paper.

A talent that Bateman Sr. often told him would have him going places. As a result, Charley had been tasked with images and branding for advertising for the shop and brought in a good deal of business. The attention and the fact that Charley had been quite talented in place of himself earning respect and admiration from Bateman Sr had been something that Julian Bateman couldn't handle nor could he stand for it given his animosity toward Charley in the first place. Jealousy and spite had won over the drug-addicted Mechanic's son and as a result, he lobbied to get rid of Charley.

Unfortunately, Charley Bayler had caught on much too late about how spiteful Julian had become against him, and due to this rather tragic fact, He spent the better part of his last five years sentenced in prison for theft of money from the auto shop after $9,000 of the shops missing funds was found in his bag while he'd been tuning a customer's car. He had never forgotten the smug look on Julian's pale sickly face or the giddy expression he had behind his bloodshot eyes as he was accosted by the law and cuffed right then and there following an anonymous report about the theft and someone "seeing him" with the formerly missing money.

Mr. Bateman had been enraged and rightly so but he believed that Charley had done it due to Julian's convincing acting skills. He wanted nothing to do with his former star mechanic and pressed charges immediately. Julian had gotten what he wanted in the end, and Charley had been disgraced and sentenced to time in prison given that it was his first time, the judge was rather lenient and only gave him five years which enraged Bateman all the more.

At the time, Charley had been in D.C. when he'd been arrested and as a result, he was tried as an adult due to being sixteen years of age. He supposed with all the crime and delinquency his judge had wanted to make an example out of him. Julian had been smiling the entire time as Charley's sentence was handed down and he'd been shipped off to the big house.

The Batemans looked upon him with disgust and outrage as he sighed and listened to his sentencing, being tried as an adult and given a felony charge had been something of a shock to him but he didn't say a word as they escorted him from the courtroom where his "public pretender" spouted about how "truly sorry" he had been that he couldn't get him a better defense. It was to be expected given that he was a court-appointed lawyer and since Charley had no money to pay for legal counsel with his funds being seized due to the theft, it was all he was going to get being a young man whose family put him out on the street the moment he came of age.

The shift from sixteen-year-old Charley Bayler into twenty-one-year-old Charley Bayler had been astounding. When he first arrived he'd been a bit green in the way things worked in prison and as a result saw himself into a good deal of trouble with getting his face pounded in due to his looks and quiet nature. He'd been a rather scrawny kid when he came to this place and as a result, was forced into some unsavory things just to survive. His cellmate at the time had been a rather burly man with a fetish for young men and he liked them tall and handsome. It was rather fortunate for Charley or rather unfortunate that he'd been well-endowed even as a scrawny lad and it got the attention of his cellmate who had a fetish for large cocks so he wasn't the one designated to do any catching in that scenario.

Being forced to get aroused and perform on cue once the lights had gone out had been something of a terrifying experience for Charley but he was capable of it given his upbringing as it wasn't the first time a man had come on to him. He was by no means gay as he'd preferred women and had his fair share of them prior to being locked up due to theft. At the time he had a preference for pretty high school-age girls, he'd seen in the corridors of his school who had been fast and loose when it came to their virtue and obsession with the only attribute that made them want to pay attention to him, and grown women mostly drunken ladies who had been staples in his family trailer while claiming to be "friends" with his drunken and drug-addicted mother, another factor that had been attributed to his tumultuous upbringing.

At present, twenty-one-year-old Charley Bayler had been lying on his back in his bunk staring up at the ceiling he'd read the paperwork about his impending release over and over again as if the words would change and they'd tell him it had all been some sort of cruel joke that he'd made parole. Apparently, Mr. Bateman had gotten into an argument with Julian who had been high out of his mind after some money came up missing and during the confrontation, a rather smug Julian admitted to not only taking the 9,000 from his father's safe but that he set Charley up in the first place.

Mr. Bateman had been shocked to find that he'd turned his back on Charley and let him sit in prison without a proper defense for five years before the confession from Julian about setting him up while high. The sorrowful man had come to the prison and tried to apologize but Charley had changed so much and the bitterness he held since being incarcerated had led to him not saying much at all to Bateman outside of not wanting anything more to do with him or his family.

Feeling immense guilt for turning his back on Charley, to begin with, Mr. Bateman got him real legal counsel and the charges were dropped but while the courts were processing he'd spent one last night in his cell. Charley had been shocked by the news as he'd grown accustomed to life behind bars serving the near end of his five-year sentence only to be released a few months earlier and found not guilty.

For the past five years, Charley had managed to earn goodwill with the inmates and guards alike due to his drawing abilities and no longer endured harassment or violence during his stay. He had managed to make a few friends while on the inside but he was looking forward to putting his life back together and making a clean break. He decided there was nothing left for him at Bateman Automotive Shop so he made up his mind to collect his last paycheck and disappear on the horizon, a horizon that he'd been dreaming about for the past five years since his initial court sentencing.

Finally, after five long years, he'd been vindicated and free to live life as he pleased.