Project lock up

WELCOME TO WYOMING STATE PRISON

The exterior of the prison was the same as any prison you'd seen on Tv, it was cold, bleak and hard. It's rolling wire fences, stone walls and looming watchtowers made it seem greatly impenetrable. Charlotte and I had googled 'Nigh guard prison' when I was given my four year sentence, it had shown us brightly coloured adverts of fields of green, smiling prisoners in crisp uniforms huddled in a loving embrace with the wardens. However the real thing did not look so welcoming.

"Wow, okay Shawshank this is your stop" Charlotte stopped the car and I felt an overwhelming sense of 'fuck' flow through my veins, I felt electrified in that moment, it was all too god damn real,

She lit a smoke and the cab was soon filled with tobacco fumes. Her mascara had been smeared across her cheeks, she looked tired and worn, I guess we both did.

It felt like a lifetime ago when I was deemed guilty of second degree manslaughter, the jury had looked so solemn in handing their verdict, four years...Might as well been given life.

Nigh guard was the biggest of the minimum security prisons in Wyoming, and considerably the hardest. The window began to ice the longer we sat with the engine off, "You uh ready?", Charlotte questioned again, I could tell being here was uncomfortable for her, but she was the only family I had left, the only family that supported me through my trial and sentencing.

"Yeah I guess, they're expecting me right", I chucked lightly, my heart beat lodging itself in my throat. The morning was cold and I felt the hairs on my arm stand up on end beneath the corduroy jacket, my fathers favourite.

WELCOME WYOMING STATE, was written in peeling, yellow paint on the front of administration booth, my legs felt as though they were full of lead and I gripped onto Charlotte's arm harder steadying myself. The warden sat behind a tall mahogany counter, bespectacled and carved with fine lines she seemed a lot warmer for someone with so much authority.

"Inmate name and number?", She hadn't looked up from the file she was perusing.

" Uh actually I am the inmate", my throat felt dry and my voice sounded scratchy to my ears, embarrassed I started picking at the threads on my sleeve. The warden seemed surprised, but soon her surprise turned to a sarcastic twist of her ruby red lips, " Lucky you, papers?".

I passed her the forms that had become creased and stained with this mornings coffee, she straightened them out on her desk before punching in my information, each tap was like a stab in my gut, each one meant I was closer than ever to something that had been eating at me ever since I was arrested. "Okay inmate Jensen or should I say 04125, you're looking at Block 43", She quickly looked to Charlotte by my side, who in an honest attempt at saving herself from tears, had begun counting all the tiles on the floor, all the while toying with her car keys. " I will give you a moment to say your goodbyes make it quick", she pushed back from her chair and made her way to the front of the office removing a set of keys from a rusted hook by the door. 

Charlotte looked at the door behind me, it was green and the first thing I had noticed when we walked in, it was the door that would lead me to my fate. " I guess this it huh" she whispered in my ear as she wrapped her thin tanned arms around my neck, "Yeah until i'm allowed visitation I guess it is", I pulled back to take a proper look at her, she was sobbing lightly again, a sight not uncommon in our household these past few weeks. 

"Look its four years, and Arcana said we could even put forth a plea deal after a few months, have my sentence reduced", I knew Arcana would prove unsuccessful, my record hadn't been the cleanest, but it seemed to settle her. "I put mom on the list", she sniffled, I scoffed in response, "Yeah I doubt she will, ever since dad died she's refused to even acknowledge me as her daughter. I think she blames me for the accident", Charlotte's eyes fell, it was confirmation that she believed this was the reason for her mothers distaste for her eldest. 

"Swayde, I love you, just be careful in there, please, no more fighting, do your time and just come home". 

The door to Block 43 slid open,  the hallways thus far had been an odd shade of green and no sign of human life, we had passed the recreational hall, a dingy and cold room, a moth eaten blue couch sat in front of a box tv which was showing I Love Lucy reruns, a stack of old magazines were sitting haphazardly on the edge of a wooden table, also adorned with a worn box of checkers and a deck of cards. Block 43 had a total of 6 sleeping stations, each held two beds and a singular desk, a plastic lamp bolted down to the top of it. 

A large window covered the far left of the room, iron bars locked into place, but I could see the rocky expanses of the Grand Teton national park in the distance, and that soothed me. My father loved to camp along Phelp lake, he being a huge advocate for the outdoors had wasted no time in taking Char and I out on weekend hikes along death canyon, spending summers at the shooting range or summer nights lying on the warm packed earth watching the stars while listening to Big river by Johnny Cash. But this wasn't Phelps, this was nigh guard and just below the sprawling line of trees were the inmates that'd been missing from this whole experience. 

The roaming yard boasted a chalky red packed dust ring in a field of patchy green grass. A squadron of metal benches lined the ring and a lonely basketball hoop with  a torn net stood sad and untouched at the top of the field. Packs of women in blue uniforms did there rounds, some sat in close knit packs, huddled around benches or idling by themselves at the fence, looking out at the world they could not touch. 

"Okay inmate 04215# this is your bunk, you will be sharing your bunk with inmate 03754# Rimes so enjoy that, you'll be spending plenty of time together", She motioned to the sleeping station, my bunk mate had clearly been here a while, with different coloured sheets and pictures of a smiling girl with straw yellow hair and an asian man taped to every oriface. "Yard time ends in..." she trailed off as she checked her watch, "0900 hours, you have 25 minutes or you can spend your time acquainting yourself with the bed bugs", she chuckled, "You missed breakfast, we will call you for lunch" The warden began to wander back to the door, clipboard in hand. 

I took in my surroundings with a shallow breath that seemed to sting and burn in my chest. 

" Oh and by the way inmate" 

"Yes?"

"Welcome to Wyoming state prison"