Chapter 1: Carmine

The whistle blew as I stood up from my resting place next to the chain link fence that enclosed the area where I, and twenty other men, was getting our daily ration of fresh air. I kept as far away from the other cons as I could since I was not going to blow my chance by getting into trouble. Freedom was just too damned close for me to screw it up. I ambled over toward the far edge of the field and queued up with the other inmates waiting to file into the outer chamber leading from the exercise field to the main hallway of the prison.

My name is Carmine Montoya and I'm a charter member of the inmates society here at lovely Ohio State Pen. I'm one of over five hundred held courtesy of the State of Ohio. I'm in for assault and serving a sentence of seven to ten years. Actually it was a plea bargain that got me here but I was guilty: no question about it. I admitted it and my attorney worked out the deal. He was court appointed but he did the job. He was happy that I had no complaints, and wanted no appeal: I just wanted to serve my time and pay my debt to society.

We had two hours a day outside, one in the morning and one in the afternoon. This was the second, and the whistle signaled our hour in the sun was over. When the last man came through the opening, the steel bar gate slammed shut behind him; the clang was one I was familiar with now and it was just part of the background noise. Once it was shut, the gate in front of the first man in the queue slid open and we filed into the main hallway. I looked down the long sterile hallway, cells to the right and left, two levels high and most now filled and thought to myself that this had been my home for the last five years and some days. We were the last group of the day to go outside. As always, we marched single file down that barren walk with guards at the head and the end of our column and one walking beside. No talking, no nothing; just marching.

My group was on the ground floor so we marched down the center, men peeling off in pairs to the left or right to enter their cells. The doors were all open, waiting for the command to shut them down. I was near the end and followed Owen, 'Big O' Potts, my current cellmate as we moved out of line and into cell number 113. Owen jumped up to the top bunk while I took the bottom due to my seniority in this cell. The guard came past, looked in to see we were where we were supposed to be and that no one else was in with us, then after checking the full row, signaled to the gatekeeper. Once all were in and accounted for, the doors slid home with their own distinctive clang and we were sealed in for the next two hours until the dinner march.

"So, tomorrow is the day, eh man?" Owen was not much in the way of words but this was a special occasion.

"Yeah, tomorrow's the day, 'O'. Gonna be good to be out of here." I didn't normally say much either which is why Owen and I were good cellmates. He had been with me for over a year now without either of us doing the other harm.

"Yeah, good. You got my number? I'm out in another month."

"I got it. I just hope I don't need it."

We were done talking until dinner. Silence was one of the premiums in a good cellmate. None of us liked to talk much after a few years inside. After all, when your world consisted of a barren cell and a cot with a stainless steel crapper, what was there to talk about? Most of the movies they showed were ancient and the library held mainly rejected books from the local schools. Not a lot of stimulation.

Owen Potts is in for manslaughter. He took a dislike to a man that threatened one of his kids. Seems the man also was messing with his missus and Owen took issue with that. He put a knife into the guy's gut, just missing an artery. Fortunately, the guy survived so Owen only got fifteen years. His wife divorced him and he hadn't seen his kid for the last ten years.

Shortly after he was released from the hospital, the guy on the outside was mugged and killed in what the police called a random case of robbery. Funny, but it wasn't a surprise to Owen. All he said when he heard was "Good Job!" He had already done most of his time and like me, the parole board gave him a pass on the remainder. He'd kept his nose clean inside. It's good that society doesn't like to shell out good money for more and better prisons. Makes our time a lot shorter.

I lay back, picking up the book I had been reading. It was a medical journal and it outlined several new procedures for resetting and aligning broken bones. I had kept up with the new procedures and discoveries in prison and the librarian was good about getting the books I requested. I picked it up, looked at it for a few minutes, then put it down. I wanted something less technical and more exciting. I picked up a fiction novel, one of Ludlum's tomes, always good for reading since it took forever to finish one. Deep, dark, convoluted and violent. Just the thing for a convict to waste time with. I had read all of his works that were in the prison library. My release was coming just in time.

I had been in jail now for five years, three months and ten days. With the overcrowding in the state penal system, the courts had ruled that once a prisoner had served seventy percent of his minimum term, he or she was eligible for parole. The parole board had granted my parole on the third try. No one showed up to protest or to advocate for my release since I had made it clear I wanted no one I knew to know about my upcoming parole hearing. I asked only one man to speak on my behalf. I hadn't asked anyone else for my side and no one ever appeared for the other one so it was pretty much of a wash in that regard. But this time I had a guarantee of a job and a place to live when I got out; courtesy of my old boss and friend, Jason Whatley. He ran a private practice now in Columbus and wanted me to come in with him. He had made the necessary calls and my license to practice had been renewed without issue since my crime had nothing to do with medicine and I had passed the proficiency test. The parole board liked this and the letter from Jason was complimentary so they relented and gave me parole.

During the time I was in, my only visitor was my sister Eileen. She was married and had three kids of her own. She and her husband Fred moved into our parent's home in the suburbs of Cleveland after they were both killed in a car accident three years ago. Before that, mom and dad wanted to come visit but I begged them both to stay away. I hated for them to see me in here but mom had to come anyway. She and Eileen both came every couple of months until her death. Dad sent letters but honored my request: I think the whole idea pained him. However, they were gone now and only Eileen came.

We never talked of my ex and my kid. Eileen learned early on that I wanted no word of what they were doing. I had it in my head that they were better off without me. After all, I had lost it big time when I almost killed Hugo. I don't think I would have done anything to Nancy, but I wasn't sure, so I decided to put them in my past and move on. It seemed the best thing for all of us.

When she visited a week ago, I told Eileen of my deal with Jason and she was delighted. We promised to keep in touch after I was released. She asked if I had a place to stay and needed anything. I told her Jason had everything under control so not to worry. As soon as I was settled, I would call her and give her the information.

Laying on my bunk and considering all of this, I sighed and tried to take a quick nap. Time seemed to be dragging even more slowly now than it did normally. All I had to do now was make it through dinner and then one more night in this hell hole and I would be a free man. Free from what? Well, that was a matter of public record so there's no harm in telling you.

It was all because I beat a man almost to death. It was a close call but he survived and I was arrested and charged with assault with intent to kill. My court appointed attorney helped me to a plea bargain that reduced the charge to simple assault. I was guilty and was willing to plead out so it went through without a trial. I agreed to a term of not less than seven and not more than ten years if I would plead guilty. It was all very civilized and I was bundled off to jail and out of sight of all those who wanted me lynched or acquitted. Seems at the time, there were more on the lynching side but who was counting.

What happened? It was a very simple thing. I was a doctor on staff at a local hospital. I was a specialist and my practice was in the field of orthopedics, a bone doctor, and I had been on call for almost eighteen hours when I clocked out for the day and went down to the wards. I had a patient on the ward that I wanted to visit before I went home. As is the way of things, during the time I was in house, there was a serious accident and I was called to help. I worked Trauma for the next five hours before an emergency surgery had to be performed on a man who could lose the use of his leg if it wasn't rebuilt properly. Since I was already there, I was paged and was in surgery for almost six hours with him before I could get away by switching with a colleague of mine. I had been on duty now for over thirty straight hours.

I got a colleague of mine to take my next shift since I would be too tired to be effective and he agreed. I got out of the hospital before anymore could happen and got in my car to drive home. I had called my wife earlier to tell her I was going to be delayed but that I would call if I could get away before my next scheduled shift. I hadn't remembered to call Nancy before I left letting her know that I had switched, so I tried now. I called her cell phone just to be sure and got her voice mail and left a message saying I was heading home. It was just after one o'clock in the afternoon so I expected her to be home anyway. She worked part time for a Real Estate company as a receptionist but wouldn't be working today. I wasn't scheduled home until later that evening so since she hadn't received my call, she would assume I was on shift now.