Previous Challenge Entry (Level 4 – Masters)
Topic: RELEASE (08/02/18)
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TITLE: Bar None | Previous Challenge Entry
By LINDA GERMAIN
08/08/18 -
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As he sauntered around the corner to the graffiti-covered little grocery, he looked up to see a wild looking stranger headed towards him like a runaway train. The man knocked the youngster’s skinny frame flat. Sammy was on a stretcher and headed for the emergency room before he was fully conscious. Blood covered his hands and chest.
“What’s your name, dear?”
Sammy appeared groggy and disoriented.
“Huh?”
The lady’s voice was friendly. She was wearing a shiny badge.
“Listen, sweetie,” she said, “you were seriously clobbered by a speeding person and just need to be checked out.”
Tears filled his swollen eyes.
“Could I have some water, please?”
In a minute, she was back with a cool drink. Later, he saw his mother through the open door and heard the sentence that would change his life forever.
“No, Mrs. Jax, he isn’t hurt. That is not his blood.”
The hapless court-appointed lawyer was no match for the slick prosecutor. Sammy was condemned to twenty years. He couldn’t explain the blood that wasn’t his, or the gun or money the real criminal must have shoved inside his jacket. Sam’s goose was cooked.
Prison wasn’t as bad as he had expected. The old saying about three hots and a cot had some sensible validity. Time passed quietly with little strain on his easy-going personality.
Out of nowhere, a group of gung-ho law students with a goal to rescue innocent prisoners pushed for a review of the case and won his exoneration. Before the scheduled day of freedom, his former cellmate showed up for a visit.
Over the years, he had come to love the old guy like a father. Bertram LaRue was basically illiterate and had no teeth. Young Sammy read to him from the Bible supplied by a faithful prison ministry. Bert and Sam passed many hours learning about Jesus and praying.
When Mr. LaRue had paid his debt to society, he was unceremoniously freed to take care of himself. He was turned out into a world that shocked him to the core.
“Hey, kid, I really miss this old place.”
Sam was stunned.
“Really? Why?”
Bert cleared his throat several times.
“Well, uh, it’s like this. Things is really different these days. It’s like some outer space guys come down and pinched all the old stuff.”
None of this report made much sense to Sam.
“What stuff? We didn’t have no stuff!”
Clearly frustrated, the reformed senior citizen shook his feeble fist.
“I’m tellin’ ya, it ain’t the same! For one thing, all peoples is walkin’ around with cell phones.”
“We never had no phones in our cell. What’s that mean?”
“They’s like the size of a little pack of cigarettes and you speak into ‘em and push buttons. When they rings music, I see folks just talk right out loud into the air. It beats everythin’.”
“Oh, Yeah. I remember we seen that on the old television we had for a while. What else?”
Bert rubbed his shaking, arthritic hands together. His old voice quivered.
“Way back before I landed in the slammer, a guy could get a good juicy cheeseburger and a cola for about ninety-cents. You won’t believe this, kid. Now it costs over seven dollars!”
He babbled on.
“A cheap room to rent is more by the week than I ever made in a month. There’s no jobs for me. I try to sleep under a bridge when the local shelter is full, but some smart aleck always makes me leave.”
Bert began to cry as he whispered words he thought would never leave his mouth.”
“I want to come back home.”
A year later, on his feet, married, and doing well Sam Jax tried to find his sad, indigent friend. One day, he read a notice in the paper about a toothless John Doe found in an old box in an alley.
Sam rejoiced that his dear mentor was no longer cold or scared or lost in the complicated system.
Like the deepest yearning of any human who is bound to slip the bonds of this earth, Bert was free from a weary body and home at last.
_____
Luke 4:18
“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, for he has anointed me to bring Good News to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim that captives will be released, that the blind will see, that the oppressed will be set free…”
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