The cold yard wasn't as fun as before, as he was majorly restricted in his movements. Not that he used to enjoy his time there before his injuries. He had mostly spent his time seated on the bleachers and watched other prisoners do their dos. It was becoming more of a norm as nothing new was happening. Two hyper waited events were on the back of his mind— the release of Derreiro back to the free world and him… Worry, anger, and anticipation rooted deep inside him. He couldn't wait to face him, after all these years. Where to start. What to say. Would he still remember me? He wondered. The walk back to the infirmary was long itself and even though it was less cumbersome as it had been on the first day, it still gave him a run for his money.
The elevator door chimed and opened after he pressed some button. Slowly on the lift, he ascended to his designated floor. When the elevator door opened upon its stop, he cautiously walked out and towards the library present at the infirmary. There were a few inmates on some tables, taking notes and perusing through thick paged books. Some fellow was snoring deep into a book, his drool smeared all over the old yellow page. Poor book. He thought of waking him up but with the thought of what happened to him when he last meddled in other prisoner's business, he ended up with a plaster on his leg. He was beaten up for just working in the kitchen. He couldn't fathom what destroying a man's rest would lead to. It had to be worse. He first branched to the first row of shelves in search of something favorable. He ended up drawing his attention to other shelves in search of that one thing. After about a minute of a book search, he landed on what appeared to be a thriller and headed over to an empty seat by a table, and sat down to read.
It was after thirty minutes of reading time when he saw a familiar face entering the small library. Dressed in his casual prison guard uniform, that enveloped his fat body, came none other than Officer Baker himself. With one hand on his duty belt, and the other one swinging around as he walked, he found his way to Ethan who had already seen him coming.
"Hello there son," Baker began as he sat down next to Ethan, eyes flourishing in hidden laughter and worry. He didn't know what to make of Ethan's situation.
"Good of you to pay me a visit. Finally." Ethan mumbled as he folded the page he was currently at.
"Busy days. Busy days son."
"Seems so. Haven't seen you in a while. Busy handing out jobs to other prisoners?"
"Very funny." He drawled and cleared his throat. "I thought it'd be a nice gesture to see you and you know... see how you were holding up."
"Well, as you can see I'm doing quite fine," Ethan smirked, eyebrows raised.
"Hey... I didn't know any of that would happen. Josiah and his crew sometimes can overreact."
"Overreact?" He asked. "Does this look like an overreaction?"
Baker studied him for a while. "No."
"Thank you." He turned back to the book.
"Hey kid, you need to stop being such a moody wimp. It was just an accident, as you said yourself."
"Oh, so you do know that he and his crew beat me up in the kitchen?"
"Yes. I mean you might deny it all you want but in the end, we all know what happened in there. It's your word against ours and since you are perfectly claiming that whatever happened in there was an accident, I want to say that I am sorry for the 'accident' that happened."
He sighed, "How do you people let a person like him be in the kitchen preparing meals for everyone in here. The old man can poison us all." Ethan ranted.
"We check them every day... as they come in and out of that room. They don't bring out stuff in and neither do the inside stuff get out. You can sleep well kid, no one is killing you with poison and shit."
"I never expected it to be this hard," Ethan muttered under exasperated breath. "It wasn't supposed to be this hard…"
"Hmm... should have not raped that woman then, what do you think?" Baker said, a smile hidden in the stars. Ethan gave him a grim face in response.
"What are you guys paid to do here?" He asked later on. "You are supposed to be doing your work well... I mean, do you see where I'm getting at?"
"Yeah, I get you, kid. But that's just life. Even God made Eden, but the Devil wanted things even. We try our best, you know… I mean no one is perfect, not this system to be fair with you. And that's why we end up with people like you. You want to keep the system running. A system that is not always in your favor. You lie about who bashed your legs against that kitchen floor and somehow expect us to do our part. How can we help you if you don't wanna be helped?"
Ethan sighed, once again.
"In here, we see you as an inmate, and you see me as your boss. We try to blur those lines and make sure you guys are free with us. To make sure that there are no inmate and officer differences. We're here to make sure that this can be Eden even though we might appear as the Devil to you. Tell me, son, between me and you... where do you think you lie most. With us, the prison cops... or them, your colleagues."
"You don't need to stress your point boss. I get the idea."
"Yes. You do. That's why you're so eager to keep quiet about what happened there. You can't snitch on your brothers, and end up encouraging stupid inmate rules and moreover continuing this broken system." Baker highlighted
"Me. Not snitch? Why?"
"Uh... they would kill you?" He answered him. "Like have you even ratted them out that they beat you down?"
"No, but I can. If my life depended on it."
"If your life depended on it. What's that supposed to mean? That you'd stab them in their backs the moment that they'd have a gun on your brains?"
"Or when they try to harm or hurt someone I truly care about," Ethan answered. Just then, Dr. May entered the library and went over to search for some books from a row of shelves, Ethan watching her all along. She was dressed in both a black blouse and trousers with her white overall on top. She looked formal, a woman on her job. Ethan watched her. And Officer Baker watched him watch her.
"Oh... no, no, and no." Baker chuckled. "You must be kidding me."