"And they all lived happily ever after." I said while closing the cover of the imaginary book I was holding in my hands.
A second later the bell rang at 10:45am just as I expected.
"Everyone in line and into the cells!" shouted a new officer, "Line up! Let's go!
In reaction, all those who had sat around me to hear the story I had for that afternoon found themselves lining up as one. Some were beginning to question the ending I had given to the plot, while others agreed that it had seemed to them the "most perfect" one for that context.
"Tell me, Niss," asked Amelia as she placed a hand on my shoulder. She was the closest thing to a friend I had in this dump "was that the real ending?"
"It was an ending"
"The real one?"
"It was...a fitting one for the circumstances. Besides, there was nothing planned, it was just free narrative so technically no ...."
"Landazuri, Gonzales, move!" shouted again the newbie.
I ended up shrugging my shoulders to Amelia as a symbol that even I didn't know if it was the true ending I wanted to give to that story. Because it was the truth. I didn't know if, had I had infinite time, the story would have ended that way. That left me with a feeling of bitterness in me.
After the whole crowd was finally organized, they began to take each row to their respective Sector. Row 1 (where Amelia was) to Sector A, Row 2 to Sector B and so on. I belonged to Sector G since we were grouped in a sector according to the location of our cell. The closer it was to CENTRAL, the closer to the letter A our Sector would be.
In fact, before all these Sectors were called Zones, but the new prison director arrived some things changed, especially the names. CENTRAL used to be called the Operations Center, but I guess it became easier to call it by one name over time.
As far as I know, this jail always held women and was known as the best penitentiary in the country. However, over the years, its image deteriorated and, well, here we are today.
"What do you want? Are you..." I couldn't finish, because she interrupted me.
"A072014, you have a visitor who needs your presence" she declare without further ado to move directly to that pool where the only thing they do is to cry inconsolably about how they plan to get you out of there or sink you more.
"What for?" I asked because we were almost running to get there. What was the hurry? Surely it was the real estate company that was going to inform me that they wanted to build a construction where my old house was, but if that were the case... there wouldn't be so much desire to get there as soon as possible.
"That information has not been given to me and it would not be for me to tell it to you either." She made it clear and did not speak to me again for the rest of the way until the moment we arrived.
It had been about seven years since the last and only visit I had received in my entire stay, which in fact was from the officer to obtain a will in a case related to mine. After that, the outside world had forgotten me among the thousands of citizen files.
Nevertheless, here we were again. A white room full of chairs and tables of similar tones where in the last of them was a short-haired woman with a dark folder on one side accompanied by a boy who seemed to have just graduated from high school. I stared at them for a while until the boy noticed my presence and told the woman.
"Good morning, my name is...." I was interrupted
"Good morning, Mrs. Landazuri, a pleasure to meet you, my name is Tatiana James and this is Joseph Ramirez" She said with a smile that barely reached her cheeks. -Shall we sit down?
Out of politeness, there was no other option but to sit in the missing seat in front of these two full savages. From a distance one could see how Joseph was more careless than James given the neatness of the latter's suit. The former could barely button his shirt properly. Couple? I doubted it, James seemed to barely notice the presence of her so called assistant when it was urgent, and Joseph didn't really seem to be interested in that kind of relationship at the moment. So, definitely out of the question.
"Tell me, Miss James, what is the reason for your visit to me?"
"First of all, I would like to emphasize that over the course of the following visits. Yes, there will be subsequent visits." she said it surely because of my house of exasperation "Things will be less unexpected. Regarding your question, the answer is slightly more complex. You see, last December 8 at 6:00 p.m., Mrs. Melendez was reported missing."
"I have to emphasize that at that time she was reported missing, not exclusively anything else peculiar. However, there was... "
"Wait a second. Will you excuse me, Mr. Ramirez, but isn't it July?"
"That's where the problem lies, we have spent eight months investigating your case, but..." Ramirez couldn't seem to come up with the information so James took on the burden of breaking the news.
"Nothing has been found. Not one witness. Not a camera. There is absolutely no evidence. Mrs. Landazuri, your grandmother is probably dead.
At that moment, my head hit the table.
Note 1: Landazuri that day told the story of Little Red Riding Hood. However, she altered the ending by saying that the wolf and Little Red Riding Hood became friends and lived happily ever after.