A character named John Wayne is just a fictional one created for this story. If there's a man in the world named John Wayne, it's just a coincidence and has nothing to do with this story.
It says 2020 and the number of victims of the Covid-19 pandemic is still rising. The pandemic is already threatening the whole world. Due to many extraordinary measures during this rapidly spreading disease, many small and medium-sized enterprises also went bankrupt in Slovakia. People began to fall into despair and no one had any idea when this scourge would end and what the consequences would be for the whole of society and for the whole world. The disaster also affected the life of a former manager of an unnamed financial company in Košice City. The 41-year-old Ernest was on the internet shortly after the divorce - as many official matters are currently being handled. A low man with piercing eyes who can count any numbers, but also money of all possible and impossible values.
But for now, his eyes have nothing to count on, because the coronavirus crisis has hit his life to the fullest. The former financier was left broke and alone in his three-bedroom apartment with no wife or family. His current condition was approaching despair. On the fourth floor in a panel near the center in Košice City, silence reigned. The crampedness of the living space was also reflected in Ernest's deepening depressiveness. He felt worse, feeling sadness, nothingness and emptiness inside him. He's been falling over and over.
Saturday has been very slow indeed, and also in a spirit of global decline – both moral and economic. People forget good ant and resort even in public to quarrels and violence. It's all like a bad dream. In a few days, the whole world changed. They only let people into shopping centers in a limited way. On the counters begin to lack basic goods, which are necessary for survival. Many previously common things become sub-population goods. Endless crowds of people – most of them nervous about scarcity – can be seen in front of every shopping center in Košice. Ernest roasted ham with a few eggs in the pan for lunch because he had a taste for hemendex. In the afternoon, he walked for half an hour with a face mask around his housing estate. Saturday was in the spirit of loneliness and silence. There wasn't even a dog outside. The sun was very hot because it was still April. After half an hour of walking, Ernest gave up and decided to come home. He took the elevator to the fourth floor and poisoned himself into the apartment. He threw the keys to the shoe and then sat on it for a while. He needed to find at least a little energy for the next activity, the essence of which was a bless wandering around the apartment. The only connection between people is currently the Internet and mobile phones. As a financier, Ernest speaks english perfectly and often reads messages in English. He turned on his laptop and read a few messages: The coronavirus is decimating all of New York.
Central Park in New York is turning into a sleeper field hospital.Paramedics can't put infected people in beds and run up and down all over the area. There is not enough medical supplies or staff. Oh, that's unbearable any longer – ernest thought, and you looked at the news from your Facebook friends. But neither message was different from the others. Everyone has been affected by the current situation with an unpredictable end. And so he lay down on the couch and stared lethargically into the ceiling. In his head, he often returned to his office as he prepared financial transactions, earning money for the company he worked in. But that's in the past. The silence in the apartment was really unbearable. The thoughts were even harder, and no action on Ernest brought relief or peace. That day was endless, and the evening in an empty apartment was like any other lately. But that evening, Ernest decided to light a large scented candle in the living room on the table, which until then was just standing in the showcase. As darkness engulfed everything outside, Ernest turned off the TV and put a candle on a table in the middle of the living room. He sat on the couch and watched her sming a bright yellow flame right in front of her. He sat like this for a while, feeling a kind of influx of pleasant feelings, his soul was being silenced, his mind calming down. Ernest has reached the stage of absolute peace or, more precisely, into a meditative state.
The candle was big enough to glow until the morning. After a long moment full of peace and mental cleanliness,
Ernest fell asleep…
Suddenly a loud ring could be heard and the echo echo echoed across the big hall. But then again, absolute silence reigned. There was no tap anywhere. Ernest didn't open his eyes, he stayed completely calm. But only until a strong light came on above him. He understood that it's not all about the church order. When he opened his eyes, it blinded him so much that he flipped sharply on his stomach. After a while, he turned his head to the side, turned a blind eye and saw bars in front of him. He was lying stiff and wondering what had happened. He was dominated by fear. He quickly sat down, but had to cover his eyes with his hands. When he slowly uncovered them, he saw the gray bars again. He looked around. He was in a cell: one bed, a metal silver toilet and a sink. He had an orange jumpsuit on the side of his bed. From exploring the cell, he was suddenly disturbed by loud commands that echoed all over the object in English: "Line up! Immediately, line up!"
Ernest didn't have time for anti-sheer therapy and quickly put on a jumpsuit. In this, the device above the bars lit up and made an intermittent penetrating sound until the bars opened by moving to the right side. Again, there was a loud command ordering the onset of prisoners.
Ernest stepped out of the cell with his right foot and stood on a narrow corridor. In front of him, the scene of the prison showed up in full. He looked to the right, there were prisoners standing there in orange overalls. He looked to his left and it was the same scene. Broken men in orange colors. He looked down and saw five guards standing there. In English, they loudly announced what would follow. Departure for breakfast and then return to customs. Since it's Sunday, backyard walks will also be allowed. Ernest was in shock. How did he get here? What's all this? Is it a bad dream or a delusion? But he didn't have room to investigate his interior, because he was already marching in the crowd for breakfast. When they got to the dining room, everyone gradually took to the tables as they followed suit. Ernest sat close to the dispensary and looked around. Across from him, an elderly man with white hair sat at the table. He could have been in retirement, he must have been in his early 60s. Tired of looking at Ernest and asking,
"So what, are we going to go to court today? At least I'll finally see the sun, as it should be sunny and warm today."
Ernest yed at him and, after a while, precariously replied:
"Nooo, that's true, although today I'm kind of completely erased. I forgot your name."
The older man smiled, grabbed his forehead and, after a moment with irony, said:
"Ah, John, you're not going to stop your fool. Since my name is Jason for 60 years and I still remember it…My memory's still fine compared to yours."
Ernest tried to look cool and not show surprise or anything like that. "You know, Jason, you're right, I think I'm having my crazy day again today. Like you called me that? John? Old Jason grabbed his head in both palms. It's hard to sigh and remark,
"Well, you probably do have that when I have to remind you of your name too - Mr. John Wayne."
Ernest was in a hurry to think about that name and his other identity. He didn't hesitate any longer and asked Jason,
"What are you here for?"
Jason yenched at him, unashamedly twisting his head and shrugged off remorse:
"You're really losing your sanity. I guess you really missed out on that much money. I ambushed the restaurant and there was an unfortunate fall of an elderly man. He didn't make it. Then I'm probably going to harden up in prison for the rest of my life. And you? No one knows where you hid so many "papers." You got 15 years for stealing $80 million, even though you argued in court that they came from unclean sources. But it didn't help. And so, my friend, you hardened up here with me."
"And how long have I been here?"
Ernest asked surprisingly.
"Second year, John. It's nothing special to you financiers that you cross the bounds of the law as millions of dollars pass through your hands."
Ernest ate breakfast and the guards announced the arrival again. The prisoners stood up obediently and walked out of the dining room in one row. As they walked down the main corridor that divided the cells, Ernest looked to his left and saw a large sign above the main front door. It said:
DETROIT - Jackson County Prison
It was a prison in Detroit, United States. Ernest's legs broke and he barely made it to his cell. He sat on the bed and preyed on what he had just learned. How could this have happened to me and how did I get here to Detroit? I'm sitting in a cell now, I'm surrounded by the heat of not knowing what to do with it....
Does he have a bad dream? Did the candle in the living room hurt me? Am I hallucinating? Why can't I process these events? In the morning, Ernest through the bars watched the guards come back and forth. He was thinking about Jason and himself in the second identity. Who would throw away just $80 million? If John Wayne was such a good financier, he had to send the money somewhere or store it somewhere in a safe place. There's no way he's going to just leave them in a place where anyone can find them. There was a voice from the next cell saying,
"Hey, John, don't you have a cigarette?"
Ernest (or John) first looked around the cell and then replied to the next prisoner that he didn't. But the inmate next door insisted that John certainly had cigarettes and most likely under the epedom on his bed. Ernest looked under the epedo and there was really a packet of cigarettes. He took it and handed it all over bars next to his fellow inmate. He thanked him and praised Ernest for how generous he was. To Ernest's surprise, after a while through the lattice, he again served him a packet of cigarettes. He took only three cigarettes from it and returned the rest to Ernest - John. Ernest sighed and looked around the box with no interest. It was nothing special except for the little arrow, which was drawn with a pencil pointing to the hole of the box. Out of curiosity, he created the box, and on its inside, the pencil was engraved with tiny letters: Fighting Island, right water 3 meters. Ernest didn't understand the message. You looked at him and after a while he whispered his question through the bars:
"What did you write to me? What does that mean? I don't understand."
The prisoner laughed quietly and said, "Ah, John, you're really crazy. Don't you remember our deal? They're supposed to let me go in six months, and since I'm a trained diver, this plan of ours has to work like a Swiss watch.I have six more years to stay here. And you have one choice... I'm going to bail you out. But first, I have to pick up that treasure in our Detroit River. What's going on, John? Are you really out of memory?"
Ernest just listened quietly, but he didn't respond. He was trying to process everything and settle it in his head. He understood at least the basis of this whole strange situation. A prominent financier from a prestigious investment firm in the city of Detroit has misappropriated up to $80 million and no one knows where they went. The financier pleaded not guilty in court to knowing anything, had no idea where the money might be, arguing that he was suffering from memory lapses. No one has studied it anymore after the trial. But John Wayne knew exactly where the "treasure" was. He had a very well thought out plan and a great finish. Prison guards have stopped short of asking them how he actually got into prison. And John, at the same time, can gradually get information from fellow inmates that is most valuable to him.
"What's your name and what did we agree on?"
Asked Ernest after a long while thinking.
The prisoner next door laughed and remarked:
"Ah, John, I hope that despite your blackouts, everything will go as planned. I'll meet you in the yard in the afternoon, so I'll stop by and go through everything again. And my name is as always – Eliot."
"All right, Eliot, I'll meet you in the yard in the afternoon and we'll go through everything again."
At exactly half past 12, the inmates were called up again, the bars opened and all the prisoners came out of their targets. In one row they continued down to the ground floor and back to the dining room. Ernest sat back in his seat, and old Jason also sat opposite him. A whisper was spreading in the dining room, the prisoners were quietly talking about something and were already looking forward to walking around the yard.
"See, John, the sun is shining outside, I've been waiting for this since morning!"
Ernest pped the window in the dining room, which was densely smipped, yet the piercing sun's rays passed through it. Without a word, he ate lunch and waited for the queue to be recreate so that everyone would gradually go out to the courtyard, which was really big. All prisoners are obliged to wear face masks as quarantine is declared. The whole prison is disinfected by special staff at a time when everyone is in the courtyard. As all the inmates slid through the courtyard of a Detroit prison, Ernest stood up to the fence and glided across the lawn behind the fence. It was the same, but it was different.
He, on the other hand, was "free" as opposed to imprisoned. All of a sudden, he heard a voice behind him. It was Eliot's voice:
"Don't move and stand as before. I'm going to behave uninvolved. The guards won't even know we're talking to each other because we can't see it through the masks. They think we're just standing here. So, John, let's go over the whole plan like last time."
Ernest stood motionless and listened to Eliot snak the whole plan out of his right sleeve.
"So the man's going all the way to Fighting Island with me. Then he'll be waiting for us at the pier... Finally, we'll buy you out – we'll bail. We'll split up exactly as we agreed. It's a fair part of it."
Eliot spoke for about 20 minutes. When he finished, they broke up and moved quite far apart in the courtyard, acting as if nothing had happened before. It was really very warm and one felt free for a while thanks to the sun. After an hour of walking, all the inmates lined up again, slowly stepped into the prison's interior and each returned to their cell. By the evening it was still a long way away, so everyone was dedicated to some hobby of theirs. Someone read, someone drew...
It was after dinner, and there was only an hour left until the party. Every evening at 10 o'a.m., the lights go out and the prisoners are put to sleep. The expected time has come. Ernest he flashed his orange jumpsuit. He hung it on the right corner of the bed and put it on the bed. He covered up with a blanket and after a short while the light went out. Ernest tried again to organize everything in his head all day, but somehow he didn't succeed. There was still a quiet saying coming from some of the targets, which was lost in a large area of the prison. Ernest was breathing heavily, he couldn't cope with everything, he'd like to wake up the next day in another place. The guards were still slashing upstairs, gradually passing through each cell to check that everyone was in place, even though the lights were no longer on in the cells. The central light located in the middle of the prison in the highest part of the ceiling lights up all night, so you can see whether or not the prisoner is there. As the shrapish receded, Ernest began to slowly fall asleep until...
There was still a candle burning on the table in the living room, but it was already a white day. Ernest didn't even have a concept about the time he opened his eyes. For a while, he stared at a candle that had already burned down, and then looked around unashamedly. In spirit, he wondered:
"What was that supposed to be? Am I really home? Where was I before? Was it just a nightmare or was there any force majeure?"
He checked his clothes. He was in a homemade jumpsuit and not in an orange jumpsuit. He was poured in with a sense of happiness, that he was single again and that he woke up at home in his apartment. You made coffee and sat in the kitchen at the table. He looked into the void and gradually projected everything in his head as it followed. Detroit, Prison, Old Jason, Eliot, Plan, Fighting Island...
What's all this supposed to mean?! Maybe it's not as complicated as it seems. What connects Ernest to John Wayne?! They're both financiers. The small difference is that John is a prisoner in Detroit and Ernest a bankrupt financier at large. Everywhere people are plagued by the coronavirus and prisoners are quarantined, which is even more unbearable for them. Ernest tried to arrange this jigsaw exactly, so he started from the main characters of this story. He was thinking about Eliot first. He's got a deal with him. And so it might be appropriate to apply it in practice. Eliot is due to be released in exactly six months, six months. But John Wayne won't be fired anytime soon. Eliot will have to redeem that or...
I?! I got it all! This is all the way to big money. That's why I'm going through it all! Ernest immediately began to think with his analytical brain as a financier. If Eliot is to be released in six months' time, the pandemic may be over and all roads will be open. But first he has to send Eliot a letter to know that a big plan is going to happen. He found the address of a Detroit prison on the Internet. He described her address on the cover, adding: "For my friend Eliot. Since it is the only connection between the free world and prisoners, it is necessary to send a paper letter by ordinary mail instead of an e-mail. In the letter, he wrote: Detroit, sun, island and many other cognitive words that should not be deciphered in prison. And at the same time, he started looking for a ticket to America that he would have booked six months earlier, which would have cost more than half that. He worked into the night before he managed to organize it all. He had his ticket booked and sent an ESTA request to the U.S. online. After a few days, he got a response. He was allowed to stay in the U.S. for up to 90 days. But even in America, they don't yet know how the coronavirus situation will develop. And everything went according to plan. Ernest found a letter in his mailbox after three months. He came from America – from Detroit. In the upper-left corner of the envelope was the address: Jackson County Jail."
Ernest opened the envelope and found an simply written letter in it: Hi Ernest! Future, island, water, sun, big house and freedom!
Ernest leaned happily on the couch because he already knew exactly how his future would develop over the next few months. When he was in jail in Detroit all day, he agreed on a sum to carry out the entire plan and for redemption.
John Wayne.
Thanks to John, he raised $20 million, which will easily cover travel expenses and stay in the U.S. in Detroit. It will also get out of all its financial difficulties, which have been further increased by the Covid-19 pandemic.
Original name: John Wayne
Author: ©Brandon McYntire
Publisher: Branko Mateja
Picture on cover: www.pixabay.com/dfsym
Envelope production: ©Branko Mateja
Release: First
Michalovce City, Slovakia -EU, 2021
ISBN: 978-80-99996-06-0