“Ridley!”

I slowly opened my eyes to the blurry silhouette of one of the cellblock’s guards standing at the open entranced my cell.

“Your ass better be in the cafeteria in the next 15 seconds or else you won’t ever see the light of day again!”

I didn’t even have to wipe my eyes to know that it was Holt standing at my cell door. You see Holt was a bit of, how you say, an ass. Holt was the wannabe guard captain who thought he was the shit. Most other guards would boss you around because it was their job of course, but Holt took it to a whole new level. I heard one time he even locked a pair of cell mates in their cell for the whole day just because they slept through breakfast.

After realizing who was at my cell door, I arose immediately, and wiped my eyes. I stood up and reluctantly greeted Holt as I made my way to the cafeteria alongside all the other inmates in my block. I grabbed my morning sludge and sat down in the same place I always do. To my right was Tommy. He was what some would call the ‘big guy on campus.’ He was the biggest dude in the block and could easily take on any other individual in that cafeteria. To my left was Jax. Jax was tall, slender, and smart. He was the kind of friend who’d give you a reality check when you needed it. He was the blunt bitch that no one really got along with. Excluding Tommy and I of course.

After lunch was working period where inmates could work their in prison jobs. I myself worked the stuffy white room full of paper cuts. Otherwise known as the mail room. The job wasn’t that bad though. One positive came out of it. That positive being someone I would consider to be my best friend. You see one day I was working as usual just looking at names and placing envelopes on cubbyholes. All outgoing mail had to be stamped by me and sent up a vacuum chute. One time some incoming mail was addressed to no one. Was simply a blank envelope. The only way I thought to find the reciprocate was to open it and see if I could find a “dear blank,” or a “how’s it going blank,” or something of the sort. Well the letter didn’t have a specific reciprocate, rather the letter started with, “To whomever may need it,” which I initially thought was quite odd... but I kept reading.

“To whomever my need it,

You’ll be fine. Trust me. I’ve been in your shoes before and I understand it’s a hard situation to be in. Oh by the way my name is Lucas. I write this letter just as a reminder to you that there is an end to your sentence and that you are not alone in the world. I was initially sent to jail 16 years ago for aggravated assault. It wasn’t pretty I’ll tell you. I ended up serving 12 years in prison. It. Was. Hell. I got my shit rocked every other day in the yard. I was damn close to sending myself to the psych ward just to get out of that hell hole. What I will tell you though is that once your out life is 10x better than it ever was. Freedom tastes so much better after being starved of it for so long. Just like any other meal. God speaking of which, food tasted amazing the first month out. Even now I can appreciate food way more than I ever did before getting arrested. I’m telling you though that you just have to stick it through. Life is hell now, but it’s heaven when you make it out... I kinda just realized. It would suck if this got into the hands of a death row inmate lol. Anyway I wish you the best of luck random reader!

-Lucas H”

Man what I would give to have a picture of the faces I made after reading that letter. I was in shock. Why would a random ex-inmate send a letter with no destination. Who would take the time? And yet I was also intrigued. I ended up writing a simple response asking why they cared so much. One thing led to another and well a year past and we were still writing back and forth. Lucas knew everything there was to know about me and I knew everything there was to know about Lucas. You see he gave me the sanity to stick through my sentence. Though it was nowhere near as long as his. Lucas was the best thing to happen to me in that damn prison.

The date was February 16th 2019. Exactly four years and 63 days into my sentence, and about a year since I had bee writing to Lucas. Imagine my surprise when I hear I’m getting a new cell mate. No no that’s not the surprising part, the surprising part is the fact that the one and only great asshole Holt was my new cell mate.

“What the fuck did you do?” Were the first words I spoke to him when I saw him in cuffs at my cell door. I was greeted with silence as he was thrown into the cell after his cuffs were removed. He rubbed his wrists where the cuffs were and stood up. He faced me and looked me dead in the eye as I was laying on my bunk.

“I’m sorry,” he spoke in a shaky quiet voice.

“I didn’t quite hear that would you remind repeating that for me?” It was clear I was trying to milk the moment for all it was worth.

“I’m sorry dammit,” Holt’s voice began to raise to a shout now, “I’m sorry for being a dick to you for four fucking years.”

I have to say I didn’t quite expect that, especially out of asshole Holt. Either way I was never one to hold a grudge. I ended up shaking his hand then and there.

“Don’t stress it ass-Holt. Just learn to not be a dick and you’ll be cool with me... but I can’t quite say the same about the other inmates,” as I gave a quick glance around the rest of the block, “good luck!”

“I also wanted to tell you one more think... Samuel,” said Holt.

I jolted back, “no one calls me Samuel. You never have and no one in here has ever heard me say that. You better not start now ass-Holt!” I said with anger in my voice. My mind went racing. How the hell did Holt know my first name. He was a guard so that was the likely hood, but no one had ever called me that not since before I was locked up. I always went by my last name: Ridley.

“I’m sorry, I didn’t know you didn’t like being called that here. I figured since you always signed your first name that you preferred it.”

I sat up with my jaw to the floor. It was at that moment that I realized I didn’t know everything there was to know about Lucas.