Five years later a guard named Joel bangs his stick on my cell. “Smith, you got a visitor!”
I raise my head, puzzled. I haven’t had a visitor since walking through the doors all those years ago. I wonder who it is.
He opens my cell and leads me to the visiting rooms, where I’m deposited in a chair before a glass window. A telephone receiver hangs on the wall.
I stare at the woman behind the glass, not quite believing what I’m seeing. Her hair is long and black, and there’s an edge to her eyes that I’ve never seen. She’s also older. Clearly a grown woman. Not the child I remember. She picks up the receiver on her end, and I do the same. I have no idea what to say.
For a moment, neither does she. But then she speaks first. “I’ve missed you.”
“I’ve missed you, too.” I can barely choke the words out.
“How are you?”
“Okay. All things considered. You?”
“I’m better now.”
“You got out,” I say.
She nods. Relief washes over me, and I break into a smile. “It wasn’t easy,” she adds, and I nod in agreement. “But it was worth it.”
“I’m glad.”
“I still love you, Gerrold. Not a day goes by that I don’t think of you.”
I close my eyes, not wanting to confess the truth. I feel the same way, but she has to let me go. There’s no future for us. “Let me go, Mel.”
She presses her hand against the glass, her eyes unyielding. That’s when I see her palm, and the pen marks she’s written on her skin. It says, “Do you want out?”
I don’t dare breathe. I can’t let her risk anything more for me. “No,” I say. “Don’t do this.”
“Be ready,” she says, and hangs up the phone.
The End.
###
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***
If you want more of the Spilled Milk Disaster, the story continues in:
A Glass Half-Empty
I didn’t blame Mel for what happened. I made my own choices every step of the way. In the end, I couldn’t resist the urge to try and protect her, too. She needed me. Or maybe I was just a sucker for a damsel-in-distress. Either way, she was the first visitor I’d had in the five years of my incarceration, and there she was offering me a way out. No, promising me a chance at escape.
What the hell were you thinking, Mel?
I didn’t want to seriously entertain her suggestion. It was dangerous. Stupid. And probably impossible. People only escaped from maximum security prisons in the movies. Nobody does it in real life.
“Hey, Gerrold! Heard you had a visitor.”
The voice belonged to Randall Murphy. My neighbor on the right. He wasn’t a bad sort—for a bad sort, that is. We’d play chess together using makeshift pieces we’ve carved out of bits of rock or whatever might be handy. We each had a board in our cells we’ve laid out on the floor, and call out our moves to one another throughout the day. He cheated, of course.
“What’s it to you, Murph?” I called back.
“Heard she was real tasty.”
I half-laughed. “That ain’t somewhere you want to go.”
Murphy was a rapist on the outside. Four women in a little over two months. Didn’t wear a condom, which is how they finally got him. That, and the fact that his final victim turned out to be a black belt in some martial art or other who basically kicked his ass for him before turning him over to the cops. I only played chess with him because he was more interesting to talk to than the neighbor on my left. That would have been Dougie Windover. He was a paranoid freak if ever I saw one. Tried to shank me the first month I was here. I broke his hand against the bars of his cell. Ever since, he hadn’t said more than two words to me. Two words in five years. I didn’t have many options when it came to company.
“Oh, come on,” Murph said. “Don’t be like that.”
“Let it go.”
“You gonna do a conjugal?”
I didn’t answer. What was the point? Murphy was looking for material. Anything to fantasize about. I’d be damned if I was gonna give it to him.
“If not, maybe I could do a conjugal.” His voice faded, drifting into his own fantasies. I lay back on my bunk and stared at the ceiling. It was almost time for dinner.
I wondered what Mel meant. Be ready, she’d said. Ready for what?
###
Other Works by Michael J. Scott
If you want more by Michael J. Scott, check out these other novels and series, available in print and online at Amazon.com
Jefferson’s Road:
(These are political thrillers about the downfall of
America and the beginnings of a second Civil War.)
The Spirit of Resistance
Patriots and Tyrants
The Tree of Liberty
God And Country
A More Perfect Union – coming soon
We the People – coming soon
Janelle Becker Books:
(These are psychothrillers about a Special Agent with the FBI’s
Behavioral Analysis Unit who specializes in religious-based crimes.)
The Coppersmith
Topheth
Puzzle – coming soon
Jonathan Munro Adventures:
(This is a Christian Action Adventure series with
a focus on archaeology and ancient languages.)
The Lost Scrolls
The Elixir of Life
The Music of the Spheres – coming soon
New World Order:
(A Young Adult Dystopian series about escaping
an oppressive bureaucratic system of death.)
Turning
Anarchy – coming soon
The Dragon’s Eye Cycle:
(A “Sword and Sorcery” fantasy series about an ex-Sheriff who relies
on forensics to investigate murders rather than relying on magick.)
Eye of Darkness
The Blood-Eaters’ Coven – coming soon
Spilled Milk
(An anti-hero thriller about father-turned- domestic
terrorist who battles government corruption. Badly.)
Spilled Milk
A Glass Half-Empty
A Glass Half-Full – coming soon
Descent
(A tale about alien abductions and government cover-up.)
Nicholas
(An origin story of Saint Nicholas, combining history with legend.)
The Wizard of the Sky Pirates – coming soon
(A teen story about—yup, you guessed it—wizards and sky pirates.)
The Issachar Initiative
(A series about a secretive agency that assists the government
in addressing world events that have apocalyptic overtones.)
Rock of Ages – coming soon
Connect with Michael J. Scott online at:
Facebook
Twitter: @AuthorMichaelJS
MichaelJScottBooks.com
###
Author’s Note
This began as an experiment for me—something called a NaNoWriMo project. NaNoWriMo stands for National Novel Writing Month. It is a marathon contest for writers, an attempt to write a fifty-thousand word novel in thirty days. I’m happy to report that I succeeded, and it only took another three weeks after that to finish the story.
I admit that I’ve always been somewhat fascinated by the antihero type and by the ease with which ordinary citizens can fall into evil—Gerrold Smith being a case in point. Also, as a conservative thinker, I’m keenly aware of the ways in which the rapid expansion of government over the last eighty years has impinged upon freedoms we Americans t
oo long took for granted—a theme I’ve explored more deeply in my Jefferson’s Road series. Regardless of where a person stands in the political spectrum, the growth of federal and state bureaucracies provides rich fodder for suspense fiction such as this.
I don’t have any particular axe to grind when it comes to the FDA or the foster care system, nor do I advocate for a particular diet. The genus of this story was found in an article I read about federal agents raiding a farm co-op because its members believed in only drinking raw milk. Personally, I much prefer to buy my milk at the store and am comforted to know that it has been thoroughly pasteurized. But if people want to drink milk straight from the cow, then I think they ought to be able to do what they want without some government agency telling them differently. I feel the same way about the cars we drive, the light bulbs we burn, and the healthcare we may or may not wish to purchase. Government gets its rights from the people it represents. We the people cannot delegate to the government any rights we ourselves do not possess. Therefore, any time the government acts outside of these rights, it is acting tyrannically, and ought to be opposed.
That being said, I’d much prefer it if we could oppose and replace such governments and laws with the ballot box and the vote—a frustratingly slow process, but one that remains peaceful and respectful of the rule of law. Then again, I haven’t had some federal agents take away my kids, either.
Regardless, I hope you’ve enjoyed Spilled Milk. Look for more of Gerrold and Mel’s story in the sequel, A Glass Half-Empty, due out in 2013.
Kind Regards,
Michael J. Scott,
December, 2011
###
About the Author
Michael J. Scott writes fiction that doesn't shy away from hard questions or dicey situations. He treats his characters like real people with real flaws who sometimes do wrong and stupid things—especially when they're trying to do the right thing.
His interests range from the erosion of the American family, socio-political unrest in the U.S. that threatens to break into civil war, UFO's, adventures in Biblical and Christian archaeology, dystopias, sword and sorcery fantasy, to getting inside the mind of a serial killer.
He lives outside of Rochester, NY with his family.
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