for his underwhelming outer appearance and demeanor. Said a colleague of Fr. Michael, ‘He always told me “The Lord burdens each and every one of us only with what we are capable of handling. I guess I’ve been blessed with an extremely high tolerance.”’
No truer words have ever been spoken.
It wasn’t until Fr. Michael had met the convicted cop killer Stanley Ian Nelson, that his threshold would be pushed to its limit. Warden Sam Crosby recalls the rocky relationship between the priest and convict. ‘To say that there was no love lost between them would be an understatement,’ Warden Crosby explained, ‘but Fr. Michael obviously always sided with a cooler head, despite Mr. Nelson’s repeated taunts.’
The details of Fr. Michael’s and Stanley Nelson’s last encounter are sketchy to say the least. What is known is that on October 20th, at 9:00 AM, Fr. Michael and Nelson met in their usual room for the last time before Nelson’s scheduled execution. Their meetings were always monitored by a single guard posted inside the room, and a closed circuit camera on the ceiling. The door was always locked from within by the guard.
The first mystery was the dismissal of the guard. Why he left the room was beyond any explanation prison officials could give us. No comments were given by anyone present that morning. The guard has since been suspended with pay pending further investigation. He would not comment either.
The second mystery was how Nelson was able to lock the door after the guard had left. Whatever Nelson’s motives were, he had no way of locking that room door, unless aided, as the door only locks from the inside. However, after the guard had been detained for questioning, he was still in possession of all his equipment.
The third mystery concerned the closed-circuit camera. During the time that transpired between the two men after the departure of the guard, the camera recorded seventeen minutes of dead air. Once the door had been breached by other guards, detectives had only the positioning of the men’s bodies to determine what had happened.
‘All we could work with was the aftermath,’ explains Inspector Stevens. ‘We had the end result in front of us, but had to work backwards, as in the case of a vehicular collision.’
The physical evidence was very obvious. Stanley Nelson had suffered moderate head and face trauma, including a broken nose officials stated were most likely suffered from hitting the steel table, while Fr. Michael sustained two abdominal gunshot wounds. Prison and medical officials alike still marvel at how Fr. Michael escaped with his life. ‘From the evidence of gunshot residue on Fr. Michael’s clothes, it was believed that he was shot at point blank range,’ Stevens says. ‘Somehow he was still able to hit Nelson over the head, rendering him unconscious.’
Nelson was later treated for his injuries and released a day later. His execution proceeded as planned. Fr. Michael remains in serious but stable condition at the Birmingham General, where he is expected to make a full recovery, a recovery that all of his colleagues at Birmingham Penitentiary are eagerly anticipating.
I sat pensively with the paper open. I could feel lines of sweat trickling down my jaw line, and the sweat from my fingers had colored the tips black with ink. Air seemed harder to breathe. I couldn’t swallow; my throat was scratchy and raw. As I continued to stare at the photo of myself being escorted by two guards on the first page of a section of the paper, my mind stumbled and fumbled at the sight. Though it was a distant shot, I could easily make out the bandage on my nose along with the bruises on my forehead as if I’d recently been punched by a boxer.
Or by a steel table.
I set the paper down beside me and felt for the bandages and bruises on my face. It was smooth and soft and without much stubble, but no sign of any bandages. I quickly reached for some water that sat on the side table and emptied it down my throat.
What was happening to me?
I noticed Fr. Michael’s dog-eared Bible next to the paper cup, minus all the ribbons and bookmarks. Despite its shabby exterior, the book remained tightly bound. I thumbed through it, not knowing what to do with it. It reminded me of how Father always quoted from verse this or verse that. I flipped through it quickly and stopped in the book of 1 Timothy, where a small envelope had been slid between chapter 4. Verse 10 had been highlighted.
I pulled out the envelope and closed the Bible. On it was simply written Stanley. I opened the envelope and pulled out the letter. It read:
Dear Stanley,
Your request for a sign has been granted to you. You are obviously meant for greater things than death, Stanley, just like I am meant for greater things than my life. Please, do not waste this new life you have been given. With it comes great responsibility and fortitude that I am certain you will be more than capable of upholding— a small penance for the gift that has been offered to you.
“You have come to believe because you have seen me. Blessed are those who have not seen, yet have believed” – John 20:29.
Your servant,
Michael Oscar Gordon
About the Author
I’ve been a full-time stay-home dad since 2007, and subsequently a part-time author since then, too.
www.jpkurzitza.com
The Pardon Page 3