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If Danny had been born an Indian he would have been called 'Shit for Luck'. Danny was so sure that God had to be fucking with him that he considered asking the guard for a Bible. That is the only thing that the prison can't take away from a man, they have to give you a Good Book if you ask for one. Even in solitary, they could turn out the light but they had to give you your Bible. Maybe God would let you read in the dark.
Anyway he had almost asked for a bible just to let it fall to the floor. It might fall open to a certain page and he might pick out a certain sentence and suddenly everything would become clear. There might be a message for him there; this was too much to be happenstance. Then again maybe God and his friends are sitting around a table tossing back a few cold ones. God might reach over and poke his fat buddy and say, "Watch what I'm gonna do to Danny now, you'll shit, you'll laugh so hard you'll shit yourself!" Danny smiled at the image in his head. In his heart he knew that if he had dropped the bible its cover would have remained closed. It held no help for a guy like him.
Once the truth of the situation had sunk in, once he had acknowledged that the money was gone he found that he could smile about it. But it still hurt. Maybe it would make a great tale to tell to his friends someday. He had used his call to tell Charles what the deal was and now all he could do was wait. Win or lose, it was out of his hands for the moment, until he got out of here. He eyed the kid coming across the room toward him and thought; maybe God did deal him an ace every now and then.
"Got a light," the kid came up to squat down next to him, his hand offering a pack of cigarettes.
"Yeah kid I got a light. What you doing with a pack of fags and no matches?" He whipped his old Zippo out of his pocket flipped open the lid and in one quick motion rubbed the flint wheel up his leg until it lit. He held it low and in the center of his body making the kid bend over to suck the flame into the end of his smoke.
"I really left my smokes and my lighter in my car when the cops arrested me. The cop let me pick up a pack on the way to jail." The kid blew out a long stream of smoke " the store was out of matches"
"Yeah, I once had the cops give me a book and then put my ass in a dark room for two days. They have a strange sense of humor sometimes." Danny lit his own smoke and they leaned back against the wall and sat quietly. His mind dialed the kid right out and went back to his Winnebago and the repair that he should have made before he left home. What the fuck had he been thinking?
"What did they get you for"?
The kid was asking him a question. Danny stopped his train of thought and stared at the kid. He reminded him of somebody, he looked fresh and eager. He would make somebody a fine bitch.
"Reckless driving, driving under the influence, and possession of pot ". I think that was what they said," Danny stubbed his cicerette out on the brick floor and looked at the kid, "You?"
Jamie thought that it might be wise to keep most of what had put him here to himself at least until he knew who he was talking to a little better. He shyly smiled and said.
"I hurt the cops feelings when I outran them in my hawk. I wasn't driving when they stopped my friend and found me in the middle of the front seat. So here I am until my friend Phillip can bail me out tomorrow."
Danny listened to what the kid was saying but he was also listening to what the kid was not saying. There was more to this story but Danny could wait, he knew that the younger man would want to tell him before too long. Over the next few hours he revealed to the kid that he was Danny Freeman, he owned a tire store over in Monroe La. He had been in his motor home when the alternator went out. He couldn't afford to wait for the shop to get it fixed so he took a chance on catching a ride. After all it was only a little more then a hundred miles, two hours if he was lucky.
He had caught a ride with some young students from Northeast La in Monroe. They had been drinking a bit and asked him if he would drive for them. They needed to get to Jackson Miss to attend a football game. Danny had needed to get to the same area so he agreed to ride over with them and do all the driving. One of the assholes in the back had thrown a beer bottle at a road sign and the cops saw it. Danny was behind the wheel he was the one who got the drunk driving ticket. When they searched him before putting him in the squad car they found the pot. So he got the historic Vicksburg jail tour that came with it.
Danny was a likeable sort of a guy, Jamie thought that they really had a lot in common, they hit it off right away. His one major flaw, he was readily willing to admit, was that he was an adrenaline junky. Although Danny grew up with all the advantages that come with a solid middle class background, he was constantly in and out of scrapes with the law, and more than a few pissed off husbands and fathers. Danny was put on this earth to live and by god that is what he was going to do.
The laws of both state and god meant nothing to Danny. He had broken most of them and he had spent his share of time in jail. Even there he would never change, he was who he was and that was that. He had realized how fragile ones existence really is and had adopted an attitude of "let the good times roll". Since then he became a one man Mardi Gras. Rarely seen without a drink in his hand or a joint between his lips. Not to mention a string of one-night stands with, as Danny was fond of saying, "anything in high heels". If he found himself back on the inside the first thing that he did was find him a good bitch. Now here he was back on the inside again and here came this soon to be bitch to cheer him up.
As the night passed they pretended to talk of the things that mattered in their lives.
Jamie began to see Danny as someone larger then life, someone who took what he wanted and to hell with the consequences. He seemed so strong and sure of himself, he overwhelmed him with his strength and confidence. Danny was one of those lucky people who seem to be able to coast thru life at their own pace and rise to the occasion when necessary.
Jamie thought that they were much alike even though they came from very different backgrounds. He thought that Danny was a little closer to the edge then he was but that was just one man's opinion. They both agreed that there was something working between them and it seemed that they both felt that they had been friends before and this was just a chance to catch up on what had happened since they had last met. It was a strange vibe but it felt good, they both seemed to smile a lot and the dark jail cell could just as well have been a coffee shop or a bar where people go to talk and get to know one another.
Time had gotten away from them, since it has no meaning in jail. They all lay still and quite in the stiffening heat that the walls radiated out into the room. It was a one-in -million chance that the boy would see the note come through that window, but he did. Somebody had slipped up to the window and tossed a note right into the chained man's lap. The boy pretended to be asleep as bank robber cast a glance around the cell. Satisfied that he had not been seen he carefully unfolded the note and read it. Without a word or sign of any kind he wadded the note up and put it into his mouth and started to chew.
The boy turned to his new friend Danny who was sitting against the wall next to him." Did you see that?" he whispered.
Danny opened his eyes, "did I see what?''
The kid explained what he had seen happen with the bank robber and the note. Danny seemed to be very interested. "Listen kid, you keep an eye on Mr. Bank Robber, you let me know if he does anything sudden. I mean anything, if he scratches his ass I want to know about it." Danny's hand reached out and his fingers grabbed the boy's nipple through the cloth of his shirt and started to twist it. "You got that bitch?" He smiled and then released the nipple and playfully slapped the boy on the cheek. "Keep you eyes on our friend, I am going to try to get some shut eye", with that he let his head drop onto his chest and shut his eyes.