Chapter 50: The Jail Visit
Melanie Chowder and Aaron Hastings were lead by a prison officer through a maze of prison cells. Melanie was surprised at the lack of jeering and hollering. It was ten o’clock in the morning and half the cells were empty. Most of the occupied cells contained prisoners that were too lazy to lift their heads. If there was one noticeable impact on prison facility’s, under President Westwoods leadership, it was the lack of prisoners. Most of them had been executed without trial. The rest had been executed with trial.
When Melanie, laid eyes on Todd, in a cell with a table and chairs in the centre of it, she could tell that he didn’t want, for her to be there. He also looked tired and groggy, as if he hadn’t slept at all from the previous night.
“Hi Todd,” she greeted him, “this is Aaron. He’s going to be helping us where he can.”
While deep down Todd appreciated Melanie’s effort, he didn’t want for anyone to get involved and have their lives ruined. He summoned as much frustration as he could within in him.
“Look, lady, I told you that I don’t want your help. What you are doing here is a waste of time and effort. I’m as good as dead and if you help me, you’re as good as dead. I’m asking you to walk away for your own sake, not just mine.”
“Todd, there is a first time for everything. Both of us risked our livelihoods to help you. We’ve both thought about it long and hard. Doing the right thing is more important than living out our lives in comfort and turning a blind eye to the injustices of this world. Neither of us are going away, whether that means going to jail, being executed, whatever. In spite of this we think we have a strong case. Besides, you have a red hot lawyer on your case.”
Aaron Hastings cleared his throat at this point.
“Oh yes, and a super Private Detective as well.”
“No disrespect lady, but you’ve never represented anyone on your own before.”
Melanie couldn’t help but notice that he called her lady again. It disappointed her that he was trying to keep a distance between them. She wanted him to appreciate what she was doing for him. Perhaps inwardly he did appreciate it, but outwardly he wanted her to leave him alone.
“I may not have won any cases Todd but I haven’t lost any yet either, so give me a chance,” the young woman suggested.
Todd leaned back in his chair and didn’t say anything. He seemed resigned to defeat on that score.
“Now Todd,” Melanie addressed him once again, tell us, what you remember of the time you were arrested.”
“Well, a few hours earlier I had a confrontation with a couple of police officers in the homeless centre. They were treating our clients with disrespect, so I told them off. They threatened me and then after that I was delivering hampers to those on the street, when two army trucks led by a jeep with a very tall Reaper drove down the street. It stopped, only a dozen yards from where I was. The Reaper instructed the army officers to round up the homeless men and women on the street. They started to bundle them into the back of their trucks at gunpoint. I approached the Reaper and told him that he couldn’t do this. He simply grabbed me by the throat and lifted me up before throwing me backwards. “Round this one up too,” he said, and they bundled me into the back of a truck. The next thing I knew, I was on my way to prison. I protested with every police officer, but it didn’t get me anywhere. It was their job I guess and if they stepped out of line for the sake of an innocent individual, they’d end up just like me.”
“Reapers, eh?” Aaron responded before leaning back in his chair. “We’d been hoping that you were arrested by some psychotic or bigoted police officer that we could discredit, but the Reapers are beyond reproach. You just can’t mess with them.”
“Well,” Melanie declared, “We should at least be able to discredit some of the witnesses who have come forward to supply evidence against you.”
It was at this point that a prison officer started rapping his baton against the bars of some nearby cells. He continued rattling his baton until he came to the cell where Melanie, Aaron and Todd were located.
“Well well,” he said aloud in a disrespectful tone. “What have we got here? The changeling scum has invited some of his changeling friends to the party.”
The prison officer opened the cell and entered. His footsteps were slow and heavy on the concrete floor. Melanie was intimidated by him and his hateful manner, but she tried not to show it.
“You shouldn’t be so disrespectful,” Melanie said aloud, “he’s got rights”. Melanie didn’t know exactly why she said this but as soon as the words left her mouth she realised that silence was probably the best course of action.
“Once you get in this cell, you have no rights. Your asses are mine now. The name is Dickinson. Myself and this changeling scumbag have been acquainted,” the prison guard said, tapping Todd on the shoulder with his baton. “In the case of you two, it will only be a matter of time. Unless of course you go to a different prison, in which case I’ll be upset. I’d like nothing better than to break you in and show you the ropes as only I can. I like to get acquainted with all changing scumbag prisoners, don’t I?” he said turning to Todd and touching him with a baton that administered an electric shock.
Todd tried to withstand the pain as much as he could. He didn’t want Melanie to see what his life was like. Part of him wished that she didn’t want to help him. His life would be over much faster. His life was already over, he thought to himself.
The prison guard turned to Aaron and jolted him with an electric shock. “You can’t do that,” Melanie called out in a high-pitched voice. She couldn’t believe that anyone would brutally punish a man in his sixties like that, without the slightest semblance of compassion and respect.
Aaron didn’t say anything. He crouched to his knees and held his arm across his chest but tried to withstand the pain as much as he could. He knew that if he showed the slightest sign of weakness it would only encourage the prison guard.
“This is my Kingdom,” Dickinson declared, pointing the electric baton within inches of the lawyer’s face. “In here I am king. We’ll see each other again very soon,” he sneered as he rapped a baton against Melanie’s backside before making his way out of the cell.
Melanie felt total humiliation. She also felt powerless, as if there was nothing she could do and vile people like Dickinson had all the power. It was like Nazi Germany all over again only this time there was no sign of a light at the end of the tunnel.
It took Melanie a minute or two to regain her composure after Dickinson’s brutish behaviour.
“I told you before,” Todd said aloud. “I appreciate what you are doing for me but I’d rather you stayed out of this fight. It would be better for the both of us. You really don’t want to end up in here.”
“Stop talking nonsense,” Melanie replied, with renewed vigour. “We’re going to get you out of here. Like I said, there is a first time for everything. Now tell me about these witnesses. Every tiny detail could prove the difference between winning and losing the case”
For the next hour, Todd provided the lawyer and the Private Detective with as much information as he thought might be relevant. Every now and then he would try to dissuade both of them from helping him, but they both remained defiant.