I been thinking

I've been pretty lucky I guess. I committed a felony almost 8 years ago. Febuary 11, 1999 at around 10:00pm I made a bad decision...and it still bothers me. Shallow people find out and all of a sudden I'm some kind of novelty, like a cheap compass in the bottom of your box of cracker jacks. Earlier this week, at the Great Dane this guy walks in, acting kind of jacked up - he was pretty happy to be at the Dane (and really, who isn't). Something about him, his uncombed hair, nice clothes with no jacket odd. He ordered a drink, slammed it and asked for the payphone's location. A few minutes later he's back for another drink. The bartender asks how he's doing, he's doing "Great! I just got out of jail!" I knew it, somehow I could tell. He was locked down for 18 months for "something he didn't even do." Of course, everyone in the joint is innocent. Everyone. Go ahead, ask around. The people who admit guilt, they're the ones to either watch out for, or trust a little. So I've been thinking, that guy, he's got a long road ahead of him. Over 1 year locked up, all you're credit cards have been cancelled, the balences probably sent to bill collectors, your credit is fucked. If you had people on the outside, hopefully they handled your business. Hopefully they didn't lie about your money and steal from you while you were locked up. No job, no money, no jacket. It's January in Wisconsin and you just got out. Hopefully your crime didn't alienate you from everyone you knew previously. I alienated 6 friends, a slew of drinking buddies and a couple of my parents friends. People I used to know, and shake hands with, they still avoid me in public. Since then, I've grown up, gotten a new group of friends, and basically put my life back together. A celly I had, Champagne, was 18 in 1999 when I knew him, he was sentenced to 10 years for parole violations, plus he was facing 60 years in new charges, from burgley to abscounding to resisting arrest and assulting an officer, ( or 2 if you get the story from him). Here I am, happily married, working, generally content with my life. Champagne is probably in Green Bay Correctional Institution, he was headed there 8 years ago. Eight years behind bars, I wonder if he'll get out, I wonder if he'll go back. I wonder if he's still Mad Latin Deciples. Champagne has his wisdom teeth removed while at Dodge County Correctional Institution, a few weeks after the pain subsided, he still had a couple of pain killers left over. I don't know how he got them, but we each took 6 and passed out in our cell. Your taxes paid for that. He also gave me a mild concussion, he was teaching me how to fight and bounced the back of my head off the wall...on accident. Another guy, Bull, he was on woodpile, it was his job to swing a 30lbs maul all day long, splitting wood. I liked him. He was good, he was going to make it when he got out. He was pretty upset when nobody showed up to visit him on his birthday. Once Bull said something to me, I forget what and I kind of joked that I'd kick his ass, he said "I don't doubt it, little dude, last time I messed with a guy your size, he knocked my tooth out." He took his fake bicuspid out to prove his point. There was also Yates, rumor had it, Yates had all his teeth removed because in Waupon he bit a huge chunk out of a guard once while "resisting." Yates' job was to clean the shitters. He did a good job, and talked a lot about back when he was "crazy." Motown, Davy Crocket, and a bunch of other guys who's names I've forgotten, there's a lot people with pretty effed up lives. I was called "Flaco" by the Latins, "Slim" by the Aryan Pride guys and "Too Cool" by Motown, Davy Crocket and most of the other janitors at Oregon Correctional Center. I was only really scared once for my safety.