out of jail
We were shuffled into another room after they took our fingerprints and given ID bracelets with our pictures on them. There were phones on the wall in here, and we were allowed to use them.It was about 5:30AM my time, which means it was 4:30AM where my Dad lives. I called his house. Someone picked up.
"HELLO!" the computer voice intoned over the line "THIS CALL IS BEING RECORDED AND MAY BE MONITORED. YOU HAVE A COLLECT CALL FROM AN INMATE AT THE HENSCHWEILER COUNTY JAIL. YOU MAY PRESS 9 TO BLOCK ALL FURTHER INMATE CALLS. TO ACCEPT, PRESS AND HOLD ZERO. TO DECLINE, PRESS ONE"
There was a click and the computer voice shouted at me that my call had been declined. I guessed my pops figured I'd end up in jail sooner or later and didn't much want to fuck with it.
I called my sister and gave her all the information. She said she'd call my job and let them know why I wasn't there. I hung up and found a place to lie down on the floor.
In jail, you get pretty used to lying around on things you wouldn't normally find yourself lying on, like the floor. There's nothing to do, no one is very friendly or talkative, so sleeping is the best way to pass the time. Fortunately for me, I can sleep damn near anywhere. The floor smelled bad, but I was able to sleep anyway.
Another Sherrif's deputy came to the door, after about a million years or so of me snoozing fitfully.
"Everybody UP!" he shouted. We all shuffled around and got to our feet. He had a couple of inmates in orange jumpsuits with him who were pushing a cart full of peanut butter sandwiches and orange juice boxes. Everyone filed past and got one of each.
The deputy looked at his clipboard.
"HODGSON!" he barked. I pointed at myself. "Let's go. Sit there."
I sat there, at a little table with another fellow.
Everyone else filed back into the jail cell. I looked down at my jeans. They were dirty. I thought about those people who buy jeans that are scuffed up on the thighs and ass to simulate wear and thought "Hey, fuck those people. My jeans really are dirty."
The guy at the table with me was eating food out of a styrofoam box. He didn't have anything to say and neither did I. The deputy came back and took the styrofoam box away from my table mate. He threw it away, and ordered the guy back into the cell.
I gathered the guy was diabetic, and had to eat different food than the rest of the people. I looked around at the holding cells. People peeked out of the windows, looking at me.
The deputy ordered me up. I got up. He ordered me down the hall, through a metal detector. He took me in a little room with a teller-type window in the wall and had me sit down. Some ladies fussed around on the other side of the window with staplers and computers and whatnot.
I wanted to ask them what was happening to me. I had no idea why I was in that little room. I figured either I was being checked in to general population or being let out.
The window in the wall had a little circle cut out of it so sound would go through. I wanted to put my face in that circle and say "What is happening to me, please, nice ladies?", but sooon enough one bustled over with some plastic bags full of my crap.
I figured I was being let out.
I signed some shit, and she gave me my bagged crap back. I shuffled out the far door and into a hallway where other free people were wandering around. I didnt know which way to go. I followed some ladies down a hallway and eventually got to a big desk with more cop types at it. On the other side of the desk, in a big waiting area, sat my former boss and my new boss. They smiled at me.
"Hi, boys." I said.
We walked outside into the harsh sunshine, and I bummed a smoke off my boss.
"How was it?" he asked.
"Jail sucks." I told him.
We got in my boss's nice red car and drove away.
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