Lost in Dreams (25 page)

“Jo …” Aleesha sounded like she was warming up for an attack. What in the world …?

“I’m not talking to you, Jefferson,” Jo said, turning her back on Aleesha

“You’d
better
talk to me.” I’d never heard Aleesha so upset. “Where is it?”

Jo turned halfway. “Where is
what?”

“The letter.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

I didn’t know whether Jo was telling the truth, but it didn’t

matter. I couldn’t make heads or tails of their argument.

“That Chaplain Thomas. He called Mr. Rob. Told us not to come back. Said the warden agreed.”

My stomach felt like I’d just dropped to the ground in one of those free-fall amusement park rides.

“What are you two talking about?” I hoped my tone was exasperated enough to force an immediate answer from somebody.

“Jo …” Aleesha could barely get the words out. “She brought a letter out of the prison for Alfredo.”

I narrowed my eyes and stared at Aleesha. She couldn’t have been more serious.

“Yeah, Jefferson,” Jo said. “A letter to his lawyer. I told him I’d mail it for him.”

“Thomas saw you. He reported you to the warden.”

“So? It’s not like I was helping Alfredo break out.”

“You really don’t get it, do you?”

I didn’t get it yet myself, but I had a nagging memory trying to break through the recesses of my brain. I’d read the rules when we got back from our first night’s service. Hadn’t they said …?

Jo shrugged.

“It’s against the rules to mail a letter for an insider. For all you know, you
could be
helping him plan an escape.”

“You don’t know Alfredo like I do,” Jo said before slopping a big glob of paint against the wall. She stood there watching it drip without making any effort to spread it.

I didn’t have to wonder whether she would’ve preferred giving Aleesha a good coating of white instead.

I was surprised that Jo had broken the rules, but I wasn’t incredulous or even angry. I was too concerned about the fact the warden was punishing all of us. If we couldn’t get back into Red Cedar, this trip would be a partial waste.

Construction was worthwhile. Even the limited amount we’d done. But interacting with the insiders—sharing with the real believers and witnessing to the ones who might be faking their Christianity—was our real purpose in being here.

If Jo’s stupidity cost us that ministry, I wasn’t sure I’d be in a rush to reset my forgiveness counter.

“Why’s the warden punishing all of us?” I asked.

“Mr. Rob didn’t say. Jo, you didn’t mail that letter yet, did you?”

“I haven’t seen a mailbox around here.” Bitterness and sarcasm were a nasty mix. “Have you?”

“Mr. Rob has an appointment to talk with the warden this afternoon. He’ll plead for forgiveness.”

“Fat chance of that,” I said. “Even a good Christian brother like Warden Jenkins has to obey the rules of his workplace. Especially somewhere like Red Cedar.”

“That’s why Mr. Rob asked me to get the letter. We’ll give it back and show him we’ve all learned a lesson—no harm done.”

“You think the warden’s going to let me back in?” Jo said. “Not if he’s that much of a stickler for those dumb old rules.” An eighteen-year-old ought to have a more mature whine than that.

“You might be surprised,” Aleesha said with a hint of kindness I couldn’t have managed right then.

“He’d
better
let me back in. I can’t leave without seeing Alfredo again.” The quality of her whine was going downhill fast.

My parents used to sing a folk song that had been popular during the 1960s. Actually a protest against the Vietnam War, which was going on at the time, it had a line that went, “When will they ever learn? When will they ever learn?”

I was beginning to wonder the same thing myself. About Jo.

G
od must have understood Rob’s reason for asking me to accompany him to see Warden Jenkins, but He didn’t explain it to me. I couldn’t have been more terrified if somebody had thrown me in the cage with that nasty possum—only to have the ferocious critter look me in the face and start licking its chops. Or maybe start foaming at the mouth.

“Rob … Kim.” Although Warden Jenkins shook hands with both of us, his greeting wasn’t nearly as pleasant as it had been on our first visit. His tone sounded more formal. He pointed to two ordinary straight chairs, and we sat down.
Oh, man! We’re in for it …
“Thank you for seeing us, Larry. I—”

“I’m sorry if I seem out of sorts, but I’ve just gotten off the phone with my boss. He’s not a Christian, and we have major differences of opinion about how to run a prison. As if that’s not enough, he likes to micromanage. Need I say more?”

Oh, great. We’d come about a problem we didn’t have much hope of solving at a time that couldn’t have been worse. From the look in Rob’s eyes, he had the same fears I had.

“We can come back later,” Rob said.
Yeah, after missing tonight’s service
. “But I did bring Alfredo’s letter—”

“Oh, that?” he said. “You didn’t need to make a special trip for that. Jo can give it back to Alfredo, and that will square things. She just needs to remind him she’s not permitted to mail anything for him.”

Huh?

Rob puffed up a little, and I hoped he wouldn’t say

anything rash. “We’ve been worried to death ever since we learned that Jo broke one of the rules.”

The warden waved his hands in a crisscross motion. “No need. She didn’t break that rule on purpose.”
You just keep believing that, Warden Jenkins
. “We all make mistakes, and Jo’s was nothing major.”

Man! Is the warden this easygoing every time one of the insiders messes up? I’ll bet those guys really like him.

“Then why all the to-do about it?” Although Rob had managed to keep his tone calm, I’d rarely seen him more aggravated. “I mean, having Thomas tell me you weren’t letting any of us come back …”

“Is
that
what he told you?” The warden cleared his throat. “No wonder you’re upset.” His threatening look dissolved into a smile of amusement. “If that had been the case, I would have told you myself. I don’t let my employees do my dirty work. Nor do I ask them to.”

“You mean it’s not true?” I blurted out. Very seldom had I felt like cursing since breaking the habit in Santa María, but now was one of those times.

“What did you tell him, then?” Rob asked. He didn’t appear to realize he was grinding one palm with his fist. Like he was getting ready to hit somebody. And that somebody was
not
the warden.

Warden Jenkins chuckled. “I thanked him for his report on the breach of the rules and said I’d ask your team to reread them.”

Rob and I looked at one another and then at the warden. “Why—?” I said.

“Why would he … bend the truth like that?” Rob said at almost the same instant.

“Your presence seems to threaten him. I think he’s afraid somebody’s going to tell you what’s going on. Or what I think is going on.”

Rob must have noticed my eyes narrowing.

“Larry, Kim doesn’t know about that.”

Warden Jenkins leaned back in his chair, crossed his legs, and looked into my eyes. “Are you a trustworthy young lady, Kim … Kimmy?” My eyes must have opened to the size of classroom-sized world globes, especially when he added, “And how sneaky can you be?”

You can’t possibly want me to do more than just keep an eye on Chappy, can you? Please ask me to do something safer. Like kiss a rabid possum on the nose
.

I made myself maintain eye contact. “I hope I’m trustworthy.” Although I was trying to speak up, I could barely hear my own voice. “As for sneaky … I am a woman, sir.”

Aleesha would never let me hear the end of it if she found out I’d made a statement like that. Especially to a man.

“Good. Now, have you noticed anything strange going on with Chaplain Thomas?”

“Besides Chappy’s negative attitude toward us and his seeming lack of a living relationship with God through faith in Jesus Christ?” I felt like a preacher for a second there.

“Chappy?” He chuckled. “He deserves a nickname like that. You’ve made a good start. Sounds like we’re on the same wavelength.” His lingering smile dimmed and then disappeared.

“Actually, sir, I’ve noticed that he uses the worship services to speak individually with some of the insiders. I wasn’t aware of it the first night, but I’ve been watching him ever since. The men don’t seem to enjoy those private conversations. They look—how should I say it?—ill at ease. Perhaps even scared. I can’t tell if it’s worse when he calls them over or when they return to their seats.”

“Excellent observations, Kimmy.” Rob nodded in agreement. “You couldn’t have done better if you’d known

what to look for.”

I held my palms out in a
“So what’s going
on?” gesture.

“Won’t it hurt Kim’s objectivity if you tell her now, Larry? Power of suggestion might make her see what she’s looking for instead of what really is.”

“I’ll have to take that chance, Rob.” The warden uncrossed his legs and leaned across his desk as if he were about to confide the location of the Holy Grail. “Kimmy, we’ve become suspicious that Chaplain Thomas is abusing his position.”

I couldn’t have felt more confused.

“Let me be more specific. You’re familiar with blackmail and extortion?”

“Not personally.” I probably blushed. “I know what … I know what they are, I mean.” My twisted tongue threatened to take over. “What do they … what does that … what do those things have to do with him? And me?”

“I believe … Chappy has been using blackmail and extortion to obtain money from the insiders.” The warden’s voice was kind. He hadn’t meant to embarrass me.

“Money, sir?”

“The insiders have accounts here. Outsiders can send money for incidental expenses; the insiders also earn a pittance for the jobs they perform here.”

“Enough to make extortion worthwhile?” I couldn’t imagine such a thing.

“You’d be surprised. Don’t forget the number of men Chappy meets in his day-to-day work. He’s free to come and go as he pleases. He can interact with anyone—Christian or not. A little bit each from a number of men over a long period of time adds up. He’s probably accumulated a small fortune.”

Daddy, where are you? Can’t you protect your baby girl from learning that the adult world is just as corrupt now as it was in Noah’s day?

“If you know he’s guilty of these things, why haven’t you fired him … or arrested him or something?”

The warden hadn’t said how long this behavior had been going on other than “a long period of time.”

“We want to, but we don’t have enough evidence.”

“Then how did you learn about it?”

“An insider smuggled an unsigned note to a guard during mealtime when no one was paying attention.” He handed me a photocopy of it. I glanced back and forth between the warden and the paper. “Whoever slipped it to the guard may or may not have been the actual author. None of the insiders would want to be accused of snitching—not even on a prison employee.”

Because of the note’s size and distinctive background pattern, I gathered that the original had been written on a paper napkin. I could see wrinkles, too. As if the sender had passed it along as an inconspicuous piece of trash.

“Chaplain … extortion … our money.” I read aloud. “That’s not much to go on, is it?” Anybody with a grudge against the chaplain could have written a note like that. Especially a non-Christian or a member of some group that opposes Christianity.

Warden Jenkins touched the Bible that occupied the left front corner of his desk and traced the printing with his index finger. I hadn’t noticed before that he was left-handed.

“I take matters like this quite seriously, and I’ve done everything within my power to verify this accusation. Or to refute it. I’m not assuming Chaplain Thomas’s guilt. This is still America, but—unfortunately—this accusation makes sense.”

Rob eyed me with an
“Are you okay, Kim?”
look. I let my eyes respond,
“I don’t know.”

“I’ve tried to become friends with the Christian insiders,” Warden Jenkins said, “but they won’t talk to me. Not except in a superficial way. I can’t blame them. Even though they accept

me as a Christian brother, that doesn’t change the fact that I’m still the warden.”

“So what do you want Kim to do?” Rob said. “She and her friends are leaving next Monday, so there isn’t much time.”

“We’ll leave even sooner if I have another nightmare.” I couldn’t keep the inner pressure from exploding into spoken words. What a brilliant red my face must have turned when I realized how silly my outburst had probably sounded. “Uh, don’t ask, Warden. But please pray I don’t have another nightmare while I’m here. Seriously.”

“Of course, Kimmy. That’s the least I can do for you.” He jotted something down on his desk calendar and put a big asterisk beside it. “I won’t forget.”

Peace I hadn’t known since before my father delivered his ultimatum about going home bathed my soul and body. Had Warden Jenkins just prayed for me? That wouldn’t have surprised me. The Bible said the prayers of a righteous man accomplish much, and he struck me as a righteous man who did an excellent job of serving God in a very unrighteous atmosphere.

“About helping …” He scratched his head. I wondered if his job had given him all those gray hairs. “At prayer time, why don’t you pray out loud, too? Ask God to deal with any situations at Red Cedar that aren’t Christlike. Maybe that will get some of the insiders thinking.”

“Thinking and maybe ready to talk?” That sounded easy enough. But who would they be willing to talk to?

“Maybe express an interest in learning more about the men. Say something like, ‘If you want someone besides your cellmate to talk to for a few minutes, just let me know … ‘“

Our team had talked with the insiders quite a bit, but always in groups.

“You think I’m qualified to help that way?”

“You seem to be a good listener, Kimmy.”

“But is that safe, Larry?” Rob said. He sounded concerned. “I know this would still be within sight of the group, but …”