vagabondprophet:

Solitary Refinement Chapter 18

Dearest Elizabeth                                January 2nd 2018

    Return to sender. Why are you doing this? You realize you’re not just hurting me but the kids too right? What am I supposed to with colouring books in prison? People already think I’m weird. I’m going to have to throw this stuff in the trash. The stuff I worked to get Alister and Nina for Christmas, in the garbage… This sucks, I’m trying my best from in here to still contribute in some way to their lives, I can’t do much but try to send things if you won’t bring them to visit me. Can’t you see that? Do the kids ask about me? What do they say about me? What does Alister tell his friends at school about why his dad never comes to pick him up at school?

    I got really mad at Joshua recently for suggesting that you would use the opportunity of my absence to cheat on me. Can you believe that? I got so mad at him, I know you wouldn’t do that. I’m pretty mad at him right now, I don’t really want to talk to him for a while and you don’t want to talk to me so I guess nobody will hear from me for a while then.

    I’m going to get a journal, writing words down onto paper is the only thing I come even close to enjoying here. Talking through a pen onto the blank paper, it feels like these pages are the only things listening to me and receptive to my thoughts and feelings and willing to hold them for me. The blank canvas of white paper as it holds onto black ink doesn’t judge me or look for weakness the way the people here do.

    Sorry, I kind of rambled on there, like I said I’ll get a journal for my random thoughts so I won’t have to bother anybody for a while since you’re not talking to me and I don’t want to talk to Josh right now.

Sincerely,

Your husband.

Solitary Refinement Chapter 18

Dearest Elizabeth                                January 2nd 2018

    Return to sender. Why are you doing this? You realize you’re not just hurting me but the kids too right? What am I supposed to with colouring books in prison? People already think I’m weird. I’m going to have to throw this stuff in the trash. The stuff I worked to get Alister and Nina for Christmas, in the garbage… This sucks, I’m trying my best from in here to still contribute in some way to their lives, I can’t do much but try to send things if you won’t bring them to visit me. Can’t you see that? Do the kids ask about me? What do they say about me? What does Alister tell his friends at school about why his dad never comes to pick him up at school?

    I got really mad at Joshua recently for suggesting that you would use the opportunity of my absence to cheat on me. Can you believe that? I got so mad at him, I know you wouldn’t do that. I’m pretty mad at him right now, I don’t really want to talk to him for a while and you don’t want to talk to me so I guess nobody will hear from me for a while then.

    I’m going to get a journal, writing words down onto paper is the only thing I come even close to enjoying here. Talking through a pen onto the blank paper, it feels like these pages are the only things listening to me and receptive to my thoughts and feelings and willing to hold them for me. The blank canvas of white paper as it holds onto black ink doesn’t judge me or look for weakness the way the people here do.

    Sorry, I kind of rambled on there, like I said I’ll get a journal for my random thoughts so I won’t have to bother anybody for a while since you’re not talking to me and I don’t want to talk to Josh right now.

Sincerely,

Your husband.

Solitary Refinement Chapter 17

Dear Joshua                                       December 20th 2017

Okay that makes sense that you think I should tell a guard or warden about the threatening note on my pillow and the fact I was assaulted. Except that a guard purposely turned his back on the incident and he’s not the only guard that is chummy with Trevor so I have no idea if I can trust any of them. So if I go make a report to a guard this could get a whole lot worse really fast. Try again, thanks though. Ugh I need to think about something else.   

Are you enjoying the snow this year? Usually I love it, sliding around in the car and sledding with the kids and having snowball fights. So much fun, totally worth freezing my hands off working outside. This year all I can think of is how I’m not going to be with my family at Christmas. They’ll hang stockings and have a tree by now, lights will be all over the place and all the pillows in the house will have red and green covers now. Here nothing really changes, it’s just colder than usual that’s all. Once in awhile I see a guard yell, “ho ho ho!” before smacking an inmate with his baton for stepping out of line. Not exactly what I picture when I think of Christmas.

    Trevor has had me doing some things I really don’t like but I don’t really feel like I have a choice. Yesterday he told me he wanted some packets of peanut butter from the kitchen right before I went to my cooking class. I guess it’s not a big deal it’s just peanut butter but I just am so worried about anything he asks me to do now, I don’t know what he’s up to. All I do know is I don’t want to be on his bad side.

    Have you ever been in a situation as tight as this before? Where your stuck between two evils trying to appease both and not even sure which one is worse? I barely sleep at all now I’m so freaking stressed. Most of the time my eyes are bloodshot and I’m all sweaty. Trevor asks me what’s wrong and I tell him nothing. I feel so alone, so lost at sea surrounded by circling sharks. Kal is still giggling in his sleep and staring at me whenever I’m not around people. He licks his lips a lot, they’re cracked and bleeding now but he doesn’t seem to care. Sometimes he leaves me notes on my pillow that just say, “sleep tight.” What the hell am I supposed to do with that? How can I ignore that giggle, and that stare with his weird glasses and his great big bleeding grin?

    He still hasn’t touched me or hit me or even spoken to me, I think that’s because of my relationship with Trevor but I just don’t know if he’ll soon have me doing more than stealing peanut butter. Peanut butter seems like such a random thing, what could he need it for and why from me? He’s friends with kitchen staff why not just ask them. Maybe it’s better if I don’t ask those kinds of questions it’s not like I actually have a choice in whether or not I listen to what he asks of me.

    Also I did read that suggestion of yours in your last letter and no dude just no. I can’t divorce Liz I don’t even know why you would ask that! What the hell is wrong with you? Yes I’m upset that I don’t get to see my kids and that she won’t communicate with me at all but she’s upset because of the situation I put us in. I can’t do that to her or Alister or Nina, and I don’t want to do that to myself. Damn it dude she’s my wife and I love her! What explanation do I need past that?! Vow’s, I made vow’s doesn’t that matter? I know what you’re going to say and no she wouldn’t cheat on me just because I’m gone, she rarely had sex with me so why would she go seeking it out with some random person. Screw you man.

Solitary Refinement Chapter 16

Dearest Elizabeth                                   December 12th 2017

  So it’s been awhile, a long time actually, and I still haven’t heard anything at all from you. You’re mad at me I know but I really need to see you and the kids, I’m not doing so good in here, it’s not safe for me. I know you’re upset but can’t you forgive me? Can’t you remember why you ever loved me and take pity on a man who misses his family? Do you even miss me at all?

It’s Christmas soon and because a lot of inmates have gifts they want to send to people they have arranged to let us mail some small gifts to our families. I have some small stuff for the kids, stuff like colouring books and gift cards to the toy store because the selection for me to choose from is so limited. Please let the kids have them this time. I have been working really hard to make sure they at least get something from me even if they don’t get to see me.

    I’d really love to see the kids, could you bring them to see me before Christmas? I want to hear from Nina what she thinks of the snow this year and if she’s got to make a snowman yet, I usually did that with her. I want to hear from Alister how he is liking school. Is he doing well in school? Are his marks good, is he making friends, have you met his teacher?

    I just, I’m having a really hard time in here, I’m not sleeping, I got hurt recently and there’s a few people that are making me really worried and I’m stressed out all the time. Please respond or visit, anything, just so I know you’re reading these or that you care at all.

Sincerely,

Your husband.

vagabondprophet:

Solitary Refinement Chapter 15

Dear Joshua                                       December 10th 2017

    Hey man so I really don’t know what to do at this particular juncture. I think I’m in trouble with the one person I thought I could trust. I don’t know what I thought I was doing but I was so tired from working so much and from sleeping so badly that I spoke without thinking. I’m such an idiot sometimes, just like back at the bus stop where this all started. Trusting people I don’t know, and it gets me in trouble what else is new. Bloody dumbass I am, of course he just wants me to do stuff for him; keeping me safe isn’t too much of an inconvenience for him but if I do all his chores that frees his time up.

    We were mopping the floors in one of the other cell blocks while those inmates got yard time. He asked me if I could mop his half so he could go chill out in the rec room.

“Man I’m tired of doing all of your work, can’t you do your own mopping for once?” That’s what I said! Can you believe it? The way he looked at me, eyeing me up and down as if for the first time all over again.

He just kind of chuckled a bit and then said, “Oh yeah sure thing.” Then he didn’t say another word and kept mopping.

Later that same day we were all eating supper in the cafeteria and Mark was on guard just standing over in the corner where he can see everybody. The last thing I remember seeing was him turn his back on everybody and then I felt somebody grab me by the hair and slam my head into the table so hard I passed out. When I woke up a while later everybody I had been sitting with was sitting somewhere else and engaged with small talk as if nothing had happened. A small pool of blood in my mashed potatoes reflecting my image back at me showing I had a split lip and I was bruised around my nose and brow. My appetite gone I headed back to my bunk and found a note on my pillow in such haphazard and erratic handwriting it looked as though it had been written while falling down a flight of stairs.

“Don’t say no to him again.”

No name signed, no saying what might happen to me if I disobeyed, never seen this writing before.

Well shit, I’m in deep now Josh. Stuck between a rock and a hard place. Kal freaks me out so damn much, did I tell you he started giggling in his sleep? Creepiest thing ever, I can’t deal with him I just can’t. I need the protection I get from Trevor I just hope I don’t have to do anything too awful for it, I really don’t like being in this position of worrying about both of them.

Funny I never broke the rules until I was in prison. I never even skipped gym in high school. Remember you would skip and tell me to go to the movies with you and I said I don’t want to get in trouble. Now here I am in prison, doing somebody else’s shit against the rules. Wonderful just wonderful.

Still haven’t heard anything from Liz, no calls, no visits no letters. I don’t know how much more of that I can handle. I love her I really do, but I have had nothing but silence for nearly six months now. I can’t begin to tell you how that makes me feel but I’ll try. It makes me feel mad that she would keep the kids from me, but then I feel terrible for being mad at her when this is all completely my fault that we’re in this situation at all. That feeling gets worse before it gets better, imagining her trying to balance everything all by herself. Getting Alister to school on time is no simple task all by itself I’m sure. I just know that every morning she’ll have to drag him out of bed cranky because he wants to sleep longer or watch cartoons but she’ll need him to eat breakfast quickly and he was always a slow eater. Not slow like a turtle but slow like a glacier. Every little thing must become so much harder when you have to do it all by yourself. I put her in that position so I don’t have the right to be mad at her. That’s when I start to beat myself up. It eats at me more and more each day that I believed that treacherous man at the bus stop, just waiting to prey upon some poor trusting fool. Man did I swallow that bait whole and even thank him for the hook in my mouth too.

What is wrong with me, I try to just be a decent hard working man doing an honest job diligently. Still I end up here, bars, concrete walls, fluorescent lighting that’s way too bright until it’s way too dark. Even on the outside I always worked so hard at my jobs but still got laid off every few months. Bosses always complimenting me on my great work ethic and workmanship but still letting me go. Like is there a sign on my forehead that just says, “disposable?” I certainly feel disposable. Between Kal and Trevor I’m afraid that at any given moment I might get torn open and thrown away like one of the tuna cans I use in my cooking class.

This brand of fear is different though. It’s not like the fear I had before of worrying I’d lose a job as soon as I’d started it, or the fear that the kids might fall off the playground and break an arm. This fear makes me hyper, makes me blink twice as much, and makes me eat more. I’m still losing weight even though I’m eating as much as I can stomach at every meal time. It’s so exhausting looking over your shoulder all the time, flinching at every sound. I wake up with my sheets and pillow soaked in sweat at least once a night. What should I do? I wish I could go back in time and just skip class and go to the movies with you instead of deal with all this.

vagabondprophet:

Solitary Refinement Chapter 15

Dear Joshua                                       December 10th 2017

    Hey man so I really don’t know what to do at this particular juncture. I think I’m in trouble with the one person I thought I could trust. I don’t know what I thought I was doing but I was so tired from working so much and from sleeping so badly that I spoke without thinking. I’m such an idiot sometimes, just like back at the bus stop where this all started. Trusting people I don’t know, and it gets me in trouble what else is new. Bloody dumbass I am, of course he just wants me to do stuff for him; keeping me safe isn’t too much of an inconvenience for him but if I do all his chores that frees his time up.

    We were mopping the floors in one of the other cell blocks while those inmates got yard time. He asked me if I could mop his half so he could go chill out in the rec room.

“Man I’m tired of doing all of your work, can’t you do your own mopping for once?” That’s what I said! Can you believe it? The way he looked at me, eyeing me up and down as if for the first time all over again.

He just kind of chuckled a bit and then said, “Oh yeah sure thing.” Then he didn’t say another word and kept mopping.

Later that same day we were all eating supper in the cafeteria and Mark was on guard just standing over in the corner where he can see everybody. The last thing I remember seeing was him turn his back on everybody and then I felt somebody grab me by the hair and slam my head into the table so hard I passed out. When I woke up a while later everybody I had been sitting with was sitting somewhere else and engaged with small talk as if nothing had happened. A small pool of blood in my mashed potatoes reflecting my image back at me showing I had a split lip and I was bruised around my nose and brow. My appetite gone I headed back to my bunk and found a note on my pillow in such haphazard and erratic handwriting it looked as though it had been written while falling down a flight of stairs.

“Don’t say no to him again.”

No name signed, no saying what might happen to me if I disobeyed, never seen this writing before.

Well shit, I’m in deep now Josh. Stuck between a rock and a hard place. Kal freaks me out so damn much, did I tell you he started giggling in his sleep? Creepiest thing ever, I can’t deal with him I just can’t. I need the protection I get from Trevor I just hope I don’t have to do anything too awful for it, I really don’t like being in this position of worrying about both of them.

Funny I never broke the rules until I was in prison. I never even skipped gym in high school. Remember you would skip and tell me to go to the movies with you and I said I don’t want to get in trouble. Now here I am in prison, doing somebody else’s shit against the rules. Wonderful just wonderful.

Still haven’t heard anything from Liz, no calls, no visits no letters. I don’t know how much more of that I can handle. I love her I really do, but I have had nothing but silence for nearly six months now. I can’t begin to tell you how that makes me feel but I’ll try. It makes me feel mad that she would keep the kids from me, but then I feel terrible for being mad at her when this is all completely my fault that we’re in this situation at all. That feeling gets worse before it gets better, imagining her trying to balance everything all by herself. Getting Alister to school on time is no simple task all by itself I’m sure. I just know that every morning she’ll have to drag him out of bed cranky because he wants to sleep longer or watch cartoons but she’ll need him to eat breakfast quickly and he was always a slow eater. Not slow like a turtle but slow like a glacier. Every little thing must become so much harder when you have to do it all by yourself. I put her in that position so I don’t have the right to be mad at her. That’s when I start to beat myself up. It eats at me more and more each day that I believed that treacherous man at the bus stop, just waiting to prey upon some poor trusting fool. Man did I swallow that bait whole and even thank him for the hook in my mouth too.

What is wrong with me, I try to just be a decent hard working man doing an honest job diligently. Still I end up here, bars, concrete walls, fluorescent lighting that’s way too bright until it’s way too dark. Even on the outside I always worked so hard at my jobs but still got laid off every few months. Bosses always complimenting me on my great work ethic and workmanship but still letting me go. Like is there a sign on my forehead that just says, “disposable?” I certainly feel disposable. Between Kal and Trevor I’m afraid that at any given moment I might get torn open and thrown away like one of the tuna cans I use in my cooking class.

This brand of fear is different though. It’s not like the fear I had before of worrying I’d lose a job as soon as I’d started it, or the fear that the kids might fall off the playground and break an arm. This fear makes me hyper, makes me blink twice as much, and makes me eat more. I’m still losing weight even though I’m eating as much as I can stomach at every meal time. It’s so exhausting looking over your shoulder all the time, flinching at every sound. I wake up with my sheets and pillow soaked in sweat at least once a night. What should I do? I wish I could go back in time and just skip class and go to the movies with you instead of deal with all this.

vagabondprophet:

Solitary Refinement Chapter 15

Dear Joshua                                       December 10th 2017

    Hey man so I really don’t know what to do at this particular juncture. I think I’m in trouble with the one person I thought I could trust. I don’t know what I thought I was doing but I was so tired from working so much and from sleeping so badly that I spoke without thinking. I’m such an idiot sometimes, just like back at the bus stop where this all started. Trusting people I don’t know, and it gets me in trouble what else is new. Bloody dumbass I am, of course he just wants me to do stuff for him; keeping me safe isn’t too much of an inconvenience for him but if I do all his chores that frees his time up.

    We were mopping the floors in one of the other cell blocks while those inmates got yard time. He asked me if I could mop his half so he could go chill out in the rec room.

“Man I’m tired of doing all of your work, can’t you do your own mopping for once?” That’s what I said! Can you believe it? The way he looked at me, eyeing me up and down as if for the first time all over again.

He just kind of chuckled a bit and then said, “Oh yeah sure thing.” Then he didn’t say another word and kept mopping.

Later that same day we were all eating supper in the cafeteria and Mark was on guard just standing over in the corner where he can see everybody. The last thing I remember seeing was him turn his back on everybody and then I felt somebody grab me by the hair and slam my head into the table so hard I passed out. When I woke up a while later everybody I had been sitting with was sitting somewhere else and engaged with small talk as if nothing had happened. A small pool of blood in my mashed potatoes reflecting my image back at me showing I had a split lip and I was bruised around my nose and brow. My appetite gone I headed back to my bunk and found a note on my pillow in such haphazard and erratic handwriting it looked as though it had been written while falling down a flight of stairs.

“Don’t say no to him again.”

No name signed, no saying what might happen to me if I disobeyed, never seen this writing before.

Well shit, I’m in deep now Josh. Stuck between a rock and a hard place. Kal freaks me out so damn much, did I tell you he started giggling in his sleep? Creepiest thing ever, I can’t deal with him I just can’t. I need the protection I get from Trevor I just hope I don’t have to do anything too awful for it, I really don’t like being in this position of worrying about both of them.

Funny I never broke the rules until I was in prison. I never even skipped gym in high school. Remember you would skip and tell me to go to the movies with you and I said I don’t want to get in trouble. Now here I am in prison, doing somebody else’s shit against the rules. Wonderful just wonderful.

Still haven’t heard anything from Liz, no calls, no visits no letters. I don’t know how much more of that I can handle. I love her I really do, but I have had nothing but silence for nearly six months now. I can’t begin to tell you how that makes me feel but I’ll try. It makes me feel mad that she would keep the kids from me, but then I feel terrible for being mad at her when this is all completely my fault that we’re in this situation at all. That feeling gets worse before it gets better, imagining her trying to balance everything all by herself. Getting Alister to school on time is no simple task all by itself I’m sure. I just know that every morning she’ll have to drag him out of bed cranky because he wants to sleep longer or watch cartoons but she’ll need him to eat breakfast quickly and he was always a slow eater. Not slow like a turtle but slow like a glacier. Every little thing must become so much harder when you have to do it all by yourself. I put her in that position so I don’t have the right to be mad at her. That’s when I start to beat myself up. It eats at me more and more each day that I believed that treacherous man at the bus stop, just waiting to prey upon some poor trusting fool. Man did I swallow that bait whole and even thank him for the hook in my mouth too.

What is wrong with me, I try to just be a decent hard working man doing an honest job diligently. Still I end up here, bars, concrete walls, fluorescent lighting that’s way too bright until it’s way too dark. Even on the outside I always worked so hard at my jobs but still got laid off every few months. Bosses always complimenting me on my great work ethic and workmanship but still letting me go. Like is there a sign on my forehead that just says, “disposable?” I certainly feel disposable. Between Kal and Trevor I’m afraid that at any given moment I might get torn open and thrown away like one of the tuna cans I use in my cooking class.

This brand of fear is different though. It’s not like the fear I had before of worrying I’d lose a job as soon as I’d started it, or the fear that the kids might fall off the playground and break an arm. This fear makes me hyper, makes me blink twice as much, and makes me eat more. I’m still losing weight even though I’m eating as much as I can stomach at every meal time. It’s so exhausting looking over your shoulder all the time, flinching at every sound. I wake up with my sheets and pillow soaked in sweat at least once a night. What should I do? I wish I could go back in time and just skip class and go to the movies with you instead of deal with all this.

Solitary Refinement Chapter 15

Dear Joshua                                       December 10th 2017

    Hey man so I really don’t know what to do at this particular juncture. I think I’m in trouble with the one person I thought I could trust. I don’t know what I thought I was doing but I was so tired from working so much and from sleeping so badly that I spoke without thinking. I’m such an idiot sometimes, just like back at the bus stop where this all started. Trusting people I don’t know, and it gets me in trouble what else is new. Bloody dumbass I am, of course he just wants me to do stuff for him; keeping me safe isn’t too much of an inconvenience for him but if I do all his chores that frees his time up.

    We were mopping the floors in one of the other cell blocks while those inmates got yard time. He asked me if I could mop his half so he could go chill out in the rec room.

“Man I’m tired of doing all of your work, can’t you do your own mopping for once?” That’s what I said! Can you believe it? The way he looked at me, eyeing me up and down as if for the first time all over again.

He just kind of chuckled a bit and then said, “Oh yeah sure thing.” Then he didn’t say another word and kept mopping.

Later that same day we were all eating supper in the cafeteria and Mark was on guard just standing over in the corner where he can see everybody. The last thing I remember seeing was him turn his back on everybody and then I felt somebody grab me by the hair and slam my head into the table so hard I passed out. When I woke up a while later everybody I had been sitting with was sitting somewhere else and engaged with small talk as if nothing had happened. A small pool of blood in my mashed potatoes reflecting my image back at me showing I had a split lip and I was bruised around my nose and brow. My appetite gone I headed back to my bunk and found a note on my pillow in such haphazard and erratic handwriting it looked as though it had been written while falling down a flight of stairs.

“Don’t say no to him again.”

No name signed, no saying what might happen to me if I disobeyed, never seen this writing before.

Well shit, I’m in deep now Josh. Stuck between a rock and a hard place. Kal freaks me out so damn much, did I tell you he started giggling in his sleep? Creepiest thing ever, I can’t deal with him I just can’t. I need the protection I get from Trevor I just hope I don’t have to do anything too awful for it, I really don’t like being in this position of worrying about both of them.

Funny I never broke the rules until I was in prison. I never even skipped gym in high school. Remember you would skip and tell me to go to the movies with you and I said I don’t want to get in trouble. Now here I am in prison, doing somebody else’s shit against the rules. Wonderful just wonderful.

Still haven’t heard anything from Liz, no calls, no visits no letters. I don’t know how much more of that I can handle. I love her I really do, but I have had nothing but silence for nearly six months now. I can’t begin to tell you how that makes me feel but I’ll try. It makes me feel mad that she would keep the kids from me, but then I feel terrible for being mad at her when this is all completely my fault that we’re in this situation at all. That feeling gets worse before it gets better, imagining her trying to balance everything all by herself. Getting Alister to school on time is no simple task all by itself I’m sure. I just know that every morning she’ll have to drag him out of bed cranky because he wants to sleep longer or watch cartoons but she’ll need him to eat breakfast quickly and he was always a slow eater. Not slow like a turtle but slow like a glacier. Every little thing must become so much harder when you have to do it all by yourself. I put her in that position so I don’t have the right to be mad at her. That’s when I start to beat myself up. It eats at me more and more each day that I believed that treacherous man at the bus stop, just waiting to prey upon some poor trusting fool. Man did I swallow that bait whole and even thank him for the hook in my mouth too.

What is wrong with me, I try to just be a decent hard working man doing an honest job diligently. Still I end up here, bars, concrete walls, fluorescent lighting that’s way too bright until it’s way too dark. Even on the outside I always worked so hard at my jobs but still got laid off every few months. Bosses always complimenting me on my great work ethic and workmanship but still letting me go. Like is there a sign on my forehead that just says, “disposable?” I certainly feel disposable. Between Kal and Trevor I’m afraid that at any given moment I might get torn open and thrown away like one of the tuna cans I use in my cooking class.

This brand of fear is different though. It’s not like the fear I had before of worrying I’d lose a job as soon as I’d started it, or the fear that the kids might fall off the playground and break an arm. This fear makes me hyper, makes me blink twice as much, and makes me eat more. I’m still losing weight even though I’m eating as much as I can stomach at every meal time. It’s so exhausting looking over your shoulder all the time, flinching at every sound. I wake up with my sheets and pillow soaked in sweat at least once a night. What should I do? I wish I could go back in time and just skip class and go to the movies with you instead of deal with all this.

vagabondprophet:

Solitary Refinement Chapter 14

Dear Joshua                                        December 2nd 2017

    I’ve never really been artistically gifted. Stick figures is all I could ever do. However lately I’ve been finding myself wishing I had paints, maybe watercolours? I like the way that the colours bleed into one another.

I once saw a graphic novel where all the people and structures were sketched in pen or pencil, solid black lines, and then the colour was all filled in with watercolours. And things like trees and clouds were watercolours too. I liked how the black line told me that this is where that object ends, and the paint suggested otherwise as it bled past the penciled boundaries just a little bit. As if to make the whole image share the page, and share the viewers attention. It was the first time I really paid much attention to the style and medium of the pieces; asking questions like, “why did the artist do it that way? that’s so unusual.” In the end the strongest feeling I got was this idea that every person extends beyond their body just a little bit to colour the world around them. Sometimes if I squint I can see it still. Nina she blurred everything pink around her. Alister orange because of his sunny disposition, his creativity so boundless that the world is created anew every time he wakes. Kal leaks grey, and I don’t know what colour bleeds out of me and I’m not about to ask anybody either.

If I were to paint what it looks like in here I would run out of grey before I touched any of the good colours. I remember learning in stories about how the world came to be, and no matter which one you listened to they were always so colourful. In the Christian story God created everything with just his words and then it happened. Trees, roosters, the seas, everything. Other stories have mother earth and father sky, so many different stories but they are all common in being vividly colourful. Rich blues and delicate yellows, royal purples and deep greens. I really miss seeing the expansive and rich diversity of the outside world.

When God creates it’s colourful. When man creates, it’s grey and monochromatic. This place is built by men, for men, because of what men have done and none of it is beautiful or worth a second glance.

The more and more I get scared about Kal doing something to me the more I wish I was on the outside. Even if it was to do something like clean the gutters. Scooping the mucky browns from above the dewy green of the grass is still so much better than being here.

I realized recently that I don’t know how I would react if I was cornered by him. If my back was against the wall and nobody was there to help me. Would I just let him hurt me and hope it’s over soon? Would I shout and scream hoping somebody came? Would I try to run or fight. Hopefully I never have to find out what will happen in that kind of situation. I like to think I might be able to fight him off until a guard came to stop him. I’ll need to find a weapon I can keep on me or hidden under my bed or something. It seems crazy that I’ve been in prison for almost six months and I’m yet to find out what kind of person I am in crisis.

It won’t be that way forever. I can’t keep counting on Ziggy or Trevor or even Mark to always be there to make sure I don’t get hurt. A person as scared of Kal as I am, I need to know what I’ll do when I’m in a situation where I have to protect myself. I could maybe find a weapon. I’ll figure it out after Christmas. Right now I’ve been working so much when I’m not in my cooking program to try and get Christmas presents, I don’t know what I’ll get yet for the kids. If I need your help again I’ll let you know. Thanks for listening to all of my random thoughts.

vagabondprophet:

Solitary Refinement Chapter 14

Dear Joshua                                        December 2nd 2017

    I’ve never really been artistically gifted. Stick figures is all I could ever do. However lately I’ve been finding myself wishing I had paints, maybe watercolours? I like the way that the colours bleed into one another.

I once saw a graphic novel where all the people and structures were sketched in pen or pencil, solid black lines, and then the colour was all filled in with watercolours. And things like trees and clouds were watercolours too. I liked how the black line told me that this is where that object ends, and the paint suggested otherwise as it bled past the penciled boundaries just a little bit. As if to make the whole image share the page, and share the viewers attention. It was the first time I really paid much attention to the style and medium of the pieces; asking questions like, “why did the artist do it that way? that’s so unusual.” In the end the strongest feeling I got was this idea that every person extends beyond their body just a little bit to colour the world around them. Sometimes if I squint I can see it still. Nina she blurred everything pink around her. Alister orange because of his sunny disposition, his creativity so boundless that the world is created anew every time he wakes. Kal leaks grey, and I don’t know what colour bleeds out of me and I’m not about to ask anybody either.

If I were to paint what it looks like in here I would run out of grey before I touched any of the good colours. I remember learning in stories about how the world came to be, and no matter which one you listened to they were always so colourful. In the Christian story God created everything with just his words and then it happened. Trees, roosters, the seas, everything. Other stories have mother earth and father sky, so many different stories but they are all common in being vividly colourful. Rich blues and delicate yellows, royal purples and deep greens. I really miss seeing the expansive and rich diversity of the outside world.

When God creates it’s colourful. When man creates, it’s grey and monochromatic. This place is built by men, for men, because of what men have done and none of it is beautiful or worth a second glance.

The more and more I get scared about Kal doing something to me the more I wish I was on the outside. Even if it was to do something like clean the gutters. Scooping the mucky browns from above the dewy green of the grass is still so much better than being here.

I realized recently that I don’t know how I would react if I was cornered by him. If my back was against the wall and nobody was there to help me. Would I just let him hurt me and hope it’s over soon? Would I shout and scream hoping somebody came? Would I try to run or fight. Hopefully I never have to find out what will happen in that kind of situation. I like to think I might be able to fight him off until a guard came to stop him. I’ll need to find a weapon I can keep on me or hidden under my bed or something. It seems crazy that I’ve been in prison for almost six months and I’m yet to find out what kind of person I am in crisis.

It won’t be that way forever. I can’t keep counting on Ziggy or Trevor or even Mark to always be there to make sure I don’t get hurt. A person as scared of Kal as I am, I need to know what I’ll do when I’m in a situation where I have to protect myself. I could maybe find a weapon. I’ll figure it out after Christmas. Right now I’ve been working so much when I’m not in my cooking program to try and get Christmas presents, I don’t know what I’ll get yet for the kids. If I need your help again I’ll let you know. Thanks for listening to all of my random thoughts.