Enter Jed

The following is an excerpt from part one:

June in jail. It’s my birthday month. It is the best, and definitely the most horrendous, of times. Jorge, thankfully, departs on Memorial Day weekend. That makes the occasion memorable indeed. He is then replaced by a succession of two or three overnight occupants. The new month rolls indistinctively with the welcome arrival of Jedadiah, or Jay, or Jed, or Jeddah, or Jerry, to share my Piss mod pad. It is well organized and settled in, complete with visitors’ parking lotview and one of the mod’s few TVs. I routinely jest that my penthouse unit is the “deluxe suite.”

Jay, a returning Pee patron from the previous year, plans to stay only for the weekend. He finds the accommodations and company quite suitable. I cannot even count how many times he repeats, “Man, you just have no idea how glad I am that I ended up with you.” He doesn’t even change his stance the next day, when one of my thoughtful mod mates runs over to point out the incriminating newspaper article about me. Jed remains impartial to and unaffected by the eager informant’s revelations. We are all in there for some type of misdeed or alleged crime. Those without a need to judge, like Jed, also lack the need to pry. The same applies to certain of the prison staff, but they are as rare as a C/O with a conscience.

Jerry is an interesting, articulate, and attractive African- American Brooklyn transplant. He is on the brink of fifty. His enormous bulk of chest and shoulders, when camouflaged by the baggy pull-over shirt, blends with the diminutive stature of the plentiful Hispanic constituents in the mod. On Monday he would be on his way to court for the matter of unpaid court fines. He would then return to his contracting business and his wife of three months.

I share my snacks. We play some cards and tell a few stories. The weekend flies by. On the morning of his departure, I assist with cleaning up some patches he missed when shaving his head. I wish him luck with a handshake and a shoulderhug. Reaching my arms around is a stretch, even with my long gorilla arms.