Because when I asked if I could take a photo of him he said: "Should I take my shirt off?"
On my way back I saw the tattoo guy again. He asked where I was going. I told him downtown. He asked if he could walk with me. Usually I'd be up for it, but I wasn't really in the mood.
"I'd kind of prefer walking on my own" I stuttered
"Aw, I'm not after nothin'. I got out of prison yesterday, I just want someone to talk to"
Man! How do they always know exactly what to say? This I couldn't resist.
"Sure" I said, now grinning goofily.
We began walking together down the street.
"So, yeah, I just got out of prison" he said
"Oh cool" Not exactly sure if that's the right thing to say. "You must be happy. Ummmm How long where you in, ummm there for?"
"10 months"
"Oh OK"
I know you're all wondering what he did. So was I, but I've been taught not to ask, so you're going to have to wait.
We made small talk for a while 'where are you from? family etc' then drifted into silence. I wasn't exactly sure what questions were appropriate. He said he wanted to talk, so I took the opportunity to find out all I could about prison.
"So how was the food?" I asked
"Not bad. I mean, like, you got pretty full of it, but it don't got a lot of flavour, ya know?"
I knew.
"But prison ain't that bad. I mean people bitch about it, but like, if you don't got any other place to go, it's alright"
"Mmmmm. What did did they feed you on a typical day? Did you get hot food?"
"Oh yeah, Monday we got hot cereal, Tuesday was eggs, Wednesday- waffles"
"Oh yum I love waffles" I chimed in
"Thursday, ummmm, Saturday was pancakes"
"Wow, sounds pretty good!"
"Yeah, man, we have it so good in the US. There was a guy in there called Russia. Well I think his name was Eugeney something, but he was from Russia, so.... yeah. He said that in Russia all you get is 4 slices of bread and water and some cold potato soup. Everyday. That's it."
"Wow. That sucks."
"Yeah, prison here isn't that bad. What's it like in Australia?"
I thought about it for a second. I had absolutely no idea. Why would I? I’ve never been to prison. I don’t even know anyone who’s been to prison in Australia. In fact, I’m not sure I know someone who knows someone who has been to prison in Australia.
“I’m not sure…” I confessed
“Oh, yeah, right. Guess you’ve never been?”
“No”
More silence
“So what did you do during the day?” I asked
“1124 crunches, 123 push ups; diamond or wide….”
A million other exercise things I’ve never heard of…
“I also read books on anatomy” he continued “some guys waste their time in there but I like to make the most of it. Learn stuff, ya know?”
I nodded
“Tibia, jugular, fibula…” he said pointing to various parts of his body.”clavicle, jaw”
There was no denying it; the guy loved to list things.
“mandible, palatine, scapula....”
I wondered if this information would come in handy for him someday.
"....sternum, humerus, cervical..."
Wait. was he still naming bones?
"...radius, ulna.."
Yep.
“Wow” I said genuinely impressed.
“Yeah, I know. I also learnt some Spanish in there.”
“Oh yeah?”
“Yeah. I can say ‘I know a little Spanish’, and ‘I just got out of prison’ and ‘Would you like to buy this from me?’”
“Wow”
We were getting closer to downtown, but I didn’t want our conversation to end. I decided to take Mitchell out to lunch.
He ordered a beer, and when the woman asked for ID, Mitchell piped up, “I only have prison ID, is that OK? I just got out of prison see, so…. Yeah”
Sometime during lunch we got onto the topic of tattoos. He took of his shirt in the restaurant to show me. One was his name, one was his mother’s name and one was a picture of a jester in memory of his friend who got beaten to death with a chains and a baseball bat last year.
Here are some other things I learnt over our 2 hour luncheon:
- 23 year old Mitchell got 8 months because he stole a car
- Then he got in a fight in prison and they gave him another 2. And they put him in high security for a couple of months.
- You don’t call someone a ‘bitch’ in prison. If someone calls you a bitch you HAVE to fight them
- Faggot, mutha fucka, nigger is OK
- Being called Caucasian, Oriental, African American or Latin is an insult, it’s White, Black, Asian or Mexican
- Trades happen in prison. For example, Mitchell would often trade his Monday, Wednesday and Saturday lunch meat for peanut butter.
- He would even trade his bread because ‘bread holds water’ and he wanted to get an 8 pack.
- It sucks when your girlfriend of 4 years send you a letter breaking up with you while you’re in the slammer
- She was a good girlfriend though, when Mitchell got shot, she held him, her hands covered in his blood, all the while a gun was pointed at her head.
- It’s really easy to get medicinal weed in California
We continued walking after lunch. He said he was going to show me around the downtown.
“Hey do you want to split a bottle?” he asked
“What kind of bottle?”
“A bottle of gin… or something?”
“Ummmm no thanks, I’ve got to get back to my cousin…. Sober”
“Awww come on…”
“Mmmmm, not today”
“You sure? We could get a hotel room or something?” He asked hopefully
I was wondering when this would come up. I was almost insulted he hadn’t asked me sooner.
“Ah no thanks” I said
“We could get one for like, $40”
“Tempting, but no thanks”
As we fell into another awkward silence, I began to question whether walking down a deserted alley with this guy was the best idea.
“Going once….”
“Yeah, no. Sorry” I said
“Awwww come on. I just got out of prison, show me some love”
“Hmmmmm, nah, sorry.
“Well I had to try”
“Yeah….”
Suddenly he had to go. He was ditching me. He was ditching me. Ouch. Anyhoo, that was my lunch date with an ex con.
No comments:
Post a Comment