I had my whole life ahead of me. I was a head executive at a technology company. I married the love of my life, and we had a six year old daughter, and seven year old son. Then one night, my life as I knew it changed before me.
I was walking through the downpour to my car. Behind me, in the dark alleyway I had just passed, I heard what I thought was gunshots. Rushing into the alley to see what was up, a man wearing all black clothes and a red baseball cap brushed up against me. I rushed over to the man I saw laying on the ground. His eyes were still open when I reached him, but I could see them slowly fogging over. Giving the man another quick glance over, I realized that he was the CEO of my tech company, visiting from New York for a few weeks to check up on the Chicago branch of the company.
I began hearing the resonance of sirens a few blocks away. I decided to wait for the police to arrive, and explain to them what had happened. A police cruiser pulled up and blocked one end of the alley, with two officers stepping out of it, slowly approaching with weapons drawn. Another cruiser pulled up on the other end of the alley, with another two officers approaching me from that direction.
“What happened here?” asked one of the officers.
“I was walking down the street when I heard a couple of gunshots,” I quickly responded.
“Do you mind if we search you?” asked one of the other officers.
“Go right ahead,” I said.
The officer proceeded to pat me down, and then reaching inside of my coat, he pulled out a gun. The realization that the man wearing the baseball cap must have passed me his pistol suddenly hit me. Before I knew it, the police officer had pulled my hands behind my back, locked them in a pair of handcuffs, and shoved me towards the ground on my knees.
“How did this weapon get into your pocket?” asked the officer. “Did it just magically appear in your pocket?”
“No, no,” I said. “A man wearing black clothes and a red baseball cap must have slipped it into my coat as he ran past me.”
“What man? You never said anything about this man when we first approached you. How tall was he? How old? What did his hair look like? What color was the hair?”
“You never gave me a chance to explain further what happened. And I didn’t get a good look at the man when he ran past. The cap covered most of his face and hair, but he looked about my height.”
“Right…,” the officer said. I could tell that he clearly did not believe what I told him. The officer then read me my Miranda Rights. After, two of the officers grabbed me on my shoulders and slowly walked me back to one of their cruisers.
“After you,” they said as they laughed and pushed me into the car. The two officers then got into the car, and drove me to the county jail.
After a few weeks of sitting behind bars in the Cook County jail, I was taken to my court hearing. With no evidence supporting my claim that I was not the killer, the hearing went relatively quickly. My fingerprints had ended up on the gun somehow, and with no witnesses other than myself, the entire hearing was one sided. As the jury returned after discussing, I knew my fate was sealed.
“We have come to a decision on this matter,” said the jury to the judge. All eyes turned to the jury, anxiously awaiting what was about to be said.
“We find the defendant guilty on charges of murder,” said the jury. Turning to the judge, I waited for the inevitable.
“The guilty party is to serve fifteen years in prison,” said the judge.
After hearing the decision, worry was the first thing to rush to my mind. How would my family support itself? What would happen to the children? How will my wife manage without me?
Two court officers arrived promptly at my side to escort me to the van that would take me to prison. Walking past my family, I could not bring myself to acknowledge them. I had failed them as a provider and a protector.
The county officer guarding the door to the outdoors swiftly opened it as we approached. By now, I was counting the number of steps it would take to get to the van. These would be my last few moments in the free world. I began dragging my feet, not wanting to get in the van. The officers shoved me forward, and I was within a few feet of the van. Glancing over my shoulder, I saw a bird fly overhead, seemingly mocking the loss of my freedom.
The two officers pushed me into the van, and then followed me inside, closing the van doors behind them. The driver revved the engine, and a few seconds later we were on the move.
That drive turned out to be the longest of my life. Walls surrounded us on all sides as we pulled into Oak River Penitentiary. Life seemed to be squeezed out of everything within the facility. The walls were a dusty gray color, with all of the fences turned a rustic orange from years of age and wear from the weather. Even the sky about the penitentiary seemed to have the life sucked out of it. No birds could be seen flying overhead. There was no sign of life surrounding the penitentiary either. All trees looked as if they were dead, or were going to die in the near future.
I grimaced as I saw the inmates, in their drab orange prison uniforms, grouping up in the outdoor recreation area. The van suddenly jerked to a halt on the cracked, grey cement that made up the drive in front of the penitentiary. The doors of the van opened, and the two officers stood up and grabbed me by my wrists. They then shoved me through the doors.
“Welcome to the best fifteen years of your life,” said the officers in unicance.
My fifteen year sentence went by very quickly. At first, the days were slow and nerve-racking, not knowing what was to happen in the coming days. Within a few short months into my sentence though, I rose to the top of a prison gang. From then on, with the knowledge that I had guys that would cover my back, my nerves calmed, and I was able to serve my time in relative ease.
Before I knew it, I was done to the last few remaining days of my sentence. The air smelled fresher than it had throughout the whole of the sentence. I began noticing that sky was more blue than it had been in years, and that the trees were blooming, and that birds had started flocking around the trees outside of the prison. Only a few more days to go.
I woke up right as the sun was rising through the prison window. I knew that today was the day I would get to go home, the day that I would see my wife and children for the first time in fifteen years, and that today was the day that I got my freedom back. A guard walked up to my prison cell.
“Time to go,” the guard said as he began unlocking the cell door.
I grabbed what little I had in my cell, and the guard escorted me to the front of my prison to pick up my things. After I had picked up my things, the guard opened up the huge rusted gate separating man from freedom. I didn’t have much on me, maybe just a few dollars and my ID, but I was free.
The sun blinded me as I walked through the gate, like a veil of gold, but my eyes quickly adjusted. The first thing that hit me was not a feeling of freedom after fifteen years of being locked up, but rather a feeling of sadness and disappointment. My eyes glimpsed over the barren parking lot, but there was no sign of my wife or kids.
I trecked from the parking lot, to the expressway, a good three mile walk in the hot baring sun. The guards at the prison hadn’t given me any water, and when I arrived at the expressway, my clothes were drenched in sweat, and my hair hung onto my forehead like a damp rag. I set my small bag of belongings down on the grass next to the highway, and laid down a few yards away to catch my breathe. WOOOSH! An SUV ran directly over my things, sending them scattering all over the highway, knowing that I had lost them for good.
After finally catching my breathe, I stood up and tried to hitchhike. I waited hours on top of hours, until an elderly couple generously stopped and let me catch a ride with them back to Chicago. They were a nice couple, and drove me nearly all the way to Chicago. They dropped me off just outside, and thanked them for all that they had done.
I begged for money to take the bus home on the corner that the couple had dropped me off on. A man walking past spit in my face, disrespecting me, and making me want to hit him, but I held myself back, not wanting to end up in prison again. A few minutes later, an elderly man drove past, and gave me a five dollar bill so that I could get home. I walked down the sidewalk, and waited for the bus.
The bus ride down to the corner of my street, and the actual walk down the street to the house were fastest moving moments of my life. After arriving home for the first time in a long time, it was like going back in time. The grass was the same emerald color that it had been so long ago, and house still had that warm feeling that pulled people into it. The house was painted the same sky blue color, and the deck was still worn, but welcoming. A brand new Mercedes was parked in the driveway of the house. I knew there was no way that my wife or kids could have afforded that after my time in prison, or even while I held my previous job.
With my heart pounding and adrenaline pumping, I walked up the stairs to the front door. After pulling my hair back, and making myself as presentable as possible, I reached my hand up the doorbell. The sound resonated throughout the house, and back outside. I heard footsteps approaching the door from the inside. My heart was nearly jumping out of my chest. The door slowly opened, and behind it was a man I had never seen before.
“Who are you?” I asked.
“I live here,” the man responded. “I have lived here for the past thirteen years.”
“How?”
“My wife’s crazy ex husband snapped one day after working, and killed the CEO of his company.”
My face became flushed with red-hot anger, as I responded, “ That crazy ex husband is me.”
“Oh,” the man said, as he quickly closed the door.
I quickly rushed around to the back of the house, and that door was locked too. Hearing the car start up, I sprinted to the front of the house, just to see the car pulling away with my wife, and two teenagers.
I tried to chase down the car, but I fell over in exhaustion. Sirens began blaring from all around, and within minutes, the police had surrounded me. They put me into the back of a cruiser, and then back to the police station for questioning.
