Chapter 65

• Aside from the fact that we can leave to go to work and to eat, there are almost as many rules as jail. And given that twenty-five percent of what we earn goes straight back here to cover expenses, the state of the dump is what contributes to the general air of resignation and despondency.
• I don’t bother to make conversation with either of them. There’s no point. Guys come and go from here, and before you can finish a sentence, someone is getting caught with booze or trying to sneak out. Both of which will get you kicked out of here and back in jail, so most guys play by the rules and wait out their time until some pencil pusher says we’re ready to be released back into polite society.
• There’s a pile of magazines in the corner, so I slump into the chair and pick up a couple and start thumbing through them. I flip the pages, hoping to find something even remotely distracting, but since the magazines are almost five years old, all the crosswords have been filled in, the word puzzles done, and someone has completed all the Sudoku. I throw them back and pick up a pile of pamphlets for various community outreach programs.