Chapter 5 - Shadows Behind BarsThe visiting room of Cook County Correctional Facility smelled of floor bleach, stale coffee, and collective despair.
I sat on one side of the scratched Plexiglass divider, my hands resting calmly in my lap, waiting while the heavy metal door at the opposite end of the room creaked open.
Marcus was escorted in by two massive correctional officers.
He looked unrecognizable. The custom tailored Brioni suits were gone, replaced by a coarse orange jumpsuit that hung loosely over his frame. His hair was unwashed and uncombed, dark circles bruised the skin beneath his hollow eyes, and his hands trembled slightly as he sat down on the bolted metal stool and picked up the heavy plastic telephone receiver.
Slowly, with a look of sheer, unadulterated hatred burning in his bloodshot eyes, Marcus lifted his receiver and pressed it against his ear. I mirrored his action on my side of the glass.
“You,” Marcus hissed through the audio link, his voice raw and shaking with suppressed rage. “You did this. You plotted this the entire time.”
“Plotted what, Marcus?” I asked, my voice impossibly calm, cutting through the static of the intercom. “Exposing your embezzlement? Presenting the audio recordings of you keeping me in a cage? Or simply letting the law catch up with a man who thought he was above humanity?”
“I gave you a life!” Marcus slammed his fist against the Plexiglass divider, though the heavy plastic barely vibrated under the blow. “You were a nobody from a broken south-side family! I elevated you! I brought you into this world, and you repaid me by destroying everything I built!”
“You didn't elevate me, Marcus,” I said softly, leaning closer to the glass so he could see the absolute clarity in my eyes. “You tried to bury me. You threw me into a dark basement, starved me, beat me, and told me I was less than an animal. But you made one fatal mistake.”
Marcus glared at me, his chest heaving. “What mistake?”
“You forgot that flowers grow best in the dark,” I smiled faintly. “And when they finally break through the concrete, they tear the entire foundation apart.”
Marcus opened his mouth to scream an obscenity, but before sound could escape his lips, a guard stepped behind him, placing a heavy hand on his orange shoulder.
“Time’s up, inmate. Move it.”
“Clara! Clara, you can’t do this to me! Get me out of here! CLARA!” Marcus thrashed against the guard as he was hauled backward toward the heavy steel exit doors, his frantic, pathetic screams fading into the echoing corridor until the door slammed shut with a definitive, bone-chilling bang.
May you like
I hung up the phone receiver, stood up smoothly, and walked out of the visiting room into the bright afternoon sunlight.
The nightmare was over. The cage was empty. And the world outside was entirely mine.
