Benediction by Olivier Dufault

Author:Olivier Dufault
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: House of Anansi Press Inc
Published: 2019-09-09T14:24:54+00:00

10

To his astonishment, Will was “confined” to the guards’ wing. The prisoners who were favoured had individual cells there, so he was already well acquainted with that sandstone-walled section of the prison. For a whole week the cell door stayed closed, and no one in the prison had any idea what had been Will James’s fate. For sure, everyone thought he was wasting away in the hole, and no doubt after a severe beating. If the way the prison had been turned upside down in search of dirty drawings was any indication of the severity of Will’s punishment, he must not be a pretty sight.

But none of this was true. Will was eating much better, and his new quarters were warmer than the regular cell block, which made it easier to get through the hard desert nights. He was generously supplied with paper and high-quality pencils, and his new cell — you could almost call it spacious — was beautifully illuminated. The window was twice as large as the one he’d become accustomed to peering through if he wanted a glimpse of the Sierra Nevada and its changing light. And not only was he allowed to smoke in his cell, but he was actually provided high-quality tobacco — the same he would puff on from time to time in Smith’s office, and regular stuff for the guards. He no longer had to rub shoulders with the other inmates or live with the constant fear that he might be the next victim of the prison’s sexual predators. At first Will’s isolation scarcely bothered him — far from it. If there were a way for him to maintain these conditions until his sentence was up, prison would be child’s play. But he knew it was best not to entertain false hopes.

Again and again, Will struggled to find the words to write a letter to his parents, but he never managed to find quite the right words or tone. He was playing a double game: tricking the guards, and also deceiving his family. After several attempts in which he went to great lengths to conceal his situation, Will tossed off a letter in his mother tongue in just a few minutes. In it, he finally told his family the truth. He was far from losing his French, and in fact he never would, even if this was what he wanted others to believe. Unfortunately, the letter struck Will as perfect, and he didn’t have the will to alter it. Nor could he know the letter would be burned, along with many of the others he had written in French, during his second trip back to Canada, in the 1920s.

Carson City, Nevada, December 16, 1915

To my dear parents, so faraway yet so near to my heart;

I am writing you in hard times. I’m ashamed of myself. The thought of writing you, and telling you what I need to tell you has been gnawing at me for months. I won’t beat around the bush, so here goes, a little over a year ago I was arrested for cattle rustling in Nye County, Nevada.

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