The Fence and Then the Trees by JF Smith

Author:JF Smith [Smith, JF]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: JF Smith
Published: 2014-02-15T00:00:00+00:00

Day 520 – Friday, August 24th, 2001

Jack filled up his breakfast tray and walked out to a table. He pretty much took for granted how good the breakfasts were, but there was always lunch and dinner to remind him how bad it could be. He, along with everyone else, wished that Louis would one day get to take over the lunch/dinner shift.

He walked out into the chow hall and nodded at Hool, Turner, Bickers and Wilson, but walked on past them. Jack found an empty seat next to Adder and sat down with him. He had reached a point not too long ago where he occasionally skipped a meal with Hool and the others so he could instead sit with Adder, and there were always plenty of empty seats next to him. It raised some eyebrows the first time he had done it, but hardly anyone paid attention to this since they had seen Jack sitting out with Adder in the yard many times now. Wilson was glad that Jack was that safe and secure around Adder, but he still would resolutely stay as far away from him as possible.

They sat in silence as they ate. About halfway through the meal, a fight broke out between Fredo and Chica. Apparently, Fredo had made a disparaging comment about Chica’s ability to please a man. Chica didn’t approve and wanted to let Fredo know so, with his sharp fingernails. Jack watched the whole thing with mild interest; it was prison and fights happened occasionally. There was a lot of hooting and yelling from both the Kennel and the Brethren as the two went at it. Adder, exhibiting his usual amount of interest in these things, continued tucking into his toast and hash browns without glancing around to see who was involved, who was winning, or how close they were to him. The guards headed over to break up the fight and haul both of them off for a few days to remind them to play nice.

“It’s nice to know that sometimes a fight can happen without me being in the middle of it,” commented Jack, his mouth full of the institutional scrambled eggs that Louis managed to turn into something good by adding some cheese and onions and bell peppers. “Or you. The only difference is that when you’re involved, they’re over much more quickly.”

Adder shot Jack a brief sideways glance.

Adder finished up all but a sausage link on his tray, and was about to get up and leave. Jack spotted it and said, “Hey, if you’re not going to eat that, can I have it?”

Adder glanced down at it, then he picked up the sausage link, gave it a good, long lick, and put it on Jack’s tray. Adder watched for Jack’s reaction, but Jack saw an almost imperceptible trace of a smile on Adder’s face. Adder was messing around with Jack, and Jack knew it.

Jack grumbled, “You son of a bitch,” and bit into the sausage anyway. Adder walked on out and Jack stayed to finish his breakfast.

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