Date: Sun, 30 Mar 2008 15:31:28 -0700 (PDT)
From: justinr_88@yahoo.com
Subject: Doing Hard Time chapter 5

The usual disclaimers and copyright assertions apply. See
the first installment for a more complete version of the
Author's Note.

Please do let me know what you think of this story by
dropping me a line at the email address above.

                       DOING HARD TIME
                        ~ Chapter 5 ~

             From the Narrative of Caleb Fisher:

     I awoke to find Harrison shaking my arm violently.

 "Get up, you bastard! What the fuck are you playing at?" he
 yelled at me. Uh oh. This was not good. My glance went from
 his face, with wild rage in his eyes, to his hand, holding
what I quickly recognized as the newspaper article about his
                         conviction.

 "You knew who I was all along, didn't you?" He glared at me
 with undisguised suspicion. "Was this all some sick game to
                 get me to sleep with you?"

Okay, I admit it - I didn't need to ask him his name to know
  that he was Harrison Ridgeway. I even knew the details of
 the crime for which he'd been sentenced here. I'd intended
        to reveal everything to him, but not so soon.

     But his last comment irked me. "Let's get one thing
  straight. I didn't make you sleep with me. You came on to
 me. Until then, I didn't even know you had gay tendencies!"
                         I retorted.

  He fell silent, aware of the truth of my words. I'd never
   intended to let him give me a blowjob, but I'd been so
caught up in the moment that I let my lust get the better of
  me. It wasn't every day a beautiful young man offered to
                        suck you off.

  Harrison quickly recovered. "That doesn't put you in the
  clear. You pretended not to know who I was. And I trusted
                      you!" he shouted.

  I took a deep breath. "Now calm down and keep your voice
  low. You don't want to wake up the other inmates now, do
 you? I'll explain everything. But first you need to look at
the front page of the book in which you found that article."

  For a second it looked like he didn't care if he woke up
 anyone else. Then begrudgingly he picked up the bible from
  where he'd tossed it on top of the cabinet. He opened the
         cover and stared at the name written on it.


"Caroline Spencer," he read softly. He looked at me in
disbelief. "Aunt Carol?" he asked.

I nodded. He sat down heavily on my bunk.

"How ." his voice cracked. "How is it you have her bible?"

"I was her brother. Her son gave it to me when she died," I
told him.

Harrison looked at me, stunned. "Her son . you mean Josh,
don't you?"

Again I nodded. "Joshua is my nephew."


From the Narrative of Harrison Ridgeway IV:

I could have handled any explanation that Caleb might have
given me, but not the one that he actually did. I suppose I
should have realized it sooner. It wasn't coincidental that
I'd been reminded of Josh twice that day. There was a
physical resemblance between Josh and his uncle. Well,
Josh's hair was curly and black, but that aside, their
facial features were similar. And there was the fact that
Caleb had called me by the nickname only Josh used, `Harry'.
He'd even let slip that he knew he was exactly twice my age,
which was impossible since I'd never told him mine and
people generally assumed I was younger.

"When Joshua found out you'd be incarcerated in this prison,
he asked me to protect you. He's still in love with you, you
know. Always has been, despite how you treated him the one
time he tried to tell you. He doesn't know that you aren't
completely straight." Caleb gave me a piercing gaze.

I wished I could sink into the ground. If I'd felt guilty
about how I'd treated Josh earlier, my guilt was now
multiplied by a thousand times. I realized how stupid I'd
been, shutting Josh out of my life and making friends with
the wrong people instead.

"I didn't know," I whispered. It sounded like a lame excuse,
even to me. "I didn't want to know."

Caleb looked at me in revulsion. "You know what I told him,
when he asked me to protect you? I told him he was an idiot
to still think the best of you, after what you'd done to get
you in here in the first place. I didn't even know then that
you were so deep in the closet, you would beat up an
innocent guy just to protect your secret."

Caleb's words served to make me feel worse about myself than
I already did. He was right. It was my fault that an
innocent guy was laying near death in some hospital. But he
didn't know the full story.

"Caleb, I know you're disgusted with me ."

He cut in. "It's not so much you I'm disgusted with. I'm
also appalled with myself. I let myself get carried away
with you."

"Caleb, please listen to me. What happened with Josh .
you're right about that. I lashed out at him, because I
couldn't face the truth myself. But about the other guy,
Dean . that's where you're wrong. I never hurt him. Well, at
least not enough to land him in hospital."

I took a deep breath and began the story:

I was hanging out in a bar with my friends. By friends, I
mean my girlfriend, that is, ex-girlfriend's brother,
Michael and his buddies. We were busy watching the
basketball game on TV. But I noticed this guy, who kept
looking at me. I didn't know it then, but his name was Dean
Winters. He was my age. I could tell he was attracted to me.

It was uncomfortable. I mean, he wasn't bad-looking or
anything, but I knew there was going to be trouble if my
friends saw this going on. They were a bunch of homophobes,
and the only reason they let me hang out with them was
because I was the (straight) boyfriend of Michael's younger
sister, Melissa.

I tried to ignore Dean's glances in my direction and
concentrated on the game. My worst fears were realized when
Michael nudged me. "See that guy over there - he's been
staring at you all night."

"No, really?" I said weakly.

"You'd better teach him not to stare before he tries
anything, eh?"

"C'mon Mike, I'm sure it's nothing," I said.

Michael looked at me condescendingly. "What's wrong,
Harrison? Scared of that gay bastard? I'm sure you don't
want me to tell Melissa her boyfriend's a sissy."

There was no way out of it. Damn them, I thought, looking
around. I saw Dean heading towards the restroom at the back
of the bar.

"Here's your chance - go confront that SOB for staring at
you," said Michael, pushing me in front of him. I
reluctantly walked to the restroom. Michael's friends were
following close behind. When the restroom door opened, Dean
came out. He smiled to see me, but his smile faded when he
saw Michael behind me.

"Outside," said Michael, opening the back door that led out
into the alley. Dean looked scared. Michael gave him a shove
out the door. Dean stumbled over the steps and almost
tripped.

"Look, guys," he said in a shaky voice. "I don't know what I
did to piss you off but I'm sorry."

"Our friend here doesn't appreciate being ogled at by
faggots," said Michael, putting his hands on my shoulders. I
was feeling more than a little worried now. "Harrison, tell
him."

"Um . yeah, I don't like to be stared at," I told Dean. He
looked relieved, and as a matter of fact so was I. Now
they'd let him go and forget all about this.

"Okay, I'm really sorry - I promise I won't do it again." He
turned to go. Michael's arm snaked out and grabbed his
shoulder.

"Not so fast! Harrison here is going to teach you a lesson
for staring."

The fear returned to haunt his face. "Come on guys, I said
I'm sorry."

Michael looked at me. "You're not letting this go like that,
are you? Geez, assert your rights man."

"It's okay, I don't really mind ." I let my voice trail off,
realizing what I'd said.

"You don't mind?" Michael wasn't the only one staring at me;
his friends were too. I realized I had to act fast to defuse
this situation before they suspected me of being gay. I
looked at Dean and apologized silently for having to do
this.

"Of course I mind! Keep your eyes to yourself!" I said
angrily, and threw a punch at Dean's face. He reeled
backwards and probably would have fallen if not for
Michael's grip on his shoulder. I saw the hurt look on his
face and felt guilty when I saw that he had a split lip.
Anyway they'd let him go now, so that would be the end of
it. I was horribly wrong.

"You gays need to be taught a lesson," said Michael.
Suddenly, he punched the poor guy in the gut. As he doubled
over, the other guys joined in the melee. Dean was crouched
on the ground, trying to protect his face with his hands.

I didn't know what to do. I wanted to tell them to stop, but
was afraid they'd accuse me of sympathizing with gays. But
the decision was taken out of my hands when they heard the
distant wail of police sirens.

"Come on, let's get out of here!" yelled Michael, dragging
me with him.

"You can't just leave him there like that!" I shouted at
him. He stared at me in disbelief, and just shoved me aside
before running for his car.

I wanted to follow after him, when I heard a choked cry. I
looked back to see Dean's motionless body lying on the
ground. I couldn't just leave him. I hurried to bend over
his body. I winced when I saw the damage they'd done to him
- five guys on one.

He was still conscious, but barely. He looked at me and the
expression on his face was heart-wrenching. I realized he
was choking and tried to raise his head. I stopped when I
felt something wet and sticky. I slowly removed my palms
from under his head and stared at them. They were stained
with his blood.

I didn't realize the police had arrived until I heard the
officer order me to get away from the body.

"And that's what really happened," I concluded my story. I
couldn't face Caleb. I didn't know if he believed me or not.
After all, the jury hadn't.

There was silence. Then Caleb said, "Harry."

                      To be continued .

Please let me know what you think of the story by emailing
me at justinr_88@yahoo.com. I love hearing from you guys and
will try to reply each of your messages personally. Thank
you. Part 6 will follow soon.