Stained Glass

Derrick entered the unit a little earlier than his normal time. I was on the bottom floor of the pod when he pushed his cart and mopped the first floor. I sat in front of the TV writing and listening to the guard's gossip about the happenings of the jail. An officer by the name of Mack, who was Derrick's escort, began talking about how the jury was still deliberating Derrick's case. "No way he beats that, they got him on tape apologizing to the mama and claiming the girl had come on to him," Officer Gilmore said. "Nah man, that's the thing. The judge threw it out, he said Derrick didn't know he was being recorded so the state couldn't use it," Mack replied.

I glanced up from my writing and could see the fury in Gilmore's eyes as he conceded that Derrick's jury being out so long may actually mean that he was going to get away with it. Derrick was making his way up to the second floor. He had a certain level of joy in his energy. Mopping like he knew it was his last day. "When do they expect the jury to come in?" I heard

Gilmore asks. "Any moment now, if you don't see him here tomorrow you're going to see him on the street or at the barber shop."

They continued to talk as I got up from the solid metal table and chair. Derrick was walking up the steps with his mop bucket. I passed him without a word and went into my cell. I could hear him walking and singing the hook to the song "Buy U a Drank" he was doing the weird thing with his voice trying to make it sound like auto-tune. He passed my cell without even looking in. It didn't take much effort to push him over the railing and re-enter my room before the guards even looked up. His portly body dropped awkwardly and his neck broke after his head hit squarely on one of the first-floor metal picnic tables.

Mack and Gilmore, so busy in their gossip, saw nothing. It was in both of their favor to say that Derrick jumped to his death. It didn't help them because they both were fired in the jail cover-up anyway. I didn't need to come out of my cell for the other boys on the pod to know that the silent kid in cell thirty-seven was actually a silent killer. In the way of the streets, they whispered but never said a word.