105 Days Later

Shawshank has officially left the US and returned to the Great White North. His drive started at about 7AM and took him through New Hampshire and Vermont. He was in full ankle and wrist irons for the first part of the ride. The driver decided he only needed handcuffs for the second part of the ride. “He doesn’t look like he’s going to be an asshole,” the driver said. “And if he is, I’ll be a bigger asshole.”

Our plan was for him to call me at lunch if he was still local. Towards the end of lunch, I messaged his mother and said he was on the road. By that point, I didn’t have anything else. I didn’t know where he would cross. We had no idea how long it could be before he could call. Fortunately, he called shortly after lunch.

“Greetings from Quebec”, he said. It was weird to talk to him without having two minutes of the prison’s phone menu, and not have a call start with Hello! This is a from an inmate at …. He’d crossed a little while earlier. My caller-ID said he was in Bedford. “It looks like I’ll be in a quarantine camp… a hotel. I don’t know much else, and I’ll call you back as soon as I can.”

Eventually, after dinner and a workout, he managed to call me. I knew where he was before he called; I have his cell phone and he receives alerts about all new charges to his credit card. About five minutes before his call, an alert came in about a charge at a Hampton Inn. He called and gave me phone number. I called him back to get the details of the day.

He’s at a Hampton Inn in Montreal for the next two weeks. They take care of everything, from the $200 cab fare to the hotel, the meals, everything. He’ll have three meals and two snacks daily, and one drink that’s not water. Because this is Camp Quarantine, he can’t leave his room except for one hour a day, and only with supervision. Doesn’t sound much different than what he had already.

On the plus side, he’s way more comfortable. “I can walk around barefoot”, he said. “Its that industrial shit, but I have carpet.” He went from a too short and too small bunk bed to the choice of two queen beds. His TV is about the same as what I have here. There’s a small coffee pot. When I talked to him, he’d already taken two showers.

Hot showers.

Showers that didn’t shut off after three minutes. Of course, he took the two showers because he had a headache and was terribly nauseous by the time things were settled. He hadn’t really had anything to eat until he reached the hotel. Similarly, he didn’t want to make his driver stop for bathroom breaks, so he hadn’t had anything to drink all morning. Between the adrenaline drop when he no longer needed to stress over things and hunger and dehydration, he didn’t feel very good, and didn’t eat much at dinner.

It was nice to talk to him for more than 20 minutes. Once he could pass along the hotel phone number, most of the days stress disappeared. He’s on a waiting list to get an iPad. He’ll use that to order himself a phone, which will be one less thing to worry about.

I expect he probably had the best sleep he’s had in the last 105 nights.