The two occasions that made Boorbunk different from every other prison were The Death Toast and The Redemption. And with thirteen of such ceremonies witnessed, The Redemption was the most likely for Dale and his friends to get adapted to, the fuss and hope was gone since it was only one person that was going to finally get lucky, after all.
They all stood in line for the sixteenth edition of The Redemption. Dale was standing beside two huge men with so much hair on their faces, head and all over the other parts of their body that their tight prison uniforms could not cover; each prisoner was given the same medium-sized uniform, good for slim prisoners and unlucky for larger-sized inmates. With all the hair on their bodies, Dale predicted that they had been in Boorbunk for ages. Their most useful years wasted here and probably, just in the next Death Toast edition of their wards, their lives might be qualified with that word too.
Each man had taken their place and then, Officer Eel climbed the podium. ‘Silence, every one of you’, he said but there was still a little roaming. Impatiently, he pulled out his pistol from his belt and shot thrice into the ceiling. Now, that was something. The sudden silence was impressive.
‘We don’t have much time today. We are just going to do what we came here to do. And these next few minutes will be to just raise hopes and then get disappointed and turn your face to the most fortunate person among you. And then shake your empty unfortunate heads in regret’, Eel said and the rest of the officers gave the usual fiendish looks and grins and laughs that they were used to.
Only that today, Dale had his eyes fixed on the lopsided Redemption cross and while it wasn’t a human skull that he had to stare at in The Death Toast room, the slight slantness at that exact degree was, as he discovered now, obscurely eerily. What held it there? What did the cross mean? Two questions he was sure no one would answer.
Just like Eel usually did, he sent one of the men to get a plank and then to bring it down.
And then this was the time when the room got the most silent and tensed. Yes, they were hopeless and yes, each of those men in orange uniforms knew that the probability of their names being called out was very low but unconsciously, that golden possibility will flash their minds. What if I was the one?
That little moment of putting hands together, whispering prayers, a sweat drop with total attentiveness and anticipation to whom Officer Eel was going to proclaim.
And today, there was a different feeling to it, a feeling of frustration and distressed wait because for one reason or the other, Officer Eel was wasting time to proclaim who was getting freed. He had first whispered into the ears of one of the men and then looked at the plank again and then looked at the prisoners again. Repeat. It was like he had a problem with letting the person’s name scribbled on the plank leave. But who could that be? Who had done so much bad things that they had encircled him out and didn’t believe he deserved at the least to leave the prison? It could have been only one person.
‘Dale Eagan!’, he said, disgruntled.
Dale remained on that spot with his mouth wide open and misty-eyed. He had never felt anything so unawares like that before. Ever since he started being a new more dynamic person in the prison, he never looked to the side of The Redemption and it was now it had picked him. It was overwhelming, so overwhelming that he fell on his knees and blubbered into tears. He could feel the touch of Tristan’s palm on him.
‘Hey, get up, get up’, he said and Tristan drew him up. The room was partially empty with almost everyone deserted, only the members of the fifteenth ward were left, all looking comforting and joyful for him. They were all gathered around him now.
‘It’s okay, Dale’, they all said as he moved from one of them to the next, hugging them and crying over their arms.
‘I will miss everything about you, your magic and most of all, everything that your actions taught us’, Humphrey said as he hugged Dale. He had teary eyes too.
Dale wished he could reply but his words broke into more blubbering. And then he reached Barry and fell into his arms with more tears flooding out of his face. He was going to severely miss Barry and Tristan and Peter and Humphrey and Ray and Felix and Jonathan and the Beverly brothers and…he was going to miss everyone because, under such heavy predicaments, they had come together to form deep friendships. It was under similar circumstance that The Humour Sect had become a thing. He cried over Barry’s back for many minutes before he pulled off.
‘I will be back’, Dale managed to say to Barry but Barry didn’t reply either because he didn’t hear him or more possibly because he didn’t believe in such over-the-top incredulous vows.
He went on to Tristan. ‘You are still my brother, no matter what. We started together and if we ever get to see again, we will continue to be that but for now, I think God has a bigger plan for you. You go out there and keep being a blessing to the world like The Humour Sect was, like Michael had wanted all of us to be’, he said to Dale. And then the last man was Peter.
‘Hey. As I said you were never meant to be here. You are young and you are still active and I have learnt many things from you. You and the rest of your friends whom you arrived here with have given us something special, something to hold on to, you brought us closer and we are going to especially miss you, Dale for those ultra-courageous things that you did. Go now, Dale. This fifteenth ward loves you, we all do’, he said just before he hugged Peter but he couldn’t stay any longer before the guards who would lead him out of Boorbunk followed him.
‘Goodbye, Dale’, they all said for one final time with shaky voices. It was hard to say goodbye.
Dale looked back one last time and waved back. Everything he was saying seemed to be playing in slow motion. The guards led him back to the fifteenth ward to get whatever he needed to get. And that would only make him cry more. It was the last time he was going to stay in the eighty-second room or in any prison cells at all. He looked around the room and the only thing that was tagged important was the letter that The Voyant had given him. He was going to survive without any other thing.
‘You’ve got to change into your black uniforms to leave!’, one of the guards howled.
Dale grabbed the black uniforms and went off into the bathroom, pulling off the orange prison uniforms and putting on the black uniform. He peered down at the prison uniforms he just removed. It was the last time he was going to ever get to wear those things again. He put on the black clothes before he walked out and looked at the room again; his steel bed that was folded into the wall, he went to his sink and drank enough water from the tap and even though it tasted a lot more insipid that real water, he knew that he was surely just going to be dumped on one of the streets of USA and not have any food or water to feed himself with. He was determined to go out of the prison and survive, get back to life as soon as possible. After filling his stomach with the water, he looked at the shelves and he found the one important thing that he might just have forgotten. He picked the pendant that Pierson always wore that contained all the images of the members of The Humour Sect, it was hiding underneath his black uniforms.
‘Are you going to leave or you let them pick someone else who is ready?’, the guard howled again. With mixed feelings, he shoved the pendant into his left pocket, took one last look round the room and then moved out of the prison.
Looking out at the outside world, it seemed to Dale that he had been in Boorbunk for his whole lifetime when it was barely a year. Everything looked so different than he had ever seen it before or maybe because he just wasn’t used to it. They were facing the sea now just outside the large edifice. His hands were bound in handcuffs for no cogent reason as he walked in midst of about six officers to a large boat waiting for them at the edge of the water.
‘Get in’, the officer said.
The journey was fast and unlike the slow motion, everything had waved in the face of Dale very quickly as if he was hallucinated. He was moved from the ship to the Platini Truck waiting for them at the other side of the sea and then they drove and drove. It appeared they were in the USA because he could see a signboard: Welcome to Santa Fe.
‘Get down’, the officer ordered and with handcuffs removed from his hands, he dropped his legs on the street and the car zoomed off.
Dale looked around him and every feeling seemed to be missing in his mind now, the only left was that voice in his head shouting Freedom! Freedom!! I am free! And the smile on his face agreed with it.