Froggy

Deran and Baz were getting the bank tellers to fill up bags with cash. The Cody brothers had been robbing banks for years and they had mastered bank robberies down to a science. It was supposed to be a simple job, in and out within ninety seconds. 

“Is that all the cash?” Baz asked. His voice was muffled slightly by the ski mask covering his face. 

“Y-y-yes,” the shaking bank teller nodded. 

“We got it. Let’s go!” Deran called out to Pope. 

The boys rushed past the counter, heading towards the back doors where Craig was waiting in the getaway car. They only had twenty seconds left before the police would get to the bank and surround the entire building. Deran was first to exit through the back door, followed closely behind by Baz and then Pope. As Baz ran past the teller counter, he tripped on the waste basket. 

“Shit,” Baz groaned as he stumbled into the counter. 

From there, everything happened in slow motion. 

Out of the corner of his eyes, Pope saw the security guard reaching for his gun and pointing it at Baz. 

“Fuck,” Pope cursed under his breath. He looked ahead at Baz who was trying to get to the exit. Pope was sixteen seconds behind Baz, there wouldn’t be enough time for him to get out of the bank without risking both of them getting shot. 

“Baz and Pope, get the fuck out of there!” Craig’s voice crackled in his earpiece. 

It was against Pope’s nature to let someone he loved get hurt and in that moment, there was only one thing he could do. He pulled out his gun and pointed it at the security guard, shooting him in the leg. The guard went down with a thud, clutching his right leg as he cried out in pain. At that same moment, he could hear the thud of the backdoor closing and the roar of the getaway car’s engine as it sped away; Baz had made it out. Then the unmistakable sound of sirens surrounding the bank rang in Pope’s ears, the familiar blue and red lights reflecting onto his face as police charged into the bank with guns drawn. 

“Drop your gun, put your hands on your head, and get on the fucking ground! Now!”

Andrew replayed that day nearly every second of the past few weeks since he arrived at Folsom State Prison. Although he didn’t regret sacrificing himself for Baz, he couldn’t help but feel a little resentment towards his family. It had been just over three weeks and they had only visited him a few times. When they did visit him, conversations were limited, he could feel a distance between him and his family that only grew larger with each visit. They were moving on with their lives while he was suffering alone in prison. 

“Inmates line up against the wall!” Hilty, one of the brutal corrections officers yelled out. “Inside that library are volunteers from the California Prison Library Program. These are unpaid volunteers, so don’t give them any shit. You are expected to behave, shut your fucking mouths, and listen to them. If anyone falls out of line, that's an immediate loss of privileges. And if anyone really wants to fuck with me, you’ll be thrown into solitary. Got it?” 

“Yes, sir,” some of the inmates grumbled. 

“I know most of you can’t even fucking read, let alone care about books but you’ll suffer through it. The volunteers will be coming every Wednesday for the next month before they move on to a different prison. Get in there and sit down at the tables,” another corrections officer said as he handed out pamphlets about the library program. 

Before Andrew could step inside the library, Hilty stopped him. Placing an imposing hand on his shoulder, grip so tight it was intended to leave marks. “I’m keeping my eye on you. If you act up, I’m gonna throw you back into solitary. You remember what happens there, don’t you?” he asked, a sinister smile forming on his scarred face. . 

“Yes, sir,” Andrew nodded in a monotone voice. His eyes stared blankly into the library ahead, unable to meet Hilty’s beady eyes. It was taking every ounce of self control he had not to punch Hilty square in the jaw but Andrew knew better. After beating up a prison guard in his first week at Folsom, the other guards retaliated by throwing Andrew into solitary, stripping him naked and blaring loud music for hours on end. The torture was relentless, seemingly endless attempts to break Andrew’s already broken spirit and Hilty was the ringleader behind the abuse. 

After Hilty let go of him, Andrew stuffed the library pamphlet into his breast pocket- the only pocket his orange jumpsuit had before he walked into the library and stood beside his cellmate, Vin. While Andrew wasn’t particularly fond of Vin- he talked too much and was too intrusive, Vin had been his only cellmate that lasted longer than a week. All of his previous cellmates had wound up in the infirmary after starting fights with Andrew. 

The prison warden was standing at the front of the library, calling up each volunteer before letting them introduce themselves. While Vin was whispering about how useless the library program was, Andrew found himself getting distracted by thoughts of his family. He wondered what jobs Smurf was planning, if Deran and Craig were out doing stupid shit, and whether Baz was taking care of Lena. The thought of Lena instantly sent a rush of melancholy through Andrew’s body, his perfect little niece who he was just starting to get to know before he was arrested. Lena was only three years old, just a baby in Andrew’s eyes and he hoped she wouldn’t forget him. 

Just as Andrew’s thoughts started drifting off to a darker place, as they often did when his mind went off on tangents, he heard your voice. The second you spoke, everything went quiet, which was more than rare for him. It was a miracle, divine intervention and you were that divinity. Your voice, so soft and sweet, was like that of a siren, your call luring him in. 

“Hi, everyone. It’s a pleasure to meet all of you,” you took a step forward and introduced yourself to the inmates. You moved your hands around as you spoke about what you studied in university and how excited you were to be at Folsom. 

For the first time since Andrew arrived at Folsom a few months ago, he was happy to be there, because in the depraved cruelty and coldness of the prison, there you were, standing with his fellow inmates, an angel amongst demons. You were far too beautiful to be in such an ugly place but he was eternally grateful that you were here. He was sure that you were the most beautiful woman he had ever seen. 

“Reading has always been an outlet I use to escape-” you paused as you nervously glanced at the warden who met your gaze with a stern look and a subtle shake of his head at your word choice, “Sorry, that’s probably not the right word…but it’s just a great way to get away from your thoughts or whatever’s going on in your life. When I was younger, whenever things weren’t great at home, which to be honest was often, I would stay up all night with a blanket over my head and a flashlight in my mouth as I read books. For me, reading was an immersive experience that allowed me to take a break from all the thoughts in my mind and follow characters through their journeys of self discovery. I look forward to helping you guys do the same.” 

“Let’s give a round of applause to our volunteers,” the warden ordered. 

There was a scattered round of applause coming from the inmates but Andrew’s clapping, while fairly quiet so as not to draw attention to himself, was genuine. He admired the way you spoke about reading, you sounded so passionate and inspired. Your mention of reading at night to escape when things weren’t good at home resonated with him. He was all too familiar with trouble at home, Smurf was always pitting his siblings against each other, always vying to be in control of every situation. You didn’t have to share that part of your life, all the other volunteers had very surface level reasons for why they were volunteering- required community service hours, bullshit about helping the less fortunate, or a pretentious ramble on the pedagogical value of reading. But not you, you were real, honest, and vulnerable to people you didn’t even know, and not just people, convicts, men who had committed crimes the court deemed bad enough to be thrown into a six by eight feet cell. 

“You’ll be split into reading groups and assigned a volunteer to help you find something to read. Fifty inmates per group, each group will have three volunteers and six corrections officers,” the warden continued. 

Andrew held his breath while the groups were called out, hoping that he would be assigned to you. 

“Cody, group six.” 

“Group six over here by the window!” you called out. 

“I’m group eighteen. Tell me if someone gives you shit,” Vin said, patting Andrew on the back before heading over to join his volunteer. 

Before walking over to you, Andrew took a deep breath to compose himself. By the time he joined the group, you had already started speaking to some inmates, some of whom were shamelessly flirting with you. Although he had absolutely no reason to be, he felt a sudden pang of jealousy. He didn’t like the way the other guys were looking at you with hungry eyes like they wanted to eat you. 

“So, do you have a boyfriend?” 

“What’s a pretty thing like you doing here?”

“Ever been with a gangster?” 

You answered each flirtatious question with a pleasant smile, totally unfrazzled by the attention you were receiving. “No. I already answered that. And no. Now, let’s get started. I’m gonna get each of you to fill out a reading comprehension booklet. It has some standard reading comprehension questions- multiple choice along with some true and false that will help me gauge your literacy levels. Once you’ve finished those questions, make sure to fill out the ones about the genres or topics you’re interested in so I can help you find the right books.” 

The inmates each took a booklet and began answering the questions. Andrew’s eyebrows furrowed with concentration as he gripped the dull pencil tightly in his hand, trying his absolute best to answer the questions correctly. For some unknown reason, he wanted to impress you. As he answered the questions, his eyes kept gravitating towards you, as if there was a magnetic pull, willing his body towards you. 

With the other volunteers, it was clear that most of them were there for some ulterior motive. College students who were just there because it looked good on their resume and some older volunteers who probably just wanted to brag about volunteering; they didn’t really care about helping inmates read. But not you. You were there out of the kindness of your heart, although you seemed a little scared at first, you poured all your energy into helping people. You stood right beside each inmate, closer than anyone else would’ve stood, and helped them pick out books according to their literacy levels. You didn’t flinch or subtly move away from inmates if they got closer to you, instead, you leaned in, treated them like real people. 

Once he finished answering the questions, he stood up and walked towards the table you were sitting at with the other volunteers. He wanted to hand his booklet to one of the other volunteers. There was something about you, your overall presence that made him feel uneasy. It wasn’t because you were intimidating or seemed untrustworthy, it was the opposite. You had a warm, welcoming, and trustworthy presence. He wanted to be close to you, protect you, and let you disarm him. 

But you were the first one that looked up as he approached the table. 

His heart was pounding so hard that he thought it would explode. He wasn’t someone who was easily rattled, he could crush someone’s carotid artery without breaking a sweat but with you, his hands were fidgeting by his sides and for someone whose stare was so intense that people were constantly avoiding his eyes, he struggled to meet your eyes. It felt sacrilegious for him to even look at you, someone as pure, sacred, and beautiful as you. Your eyes were full of love and kindness, he felt guilty whenever your perfect eyes met his dark, troubled eyes, the eyes that some people had looked into before dying. 

A kind smile formed on your face that had Andrew’s heart pounding even harder and his pupils dilating. “Thank you,” you said, your voice soft and sweet like honey as you took the booklet from him. 

You didn’t even know it but in that moment, Andrew pledged his devotion to you All it took was a smile and you become the centre of his universe. The light that radiated off of you reflected onto him, overpowering the darkness that had seemed to plague him his entire life before meeting you. 

“Inmates, take a seat at the desk and the volunteers will come by with books for each of you,” a corrections guard ordered. 

Andrew sat down at the desk and eagerly waited to see what books he would get. Unlike his sister Julia, he had never liked school. The teachers didn’t care, the subjects were useless, and the homework was too hard. Smurf never cared about his grades, she focused on the things she deemed more important like how to steal, lie, and cheat. But you made him excited about learning and reading because in his eyes, it was a way to get closer to you and understand you. 

One of the other volunteers handed him a reading sheet and three books. His heart skipped a beat when he noticed your name beside his assigned list of books. These were the books you had chosen specifically for him and he would treasure the books. 

As the first session of the library program was wrapping up, Andrew overheard two of the inmates talking. The second he heard your name in their conversation, he stood up straighter, his body rigid and alert. 

“Did you see the way that pretty one kept looking at me? She wants me, I could see it in her smile.”

“Wasn’t she smiling at everyone?”

“Nah, she gave me a look. Fuck, it’s been so long since I’ve seen fine shit like that walk through here. I can’t let her go without giving her some special lovin.”

Andrew’s jaw muscle twitched and his fists clenched at hearing those words. Solitary be damned, there was no way he would ever let anything happen to you. Within seconds, Andrew’s fist was pummeling into the inmate's face. The inmate was knocked to the ground, his head hitting the ground with a thud but Andrew didn’t stop. With his biceps flexing against the fabric of his orange jumpsuit, he grabbed the inmate’s hand, pressing it against the wooden leg of the table and kicked it as hard as he could. The sound of bone cracking echoed in his ears as the inmate cried out in pain, trying to clutch his limp wrist. 

“Cody, on the ground now!” the warden yelled as three guards restrained him. 

“I’m taking you straight to solitary,” Hilty sneered as he cuffed Andrew and led him towards the dreaded room. 

Even while Andrew sat in solitary, naked and strapped to a metal chair with heavy metal music blaring from the speakers, he was unbothered. As cold as the room was and as much as his body ached from the beating he had gotten from Hilty, he was at peace because now he had you. The thought of you pulled him out of the darkness, you had become his escape. 

Later that night when Hilty finally let him out of solitary, Andrew lay on his cot and pulled out the pamphlet of the library program from earlier. He flipped through the pages until he found what he was looking for. It was a picture of you, judging from the slightly shorter length of your hair, it was taken a few months ago. You were sitting in the library beside an inmate at another prison pointing at a section of books. Andrew held the picture close to his face and stared at the picture of you until the sun came up.

For the next month, Andrew watched you from afar, diligently taking note of all the books you talked about and mentally cataloguing every detail of you. He wanted to remember it all so that when the time came for his release, he would find you. Each night, he went to sleep with the photo of you from the pamphlet. He had torn out your picture as neatly as he could and stared at it all night. Sometimes he would play out conversations with you in his head, pretending that you were really there with him. He held the photo to his chest, wanting you to be as close as possible with the distant yet sure hope that someday, he would get to actually hold you in his arms. 

As the library program at Folsom was coming to a close, Andrew felt a sense of impending doom. You had been such a light in the darkness that consumed him, temporarily soothing his chaotic mind. He had grown attached to you and Wednesdays had become his favourite day of the week, solely because those were the days he got to see you. Each library session, he silently watched your every move and memorized every observable trait. He knew that the remaining five years and 10 months of his prison sentence would pass agonizingly slow so he wanted his memory of you to stay sharp. The thought of you would carry him through the rest of his sentence. 

On the final day of the prison library program, the urge he had to approach you and be close to you was stronger than ever but he held himself back. He didn’t want your first time meeting him to be in prison, that just wouldn’t be right. You deserved a real love story and that was exactly what Andrew would give you. 

Chapter 2: Obsession (coming soon)

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