PRISON ESCAPE

By Mike Warner Born 1938, M, from Canon, GA, United States Author Profile

PRISON

ESCAPE

By Michael D. Warner Copyright 2013 by Michael D. Warner all rights reserved. As mentioned in an earlier story, inmates do all the work at a federal prison, including plumbing, carpentering, cooking, cleaning, painting, brick/block laying, clerical and more. Okay, prisoner Mel Carp (not his real name :) was a pretty good typist. (This is one decade before dawning of the computer age.) Mels daily prison job was in the main prison office. One of his duties was sending and receiving messages and taking care of the teletype machine. Back then, all of law enforcement was connected by nationwide teletype. For those of you unfamiliar with that machine, it's basically a typewriter connected to a telephone line. One can type directly on it and a message goes out character by character to whatever destination is selected. This is called the "on-line" mode. Nowadays, we would consider the transmission speed extremely slow, like about 10 characters per second max which would be about 100 baud (bits per second). This is about 125 words per minute, 5-letter words. A really fast teletypist can crank out only about 48 words per minute and that would be considered a streak. For some reason (cost, I would imagine) all teletype paper is yellow and a bit coarse in texture. Now, because using the "on-line" mode ties up a phone line for as long as it may take to type out a wordy message, most operators use the speedier method of first typing in the "off-line" mode, which only cuts a "tape" of the message. Teletype tape is baudot coded which is a grouping of holes (up to five per character) in a series length of paper tape, about 5/8 inch wide and stored on a roller/spool on the side of the machine. So, one goes clickety-click on the keyboard and "cuts" a tape of the characters. Upon completion, the operator checks his tape (yes, I can still read baudot) for errors then places it into the card "reader", pushes a "send" button, and waits for the system to come around to call his machines "turn" whereupon the reader pulls the tape through a slot in which small electrical signals are switched on and off by the holes in the tape, thus sending a five-bit character, one at a time. When typing in the "off-line" mode, you also can have the machine produce a paper copy just like when one is typing upon a regular typewriter. Incidentally, this is where the term "wire services" originated, because all news media was hooked to UP/UPI or AP/API or whatever, like the BBC / etc via teletype (the wire). Whenever a federal prisoner is released from prison, the orders come in to the prison office via teletype from that judge's federal marshal's office. (By the way, federal marshals work for federal courts. That is basically their reason for existence.) A federal judge may vacate the sentence, or maybe reduce the sentence to time-served, or perhaps an appeal is successful and an appellate court orders the lower court to vacate/etc. Anyway, the judge notifies his marshal and the marshals office takes it from there. So, the good news for the inmate enters the prison as the sound of a clacking teletype machine.

All official messaging takes place throughout the bureaucracy using these machines and it is unusual for one to remain silent during a work day for very many minutes. The end of the message is usually signalled by a bell, sent by the originator as the last character along with several line-feeds and a carriage-return so the message rolls up from the platen and the bell is struck by a little hammer, calling attention. (You can press "ctrl-g" on your p.c. keyboard except now it only makes a little beep.) Mel had worked in the prison office for a couple years and was pretty much a fixture there, typing all sorts of material for all sorts of official reasons. He had become a reliable asset to the office and everyone knew him. One day, he came out from the small adjoining teletype room holding a message and wearing a big smile on his face. He was carrying his just-received release papers. His judge had reduced his sentence to "time served" or the equivalent and the teletype indicated it was received from that marshal's office. Mel was warmly congratulated, given some civilian clothes, a few dollars and a bus ticket to L.A. where he would continue home via his own transportation methods as a free citizen. Mel was escorted to the main entrance, given a ride in a gov't vehicle to town to the local bus station. And, that was the last anyone ever heard from Mel. That evening, after transmitting the "count" to Bureau of Prisons (B.O.P.) hq in D.C. the prison was notified that their "count" was one inmate short. The warden ordered a recount. (By the way, prisoners are counted six times per each twenty-four hours at each facility.) This is how they determine when there has been an escape. If one thinks about it, it's the only way to do it. How else would you know someone's gone?) The marshal's office also sends a copy of the release to the B.O.P. in D.C. when they send it to the holding facility and of course, the D.C. office never received said message. Anyway, Mel's escape must have been the easiest ever performed by a prisoner, including having the officials provide his ride through the escape-proof heavily guarded gate, and giving him some assets upon which to get started in his new life. ---- THE END ----

13 Hours Of Lies
By Arsal Shoaib Born 1995, M, from Lahore, Pakistan Author Profile

It never feels right once you are travelling alone all by yourself. Although it does show you some signs of freedom and confidence building, but then again what can you possibly do over a 13 hour long road trip that very well promises a great deal of fatigue at the end of it. This was all going through my mind once I stared at the wrong sights. Waiting in the lounge of the bus terminal, my wits were in a state of desperation and my eyes counting the clock ticks as I tried to roll them back to have a glance at my backpack, but they got caught mid way, completely off guarded when I noticed a girl standing close to me waiting for me to have eye contact. For an instant I freaked out a bit and unknowingly winked my way a couple of times followed by my usual gesture of lifting up an eyebrow every time I find myself in an unwanted situation. Her finger pointing towards my bag brought me back on Earth and showed me that there certainly wasnt any Hollywood shooting going on so keep your calm. All what she wanted from me was to slide my bag away someplace other than the whole seat it was occupying so that she could find a place to sit and wait for her ride to arrive at the station. It did take a while but finally the clock struck 10 of night and I rose up, embarking myself onto one of the longest trips I'd ever got myself into. Pulling over my head to check for the number 21, I found my seat with no clear intentions of what to do next. I was one of the first ones who entered the bus so I had plenty of time to arrange my personal belongings close to me. With that done, I peeked out of the bus window and found only the sudden dark with misty winds and bitter cold awaiting me. So wrapping up a muffler around my neck I was all set to start the endless journey once and for all. Having found myself so much full of spirits, only one thing turned out somewhat not according to the plan set out by me. Seat number 22 belonged to Sofia. Yeah right, this was the name of the girl who had previously seen sitting beside me in the lounge just a few minutes ago. Although it was completely a coincidence that a girl got a seat next to me, my mind still raced against the possibilities of how, out of the entire forty people traveling alongside me, it came down to this same girl Sofia who found a seat beside me. It was unquestionably beyond me this time! Anyway, I didn't freak out too much this time, even though this was the time I should have been the one freaking out while going through such a phase. Girls were never my interest from the beginning. No matter theres a good one or a bad one, a gentle one or a wicked one, a decent one or a naughty one, I would always opt not to think about any of them for long and would still come out of all these situations without much confusion and would still be the mamas boy I am rather than what we simply refer to as Johnny Bravo. With that being said, I lashed over to my left and glancing out of the misty window pane, the lights shredder past us as the bus roared across marking the start of a 13 hour long journey. After almost an hour had passed by and everyone in the bus, in my opinion, had long been settled into their seats comfortably, I now thought to take my eyes off the

highway which was already blinding me with an unfamiliar contrast of bright lights covered with dark background, and at once moved my eyes to the person sitting alongside me. What I saw completely fascinated me for a while. The girl sitting beside me was playing Angry Birds on her iPhone while every other person seemed to have slept a long time ago. I kept watching her play with her delicate fingers sliding over the brightly lit touch screen, but it was not long once I too, like every other person, started to feel a bit drowsy. I stretched up my legs a bit and yawning hard, tried to turn towards the window, when a sudden voice stopped me from doing so. I turned around and to my surprise it was Sofia and she was pointing her hand towards her phone asking me to clear for her what was indeed a fairly difficult stage of Angry Birds. To this day I still agree that I am not an expert of that game but I remember that in those days at home, my dads iPad used to stay in my hands all day long and the only thing I lived for in those days was pretty much Angry Birds. Accepting this as a challenge I made her cross the difficult bit with quite an ease and then tried to return the cell phone back to her, but she insisted me to carry on and told me that she would be measuring up my skills while sitting right there alongside me. I kept on leaping one stage after another, and quite nervously I must say, when suddenly something completely out of my wildest imaginations brought me into a state of sheer panic. It had been almost half an hour since I was playing Angry Birds on Sofias iPhone when unexpectedly her head dropped over my shoulder and I turned around not realizing that she had fallen asleep. Just as I moved out of the way, Sofias eyes awakened from the shallow sleep she was in and she instantly started apologizing for the scene that had taken place. I on the other hand tried to calm her down myself and I too was apologizing hard and claiming it to be entirely my mistake that I rolled out of the way. It was just then that I saw tears building up inside Sofias eyes and fortunately my quick reflexes allowed me to come up with a few quick moves getting hold of some tissues, but in the end still found Sofias not so long lasting weep inevitable. Even after this much of a big deal, not many eyelids rose up to the occasion and even those who did manage to wake up for a few seconds never seemed to know what had happened previously. Gladly, it took just a few more minutes and everything was under control with Sofia getting her phone back. meanwhile I on the other hand getting hold of my breaths again. Carrying on with the travel, an exchange of a few smiles passed between the two of us during the next hour or so, but since I wasnt a girlfriend prospective sort of person from the beginning these things merely meant a word to me as I had already put on my headphones at the end of that hour which was full of smirks from both sides. Just a few melodies later, hunger started to invade my stomach. It had been close to four hours into the journey and with the clock almost striking 2o clock at that time, I was honestly very much disappointed with myself, regretting that I didnt have satisfactory dinner in the night even when I had a vague idea that such a time could come. Anyhow, to my fortunate luck this starvation started making me more and more lazy as I found myself sinking into the seat and pretty close to a nights sleep as well. I woke up two hours later and by looking out from the window, I could easily make out that the bus was not moving. I looked here and there just to clear up my doubts and in doing so I saw a small little mart close to the highways vicinity.

Well the night was dark and the cold intense but the glow of the mart was nothing short of heaven for me at that time so I simply hopped off the bus and raced towards it hoping that I would be able to get back onboard before it was too late. The ten minute delay in starting up the engine due to the cold weather was all I needed to fill my tummy and so we were back on track with the beast of hunger no longer hovering over me. The fear of starvation was well and truly subsided, but now I faced another problem which too in all its aspects was quite a big one as well. Since I was in a rush to make my way out of the bus previously I had placed my iPod along with the headphones right over my seat, but now once I returned they seemed nowhere to be found. I could have doubted some passenger travelling along to be the thief but obviously not many people were awake at that time of the night. Even Sofia, who was sitting right next to me, was in such a deep sleep that she hadnt bothered to move even an inch from the position I had left her once I moved out of the bus. There wasnt much I could do about the loss except for a few desperate search efforts underneath my seat and on the floor, which I did manage to do, but ended up with not much hope on my side. Losing such a dear and prized possession never felt right and with a person like me on the end of it, well it even took away my sleep for the night! I stayed awake while every other person on board kept filling up their dreams with a sense of serene satisfaction. At Sunrise Sofia woke up a bit earlier than the rest of the people and the first thing she did was ask a whirling question that came right onto me. Hey dude, did you stay awake the entire night? Yes, but how do you know that? I replied in affirmation. She laughed in reply a nd commented on my swollen eyes that told the complete dismal story! There wasnt much I could do after hearing that from her so I simply laughed along and calmed myself down abit. The next hour passed with simple, straight and meaningful questions from both ends. It was pretty much obvious that both of us were heading for the same direction with every little interaction, even though my nature never wanted much but still demanded a few basic questions, which we eventually had to go through. After the brief session, I slammed my head back on my seat while Sofia delicately took hold of her phone and took out her own headphones from her pocket. For an instant my eyes stuck to them as if they belonged to me but I later dragged myself over and shut my eyes trying to find some sort of sleep of any kind. A minute later Sofia again chucked me on the shoulder! By then I could make out that this was more like her habitual act. I turned around and this time she was offering me one of her headphones to eradicate my sadness. At first I did try to reject the offer and move on with my sleep and in turn let her have the full fun but some of her words struck deep enough to influence me in changing my thoughts about the decision. Well for me, Sharing is Caring, and for your notice, yeah I do intentionally try to care for people around me, let alone that you are alongside me from the past ten hours or so and in such a long time I have indeed found you as a really interesting personality and watching you I think that at least theres somebody in this bus with whom this crazy nature of mind can coexist and interact with! Sharing a headphone is the least I can do for you, and in this case, yeah, dont ask me for the most." Roars of laughter as I smiled in reply, taking one side of the headphone and placing it over my ear nervously! They say music is a universal language, in knowing about someones thoughts, ideas and desires, so keeping this in mind the least I could make

up was that Sofia was a belieber for sure. Before every Justin Bieber song she used to push my shoulder and tell me, thats a good one. Pay your full attention towards it! At this time we were already lodged onto the final leg of our journey with just three distant hours separating us and the destination simply known as homeland. So with the constant stream of minutes running down my mind, I postponed my will of sleep yet again for sometime, possibly this time till I reach all the way back home. I easily caught up with Sofias hand swinging here and there whe n history repeated itself and I had my shoulder in contact with her face once again. This time I was glad to find out in time that Sofia had slept on my shoulder and I dont have to act ruthlessly like the way I did the previous time. Actually this time it all seemed different. I still say that I am not that kind of a person, but even I couldnt resist moving Sofias hair away from entering her ears as she placed her head carefully in my lap without breaking up her sleep. Time kind of stopped and that feeling I still remember was something unlike any other thing I have ever experienced. This wasnt the kind of stuff I was familiar with so, for someone like me, it was both unusual yet highly comforting at the very same time. Furthermore I could notice some rays of sunlight falling straight into Sofias eyes due to which she was constantly trying to scrape something off her face, so there I again had to make her get rid of the discomfort and displeasure by moving the curtain in the way of light entering the bus from the window. With that done I was myself indulged into the pleasure of sleep as was seen inclined towards my right and placing my hands over Sofias shoulders, my need for sleep finally gave way and I too like many other people finally slept right over the girls shoulder. The next thing I remember in clear senses were the happenings after the sudden jerk of the stopping bus which made both me and Sofia wake up in quite a distress. We looked here and there and clearly the activities showed signs of our journey ending. You might think that reaching the desired destination it would have been pretty easy for me to explain my feelings at that time, but fearing that my company with Sofia was not long lasting anymore, this realization was quite a dreadful one itself. These were the reasons that forced someone as opposed as I was to this thing, to grab Sofias hand while she was leaving the bus and request for her phone number. Whenever I still turn back and look at my life I never thought previously that someone like me would have ever performed such an act. It just wasnt possible! Anyway, in reply, there were three things that marked our friendship hadnt dried out that soon. Firstly, as always listening to what I had to say, Sofia gave me her usual cuddling smile, and with that she brought her hand out from the pocket and her closed fist opening in front of me possessed my lost iPod. Before I could utter a word, she was herself apologizing hard and in a laughing cry she said, I was waiting for when you would ask for my number so that I could give you back this possession of yours. I strongly believe in the quotation of 'Better late than Never' so here you go. Sharing is Caring, hope you remember that lecture of mine! With that the third and the last thing that happened between the two of us was that she gave me her phone number to add to my directory and it was as long as when I almost reached home once I unlocked my iPod and on its screen was a note saying, Best Trip Of My Life! Everything that happened between you and me was intentional on my part. You might think that I had slept that much but to be honest, most of the times I was just challenging my acting skills. Glad to have found out that they arent that lousy. Anyway its because of you that I enjoyed that much so loads of thanks. I definitely

found

friend

am

not

going

to

lose

anytime

soon!

Reading to that I had already entered my home and with just greetings that went on between me and my mom, I went straight into my room and lying down, I buried my face into the pillow remembering all that had happened throughout the journey. Remembering it all I can safely say that It simply was one hell of a rollercoaster ride for me at least! I have lied to myself all my life that I will never be that sort of a person wholl ever be attracted towards a girl, but in the last thirteen hours, like all others, I too have found out that one individual who means so much more to me apart from being just a friend!