This story was written for an alphabet challenge and previously published on another site. The challenge was to start each sentence with a letter of the alphabet, using each one in order, beginning with J. Written by Wodke Hawkinson.

 

Jail wasn’t all it was cracked up to be. Killers and perverts ran amok. Learning to stay out of their way wasn’t easy. Meaty hands reached through the bars attempting to grab new prisoners as they were brought in.

“Never again,” I swore under my breath.

Open containers of beer are frowned on by the police when they pull you over for a burned out taillight. Pretty soon, they think they have the right to search you. Quirky SOBs.

Random luck on their part led them to the body in the trunk. Shocked looks passed between me and my buddy when the lid popped open.

“That’s not mine,” I exclaimed.

“Umm, how did it get here then?”

“Vinnie did this!” I said with certainty, expecting them to believe me.

“What do you mean; who’s Vinnie?”

“Xavier’s cousin, everybody knows that.”

“You’ll both be coming down to the station; we have a lot of questions.”

Zoning out, I missed the whole booking process. All I remember is sharing a cell with Big Earl who insisted on giving me neck massages. Before I knew it, morning had arrived along with my lawyer.

“Crying won’t do any good at this point; just tell me what happened,” Giovanni said, pen poised over a yellow legal pad.

“Dude, me and Bruce were hangin’ at the corner when suddenly Vinnie pulled up, jumped from this car, and told us to deliver it to the docks. Everything happened so fast; Vinne told us to go, and we went. Friggin Vinnie. Got me in trouble again.”

“Hey,” Giovanni said softly, “I can’t get you out of this.”

I resigned myself to spending many quality hours with Big Earl.