The White Lilly

Three weeks passed. Then they did this thing. They stole a black four door Ford sedan at the theater parking lot. It started and ran well enough. One wire was all that was needed to start it. The woman gave the three guys the money without a hitch. The fourth was the driver look out. They got about $1500 in bills and a lot of coins. Driving away was easy. About three miles away they were weaving roads going north. Five police cars and two motorcycle policemen surrounded the car when it was in between two street corners on a quiet side street. About a dozen policemen aimed guns at the Ford, yelled orders to stop and get out. The four boys were caught easy and quick. The masks had worked. Crime scene witnesses could not tell who they were. A telephone call reporting the robbery, a description of the car, and a guess by the police about where they were going had made quick work of their caper. They were all put into jail quick and final. Time passed until it went through court. The stealing of the car, the amount of money taken, grouping together in a conspiracy to commit a crime, and use of a handgun in a robbery got all of them a fast twenty years in prison. Howie had a fractured future with a police record, and much unwanted disrespect from his family and friends. They could not believe he had got mixed up in such a thing. He had some wrong friends that were bad influences, and ruined his life while he was a young man. Prison was harsh. The inmates he had to live with were harder people than he really wanted to be around. Some of them were mean, cruel, and foul human creatures. But he had earned what he had got. He worked on a chain gang repairing roads. This was hot, hard, and dirty work that he disliked. He worked in a prison factory making license plates, and making military uniforms. The government wanted the prison life to be a foul experience that the prisoners were punished by being there. The years went by. Howie got homesick bad. He missed the outside world and missed girlfriends and his family. Prison had him do things that he really did not enjoy much. Punishment was punishment. Life was not really so good any more.