Chapter 3: Proverbs 24:7 - The Cell Next Door

Wisdom is too lofty for a fool;  He does not open his mouth to end in the gate.

Life in prison gets lonely when you don't have a woman to talk to and keep you company.  The woman in my life had fallen off already, 9 months into my bid.  Every day, Chris would get a gang of letters.  The correctional officer would take his mail around the cell hall and would have a load of mail.  He would stop at cell 14 and deliver all of the mail stacks to Chris.  He would say, "sorry" as he passed my cell empty-handed.  Honestly, it would piss me off.  Nobody gave a damn about me except my mom, my cousin Bree, and my aunt Jay.  He had a lot of fan girls and his girlfriend, Anna.  He had his sister and his parents.  I didn't have as strong of a support system as I do now.  That partially has to do with where I was in life.  

"I didn't get any mail today, so let me live my life through you again."  I said to Chris.  Chris would read his fan mail to me every day.  Occasionally, there would be hate mail.  It was not until a few weeks into his routine that Chris decided to give me one of his fan girl letters.  It was one night when we were talking that he told me that he had a girl for me to write to.  "No man, I don't want any of your groupies."  I told him.  "Well, this one is probably the one for you," he said.  "If she is a good one, then why are you giving her to me?" I questioned.  He explained because the Lord told me to give her letter to you.  He never wrote to her, and instead of throwing her fan letter in the trash, he decided that perhaps I would give her a shot.  So, I did.  Her name was Chrissy.  She was 42.  She sent a picture and appeared to be short, pretty, and perhaps Italian. In her letter she wrote to Chris, she presents that people deserve forgiveness and how she doesn't judge.  She claimed to have lupus like Chris’s wife did and claimed to be a licensed clinical psychologist.  Chris was not trying to hear any of it and gave me the letter. He said it was from God.  However, later, I would learn that it was truly from Satan.  I wrote her a letter saying that I was writing to her because Chris gets so many letters similar to hers.  However, her letter stuck out and with him and I being close, he entrusted me with it.  I explained who I am and what kind of man I was.  I held no punches.  I was 100% with her.  She loved my letter, or so I thought.  However, she responded to me saying Chris's name seven times and my name only twice.  I responded by letting her know that I  perceived that she was writing to Chris indirectly through me based on the letter she wrote to me.  

Chris and I began making plans for when we got out of prison.  Now we needed to get him out of prison.  We began to discuss the facts of his case.  I knew the law very well from being a convict my entire life, so I was going to try to help him.  "Brother, what the hell happened that day you were being accused of all this?  "I can't remember a lot." He then sighed and added, "It wasn't my hand.”  "Just tell me what you remember,” I said.  He seemed to be racking his brain.  "I was having an affair with this girl and ended up in love with two women at the same time.”  Chris explained.  “So, this had to do with what happened,” I asked.  He informed me it’s what led up to what happened.  

“So, tell me about the mistress.”  I asked.  He confessed she is of evil spirits like Jezebel.  "Let's just call her Jezebel.” I suggested. "That suits her," he agreed.  We laughed a little at this.  He wasn't going to open up more on the actual incident.  So, I tried something that would be a little more comfortable for him.  Plus, he was becoming so cool, and I really didn't want to spoil my opinion of his character just yet.  However, I don't think I would have judged him, because I had been around some inmates convicted of worse crimes, believe it or not.  “What made Jezebel so evil?”  I asked.  He answered, “Proverbs 7:26-27.”  And that was as far as we got the case that night. 

Proverbs 7:26-27

For she has cast down many wounded, and all who were slain by her were strong men .  Her house is the way to hell, descending to the chambers of death. 

After reading the passages he provided me with it that night, I had the idea that he was trying to tell me that this mistress had something to do with his case.  Anytime her name came up he would lose his composure.  He had always kept his composure under control in other situations, just not when her name came up.  I was learning this case in broken pieces.  It was such a mess, and I was just trying to help him.  The next morning, when we were discussing what we were going to do that day, Chris gave me the list of daily rituals.  1. writing in his journal  2. watching a sermon and 3. reading a devotional, etc.  On this particular morning, I told him of a guy I did time with that had his whole day scheduled.  I explained that he would wake up and turn the TV on to Good Morning America, eat, brush his teeth, take a shit, read a chapter is his book in that order and all at the exact same time every day.  He would watch the same shows at the same time, use the phone at the same time, do a word search at the exact damn time day after day. Then the doors popped open for day room and upon leaving my cell, Chris handed me an entry for our book called Proverbial Knowledge. It was called "Playing the Harlot." It was based on proverbs 5:3-5.  For the lips of an immoral woman drip honey, and her mouth is smoother than oil.  But in the end, she is bitter as wormwood, sharp as a two-edged sword.  Her feet go down to hell, and her steps lay hold of hell.  The entry is about Jezebel, wife of King Ahab. She wasn't a believer in God and persuaded her new husband to worship her God.  She also had the profits of the Lord persecuted and massacred. It matched another entry that he gave me that explained how Jezebel made the king kill and how it was his hand, but her that made the decisions. Chris was trying to tell me his story through scripture. It also reminded me of another entry he wrote called Plucking and Cutting.  He describes how Jesus says, "If your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off.  It's better to enter heaven maize than to be cast into the hellhole.”  Jesus meant this figuratively, of course.  I would have some thinking to do.  This man was my friend, and I didn't have a lot of people that I would call my friend.  I was going to at least try to help him. 

A lot of people were lost in prison, especially at Dodge.  The majority of people at Dodge were just coming in off the street, coming through an intake status, not yet knowing their fate or where they would end up.  On our unit, people were pretty lost as well.  One guy named Dustin got out and ended up being killed by the police in a shootout.  One day Dustin said he ended up lost in Chris's cell. It was during day room that Dustin entered Chris's cell and stole some things.  It was after day room  that we found out because Chris noticed his coffee and envelopes missing.  I asked if anyone had gone in his cell, and he mentioned that  Dustin came out of his cell, claiming he had entered the wrong cell by accident. I knew it was no accident.  Since we were locked down for the night, I told him I would handle it in the morning.  Chris knew I would take care of this particular situation, because handling conflict was my job out of the two of us.  However, I don't think he expected me to handle it the way that I did.  The next morning, during the day room, I sat down at the table with Dustin and informed him that stealing from Chris was like stealing from me, and we could go in the cell and handle it.  Fight.  The guy stood up, so I got up.  Then he threw his hands up and jumped backwards thinking I was going to hit him and cause a scene.  In prison, we call this dry snitching. The COs came running and commanded us to lock in our cells.  Long story short, I ended up with 16 days of room confinement.  I could have handled that situation in a number of different ways.  

Being in confinement was what Chris and I call being in the wilderness.  That's when we wrote “God's plan, 40-day devotional.”  I had Chris call my mom for me and passing messages because my phone privileges were restricted as part of the room confinement. We got a lot of writing done.  We spoke a lot more about our lives and our cases.  We made a breakthrough.