Pastor Rising Part 4
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Pastor Rising: Part 4
After Jason’s visit, Tuck felt oddly at ease. He went about his daily routine with a smile and even a chipper word for his fellow inmates. He was never unkind before, but now he was almost relieved to know of another person who had seen the kinds of things he’d seen. He had often questioned his own sanity and wondered if Cindy’s death had really been his fault. Somehow, after speaking to Jason, he didn’t question himself, but renewed his efforts at research and writing about those terrors that he had seen. Maybe he could help someone by sharing his knowledge, just maybe.
One morning, Tuck casually arrived in the recreation room and, after taking a lap around the room a couple of times, he walked over to a table with a pack of playing cards laying there. He wasn’t much good at holding his cards, but he managed, and he enjoyed a good game of Spades once in a while, or even poker. He looked around, wondering if any of the guys he usually played with were around, and seeing no one available, he dumped the cards out and began a game of Solitaire.
A ways down the hall, he heard shouting and the clanging of metal bars. Someone’s room was getting randomly searched by the guards. It happened occasionally, especially if they had reason to believe you had any contraband. Tuck barely even took notice of these things now, and continued playing cards.
Then suddenly, “Tuck! Yo, Pastor! They comin’ for you, man!” It was Will, he’d just come stumbling into the rec room and was yelling at the top of his lungs.
The pastor’s eyes widened, but he didn’t move. He sat still even as two guards, whom he knew very well, Dominique and Michael, came quickly to his table and stood there, confused looks on their faces.
“Hi guys, what’s going on?” asked Tuck, a sinking feeling in his gut that he already knew the answer.
Dominique held out a small packet, some green stuff wrapped in a napkin. It had obviously been wadded up and smooshed flat, but he knew what it was. And he knew it was not his. The guard said, “We found this in your mattress, Tuck. What’s up with this, man? I thought we were friends. Why you doing something like this? You know what’s gonna happen now, right?”
Tuck was stunned. He’d never used drugs in his life, who would’ve planted that in his bed? And why? As far as he knew, he had no enemies here. He started to reply, “It really isn’t mine, I don’t know how that got-”
But he was interrupted by Michael, “You know that’s what they all say, right? Look, pastor, I don’t really think you did this, but we have to do what we have to do, you know?”
Tuck clenched his teeth. He shoved himself away from the table with his good arm and stood.
“Let’s go,” said Michael, and they began walking towards the other side of the rec room. Tuck knew there would be a humiliating search next, and they’d take his prosthetic arm, and then there’d be solitary confinement for at least a week. He knew there was some awful mistake, but there was really nothing to be done about it. Inwardly, he prayed that the Lord would see him through.
They stepped into the hallway leading from the rec room when a soul-piercing scream was heard just behind them. All three spun. The guards left Tuck standing there and sprinted back the way they’d just come.
Spilling into the rec room, from another hallway, was a gang of six or seven men, led by Cando, one of the most aggressive and angry of all the men incarcerated there. They had approached quietly and then rushed Will, who had sat down to finish the Pastor’s game of solitaire. One of them had a make-shift knife and slipped it between Will’s ribs. The others were beating him and screaming obscenities at him.
Dominique and Michael were there in an instant, along with one other guard who happened to be close by, and the three of them managed to subdue the attackers…with a little help from some pepper spray and batons.
Tuck slid to Will’s side once the attackers were on the ground and held his head. He prayed out loud, “Father God, if it be your will, protect this man, let him heal, oh God, let him be ok! Help the pain lessen and help him cling to you!” and he talked to Will, trying to calm him. He stayed with him until emergency services arrived to take him to the hospital, but Tuck wasn’t sure if he’d make it that far.
He stood, shirt covered in blood, and looked around. Michael and Domonique had successfully neutralized the angry prisoners, and they were all confined in their cells for now. He wasn’t so sure what would happen next, but he was angry. Will was his friend, why had they attacked him?
Michael finished talking to the EMS, and headed to Tuck. He looked over the Pastor’s soiled shirt. “Wow, what a day. Let’s get you cleaned up and back in your room for now. I know Will was your friend. Any idea why those guys did that?”
Tuck shook his head, his gray eyes filled with anger. His face remained stony, though. It would be a while before he heard anything about Will, so he focused on the tasks at hand.
He cleaned himself off and changed his shirt, then sat down hard on his bunk. He held his head in his hands and began to pray, but his thoughts were interrupted by a whisper at his door.
“Someone said Will stole that stuff they found in your room. Stole it from Cando. But Will didn’t do it.” Tuck rushed to the door and peered out, but whoever was speaking was already gone.
