The Crew

Gotty looked pleased with himself and put down a can, a can like our coffee cans that we used for our stew.  He had picked it up as we were being brought back.  This was only the first of some wonderful things he got for us.  Gotty had a plan now that we had six cans.  When the door opened, we would crowd around the door all with our cans.  As the cans were filled, in the confusion we’d pass full cans back and Gotty would pass an empty can forward.  Then Gotty would make sure each can was filled completely and so keep it going until we had five cans filled to the top and the sixth can partly filled.  The door closed, and there we were each with a completely filled can and we had part of a sixth can.  Gotty could have claimed the sixth can, but he didn’t; he shared it with us.  For the rest of our stay we had a little over one full can each.  This all added up to more than a cup of the stew.  We were always hungry so it tasted great, and the extra amount seemed a blessing.  But when you considered the sand, we actually only had about one filled can.  We always washed our can and washed the sand away down the sink.

We did several things to pass the time.  I had thought much about the “Count of Monte Cristo” and began to tell the story.  I made up parts that I couldn’t remember but, never mind, I had a captive audience.  They listened, and we enjoyed ourselves.  I had always read a lot, and I told several more stories during the days we were in this jail.  This started some of the others telling stories that they remembered.

We did try to keep clean.  We would strip and wash ourselves with cold water from the sink we had.

But the best thing we did was to adopt a dog that one of us invented.  I don’t know whom to praise for the idea, but it gave us much pleasure.  This dreamed-up dog, we decided, should be big.  We each, I am sure, had a different picture of him.  I thought of him as a Great Dane.  We always let him out when the cell door was opened in the morning, and he came back in when the door opened for our stew.  We didn’t have to share food with him because he had only been dreamed about, but we often talked about him, and as the days went on we opened and closed our cell door only in our imagination.  Because we couldn’t see him, we often had heated discussions as to whether he had been let in or was still out, especially at night we didn’t want him out.  I always have been sorry we didn’t name him because I think of him fondly when all this comes back to me.

©Joseph H. Harrison 1999