Thirteen
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Nickel & Dime
Renwick Stone remained the sole
occupant of his cell for many months. He continued attending Cyrene’s meetings
and excelling in his abilities at work. Wrestling with his life behind the
razor wire, Renie continued to search for answers inside his Bible. He
developed a skill for answering the questions of individuals who followed other
religions or were members of pseudo-Christian cults. Though Renie felt
spiritually stronger he remained uneasy, but he did not know why.
One Saturday afternoon, long
after her gunshot wound recovery, Edith Stone came to visit her son along with
her daughter, Jasmine. Jasmine had grown into a beautiful teenage
woman. The prison visiting room was considered a safe haven for inmates
and their families. All inmates respected this unwritten rule and treated any
disrespect toward any other inmate, friend or foe, with great contempt. It was
as a relaxing place as one could expect to find inside of a prison’s walls.
“How’s my boy?” Edith’s tearful,
but joyful voice, pierced her son’s heart.
“As good as can be expected,” he
replied.
Jasmine informed her brother
that she was now officially an honor student and planned to go to college in a
few years if she could get a scholarship or a student loan.
“I got some money, sis. I can
help some too. I’ll see about transferring it when you get ready to start
college,” promised the inmate brother.
Jasmine declined, “This is
something I must do on my own, Ren. Don’t be hurt, but you should keep your
money.”
“Ok, sis,” Renie responded, not
wanting to press the issue. “But, if you ever get into a jam remember to tell
me. We’re family and there ain’t nothin’ more important than that.”
“I will, Ren. I will.”
“Brother Jamison passed away a
spell ago, goin’ on to be with the Lord,” Mrs. Stone informed her son.
“Ninety-seven and goin’ on forty-seven.”
“So sorry to hear that, I sort
of remember him.” Renie thought for a moment, “The man that took the Sunday
church offering?”
“One and the same, son. He took
that offering with joy for almost sixty years. Some jobs our Lord has us do are
grand and glorious and other jobs are small lookin’ to the outside observer,
but Jesus knows the hearts, hallelujah.”
The trio spent almost an hour
together before the time arrived for the visitor bus’s departure back to town.
They hugged and kissed and even prayed a short prayer together.
“Write me, please Renie,” Edith
begged.
“I will, mama, I will.”
“And remember to guard your
heart, Proverbs 4:23.”
Renie returned to his cell and
his prison life.
One day Renwick’s cell door
opened. In walked his new celly, Stanley Theodore Jason III, doing a nickel for
a robbery concurrent with a dime for a rape. A loud and colorful youth, Stanley
did not enjoy a silent cell. His continual talking irritated Renie to no end,
but Inmate Stone kept his cool.
What about...? was Inmate
Jason’s favorite weapon of choice to jab at Renie’s Bible reading times, some
good questions and some that displayed Stanley’s abundance of ignorance. What
looked like on the outside as endless harassment actually helped to strengthen
Renie and forced him to dig deeper into the Word of God for answers. Renie used
his minimal work pay funds to order books to study; books on theology, church
history, apologetics, creation, and alleged difficulties, discrepancies and
inconsistencies of the Bible. Inmate Stone progressed into becoming the
prison’s spiritual answers source.
Out on the construction site
Renie and Cornell created quite a stir throughout the correctional
construction’s empire. Word got around about how skilled and trustworthy the
two youths were. 'Consistent and dependable' described the two on numerous
institutional memorandums. The boys did not fully know how serious they were
being considered for an upcoming special prison construction project. They both
had heard the rumors, but neither took them over seriously. Why get our hopes
up? they thought.
The turmoil inside the prison
subsided to the more tolerable level of standard fights, assaults, rapes and
occasional stabbings. The investigation into the poisoning death of the inmate
known as the Indian never produced any significant results. The Medical
Examiner surmised that the youth may have ingested a lethal dose of the
neurotoxin tetrodotoxin that is found in porcupinefish, commonly called the
blowfish or pufferfish. One problem plagued the investigators… the Japanese
dish Fugu was never an option on any prison menu anywhere. Another theory
suggested, Death due to the venom of the Irukandji jellyfish, but Y-MAX was
nowhere near the continent or beaches of Australia. The case remains open.
Cornell confided in Renie and
told him that he had a son named Cooper. Cornell never got to know his boy, but
put fifty percent of his inmate wages into a secured bank account for when his
son would turn eighteen. “Another forty percent of my funds go to some of the
victims I’ve accumulated along the line,” he continued, “That’s why I take
canteen in payment for a little protective services for folks instead of sexual
favors like the rest of these guys in this prison. Anyway, I’m tryin’ to follow
God and all that.”
Renie was astounded that Cornell
could keep his son’s existence a secret for so long without telling him. But he
knew that life can be rough around the edges for many kids his age and that
keeping secrets is sometimes the only way to survive.
“It breaks my heart about my
boy,” lamented Cornell, “but I just pray and look to the future, hopin’ one day
I can make things right with him.”
“You will, Cornell, you will,”
encouraged Renie. “I’ll be prayin’ for you all along the way, my friend.”
Life was not easy for Renie and
the other confined youths attempting to know God and see the Lord active in
their lives. Darkness reigned between the concrete walls of the prison every
day and night of the year. Renie felt as though the handful of Cyrene
participants he knew were the only glimmer of light the prison had.
Clifford James’ messages kept
Renie’s mind actively busy and his spirit hungry for his Lord. The need around
him encouraged Renie to press onward like a soldier obeying his gang leader’s
commands. Stanley Theodore Jason III kept Renie frustrated. No matter how many
answers Renie had for his celly, Stanley was not interested, remaining
antagonistic at all times.
Renie had an idea, from now on
he would have Stanley read the answers to his own questions right out of the
Bible himself. God’s Word
won’t return void, Renie reflected on that Bible verse's meaning, It’s like a sword that divides;
either Stanley will follow or turn away, there was no neutral ground.
One day Renie read aloud about
Paul’s conversion in the book of Acts. Stanley told him to be quiet at first,
but finally requested that his celly, “Read that again, the whole thing. And
the part where Jesus says to Paul ‘It is hard for you to kick against the
goads’.”
“Here,” Renie handed Stanley his
Bible.
Stanley began to change after that, not a lot, but
he displayed a more focused curiosity than before. Every question he had ever
challenged Renie with Renie always answered, if not right away, then within a
few days or weeks. The truth was wearing Inmate Jason down. But Renie’s
dream of seeing his celly’s life filled with God’s love never reached fruition.
Stanley was transferred to another youth prison to be closer to his
cancer-ridden mother during her last days. Renie knew the planting metaphor of
how one person sows, another waters. He understood that he would not always see
the end result of his efforts and felt good about that, Less chance of pride
entering into my heart, I guess.
Next Chapter: Blood Out
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