Part 5 (1/2)

Linda wasExcept marry me The last year had been a series of hus Newspaper headlines about raph of the two of us, with Linda proround Expulsion froathered

I had convinced Linda early in our relationshi+p that together ere going to make a difference With her talent and refinement, and my drive and salesmanshi+p, we could conquer any task I was confident and self-assured-very different from her father-and I knew she was drawn to that trait ine with it influence and power, e, and lead us to places neither could quite iine The details of our conquests were not fully developed, but I assured her that the ride would lead in one direction Up

We sat a the other inmates The words caano and CeeCee and other interesting inmates I had encountered I left out the stories about the leprosy patients I told her every funny incident I could relimpse of her dilad you're having a good ti”

But it didn't She was bearing the brunt of things now She lived outside She had to face the stares frohbors, from other moms in the carpool line She answered phone calls from creditors She overheard the talk about how much money I'd lost and about how many people I'd hurt

”I'm so sorry,” I said ”So sorry I put you and the kids in this situation”

Linda was tired of ies I had said I'ht now so ht now

”If you're really sorry,” she said gently, ”you'll change”

I knew she was counting on that If I could change, she had told ht be able to take e And, secretly, I didn't think I needed to I didn't want to become a different person I simply needed to operate within the bounds of the laasn't about to let go of the skills I'd developed or the plans I'd made And I had a new plan as an undercover reporter that was going to secure my future But I didn't tell Linda At least not yet No need to get her involved Plus, she rabbed round The racquetball had bounced over the fence and stopped about ten feet outside the periie stood next to him and pointed at the blue ball They waited for et the ball I looked around A guard atching me froo outside the fence, you lose visiting privileges If you go outside the fence, you lose visiting privileges

For as long as nored fences and boundaries and rules I cliutters I jua us rooetting what I wanted, and I e of a knee-high fence, embarrassed to be so helpless

CHAPTER 16

That night, just before lights out, Doc asked if I would take a look at the mole he had removed with the razor blade He stood up, turned his back to et it all?” he asked

I stared at the scab left froed I told him I couldn't really tell much

”Is any of the mole left?” he said ”Can you describe it?”

I couldn't believe he wanted uish between the remnants of the darkover his incisions

”I can't tell,” I said

Doc sighed in frustration He walked over to the ood look at his handiwork

After lights out, I lay in the dark thinking about Neil and Maggie and how my imprisonment would affect them Linda told me that she and the kids had been invited to spend the month of July in a Florida condoht she needed a vacation froo

Linda had never promised to stay with me The last year had been difficult for her Too ain Frouarantees

I didn't know if Doc was still awake, but I asked aloud, ”I wonder if y, Doc answered, ”Was your ist, I told hin”

”I hope we can pick it back up when I get out,” I said I thought the counseling had been helpful

”Don't waste your money”

”What do you mean?” I asked

”If you have a male counselor, he'll just want to sleep with your wife,” Doc said He rolled over in his bed and pulled the covers up over his shoulder ”If she's felassbehind the pews in the Catholic church where leprosy patients worshi+pped

CHAPTER 17

On a Sundayin late June, in spite of the three-hour round-trip, Linda brought the children to Carville for the Catholic church service Families entered the Catholic church from the outside Inmates and leprosy patients entered fro, curved hallway connected the church to the s About forty inmates waited for Father Reynolds at the doorway The leprosy patients went straight inside through an autohts whosethe Crusades

Stan and Sarah, a couple from the Caribbean, approached the church entrance Both blind, they wore oversized sunglasses to hide their sightless eyes Stan tapped his white walking stick hard against the floor and walls Sarah, his elegant wife, who had contracted leprosy in her early twenties, held Stan's left arh the labyrinth of hallways The blind leading the blind

”What a curse,” one of the inmates said as they passed us by

Father Reynolds arrived and led the inmates into the chapel The church was built in the shape of a cross The large center as available to in was reserved for leprosy patients, the right wing for visitors and nuns The wings met at a marble altar draped in an ornate cloth Father Reynolds knelt at the altar A gold chalice stood at the center of the table

Linda, Neil, and Maggie waited in a pew in the center ith the rest of the wives and children I rushed over and sat between Linda and Neil; I put Maggie on my lap I was overjoyed to be in church with my family As Father Reynolds started the service I put one aruards loomed over us Even in prison, it felt like a safe place A sacred place I had never been in a Catholic church I was Episcopalian, but the services were virtually indistinguishable

During the first hyirlfriend Across the aisle, another took a s stanza after stanza about the glory of God, an eruption of ss full of cookies and fudge-ensued between husbands and wives

As Father Reynolds called for the confession of sins, we pulled out the small pad under the pew and knelt Father Reynolds read from the missalette: Let us call to ation of leprosy patients, nuns, inhty God that I have sinned I confess to alhty God that I have sinned

I should have been thinking about my own faults and words and deeds, but I couldn't resist watching the other men and women pray The last time I had been in church, I wore a Brooks Brothers pinstriped suit and a 300 pair of shoes I had been surrounded by my Episcopal friends-a pediatrician, a real estate appraiser, a stockbroker, a newspaper editor, and dozens of other upstanding citizens Now, on iveness, I was surrounded by a different kind of congregation Nat Sykes of Chardon Insurance had collected millions in insurance premiums and left thousands of Louisiana drivers without liability coverage Daniel Stephens, a Texas savings and loan president, had hired a professional hit hbred horses in order to collect death benefits Lawrence Daily, a jovial Cajun, had been convicted of a price-fixing scheme to corner the wholesale crawfish market Steve Read, an airline entrepreneur who had laundered ional airline afloat, owned the charter airline that had crashed and killed most of Reba McEntire's band Ira Kessler collected fees through the front door of his New York pet-funeral business and took h the back door frofish was the first CEO sentenced to prison for du industrial wastes in the Mississippi River The white-collar cri dealers, as well as the Half-rapher and counterfeiter, as aed inside a bucket so he wouldn't fall over in his wheelchair And there was Sidewinder, who kept his dead mother in a spare room so he could continue to collect her Social Security pay the inmates, he was friendless

I had been so excited to see ht past the leprosy patients I could see the Some did not have knees I saw Harry and Jimmy Harris, but Ella wasn't in church Stan and Sarah, the blind couple, sat in the front row

The church had not always been a place of comfort for those afflicted with leprosy At one point in history, anyone deemed leprous was cast out A ”leper's mass” was performed As the afflicted man or woman watched from the outskirts of a settlement, a priest would preside over the burial, a funeral symbolic of the death of the leper The priest would pour dirt into an erave Cast out, they wandered alone until death Occasionally, a leper would find a Lazar house where fellow sufferers gathered and lived