Part 22 (1/2)

Save the woers were tight nubs that looked ready to burst through the skin He put the drink to his lips and turned it up

Ella cranked across the scuffed ballroom floor Her hair was down and neatly cos swayed with each turn of her hand She stopped and smiled at e of her wheelchair

”Gonna put your legs on?” I asked

She shook her head ”You gonna stay for the first dance?”

An old hippie tapped theabout howpumped out of the speakers The patients limped and wheeled and slid their walkers out onto the dance floor Stan, the blind jazz reat rhythm, head and mouth cool like Ray Charles Harry shuffled to and fro Smeltzer held his hands over his head and shook the he'd ever hear

Ared hands flew into the air Whiskey spilled on the floor

Ella swiveled her wheelchair to the beat in tiny , elegant fingers, well cared for despite dead nerves, were soft and smooth She swayed inside her chair I took her hand and ave me a nod I moved behind Ella and leaned her wheelchair back I pushed her chair around the edge of the ballroom and turned her in circles She stretched out her ar She looked over her shoulder at ined they had been when she ran and danced as a reckless young girl We spun and twirled and slid until ere dizzy and the roo that lasted too long, Chase and Lonnie, the trusty in patients, danced into the room from the leprosy side Chase was tall and fit frora black hair out of his eyes He danced into the middle of the patients Chase tapped the shoulder of the prostitute and got a little too close for Sood dancer, and the wohed and danced lower and lower as Chase matched her moves

The music stopped The patients clapped as best they could

Duchaine looked at me like I was demented, but I didn't care I pushed Ella back to the center of the floor I took her hand and bowed

”What the hell are you doing!?” S at Chase, who stood perfectly still The roolad not to be the focus of Smeltzer's ire

”You're not invited!” Ser at Chase Then he turned toward me ”You either! No inmates at our party!”

I looked for my friends Ella's smile had disappeared Harry looked at the floor

”Go on,” Smeltzer said to Chase ”You're not welcome here” Then he looked at ether Dan and I walked behind the

”Jesus,” Dan said, ”did we just get kicked out of a leper dance?”

My release notice

CHAPTER 76

Late in the evening after the dance, the guards came for Chase and Lonnie They were escorted to the hole Ruood time If they caood tiht be transferred to another prison, instead of released

When Mr Flowers arrived in my room, I assumed he had co with Ella I had already promised myself I would tell the truth, no ratulations,” he said, as he handed me my release papers I would leave Carville on April 25, 1994 I would report to a halfway house on Magazine Street in New Orleans in a uards never ca a violation since I was in the ballroom under orders Or maybe because I didn't make a hts-out, the ti on the pages of The Guinness Book of World Records The Guinness Book of World Records I should have been thinking about my release About ways to remember the lessons I'd learned But asrecords out of my head, it didn't work

I had alanted to achieve one feat never before attained by ine that it had happened Tonight The first ever to be ejected froarden lined with coke bottles, ca 1950s The local Coca-Cola distributor had refused to accept the returnable bottles from the leprosarium

CHAPTER 77

I stood in the breezeway and waited for Ella I had two things to tell her First, I would be going home in a matter of days The second was , I was acutely aware that I had not really changed during e, but I was the still the saates a year earlier I awoke each reat I wanted to set records, whether it was the azines sold or a 100 percent success rate with my GED students I relished accolades, even if proarnish And, clearly, I had not abandonedevicted froe, but I was the still the saates a year earlier I awoke each reat I wanted to set records, whether it was the azines sold or a 100 percent success rate with my GED students I relished accolades, even if proarnish And, clearly, I had not abandonedevicted from a dance

”Hard on yourself,” she said, after I told her my apprehension

I shook my head ”Everybody says I need to becoet out”

”You is what you is” Ella took a deep breath and looked across the inmate courtyard ”You know 'bout them drink bottles?” she asked

”No”

Ella intertwined her fingers like she always did when she told a story In the early days of Carville, she explained, the Coca-Cola distributor froe sent chipped and cracked coke bottles to the colony, so he could refuse to accept the return bottles He feared a public boycott if custolass containers had been touched by the lips of leprosy patients

”More drink bottles than you ever seen,” she said The crates of bottles filled closets and storerooms But the patients discovered new uses for the nonreturnable bottles They used thear dispensers in the cafeteria For iames on the lawn, the bottles were used as pins They were turned upside down and stuffed into the dirt to line flower beds and walks on the Carville grounds

”CoCola bottle still a CoCola bottle,” Ella said ”Just found 'em a new purpose”

CHAPTER 78

The day before I was released, I packedI owned fit into two boxes I couldn't believe a year had nearly passed

I thought about my conversations with Ella, conversations I would revisit for a lifetiht me-the i with ht be the story of the coke bottles

For five e I examined the details of my past, the character flaws that contributed to my personal failure, the allure that applause held for e could cover dark secrets, ood, and ood financial sense