“Parnell. Cole Parnell, number 1210.”
Jack unlocked the door.
“Step out into the aisle, Parnell, and come with me.”
Parnell did as instructed until they reached the far end of the aisle, where Jack went through the same procedure with a man named Johnny Putnam, number 1138. Parnell and Putnam marched in step with Jack toward the lock gate at the other end of the aisle. Prisoners shouted their goodbyes as the men walked by.
“Good-bye, boys.”
“Putnam, don’t forget, you owe me two dollars.”
“I’ll send it to you,” Putnam called.
“No need to. You’ll be back inside in less than a month. You can just bring it to me.”
Parnell and Putnam were taken to the warden’s office. Each was given a new pair of jeans, a denim shirt, and a wool coat. They took off their striped trousers and striped shirt to put on the new clothes.
“Here’s five dollars apiece,” the warden said, sliding the money across the desk. “Both of you are young enough that you have your entire life ahead of you. I don’t want to see you back here again.”
Neither Parnell nor Putnam answered. Dressed in their new clothes, they took the five dollars and put the money in their pocket.
“I had a gun and holster when I checked in here,” Putnam said.
“Yeah, I did too,” Parnell added.
The warden nodded, then opened the bottom right drawer of his desk. “Here are your guns. No bullets. I would suggest you don’t use them for anything other than shooting varmints and the like.”
“Don’t worry none about that, warden,” Putnam said as he strapped on his pistol belt. “I ain’t plannin’ on doin’ nothin’ that will get me back in here. No offense meant, but this here prison ain’t exactly a high class hotel.”
The warden chuckled. “Why thank you, Mr. Putnam. I’ll take that as a compliment. It is our intention to make your stay here unpleasant enough that you will think twice before doing anything that might cause you to return.”
Fifteen minutes later the two former prisoners walked through the door at the front gate. They heard the door slam shut behind them, a clanking of steel on steel.
They stood for a moment, as if adjusting to the fact that, for the first time in five years, they could see from horizon to horizon without walls around them.
“Damn,” Parnell said. “Damn, this feels good.”
“Don’t it though?” Putnam replied.
“What are you going to do now?” Parnell asked.
“I’m going to find the nearest saloon and have a beer,” Putnam said. “No, not a beer, a whiskey. A real whiskey.”
Bill Dinkins was sitting in the Red Dog saloon when he saw Johnny Putnam and another man come in. Dinkins knew that Putnam was getting out of prison today, and it was for that reason he had come to Canon City. He watched as the two men stepped up to the bar to order drinks. Their new jeans and shirt, plus the five dollar bill each of them slapped down on the bar, telegraphed to everyone in the saloon that they were just-released prisoners. The other saloon patrons moved away pointedly.
Dinkins chuckled at the reaction of the saloon patrons. They lived here, and saw prisoners released every week, and they reacted the same way to all of them.
“Putnam!” Dinkins called.
Hearing his name, Putnam turned toward the caller.
Dinkins held up a half full bottle. “Save your money. You two boys are welcome to a drink at my table.”
Putnam smiled, and tugged on Parnell’s arm. “Come on. This is an old pard of mine.”
The two men picked up their five dollar bills and walked over to the table before the bartender returned with two shot glasses of whiskey. Seeing what happened, he shrugged his shoulders, then poured the whiskey back into the bottle.
“Who’s your friend?” Dinkins asked as he handed the bottle to Putnam.
“His name is Parnell,” Putnam lifted the bottle straight to his mouth, took several swallows, then passed it over to Parnell. “We both got out this morning.”
“Where are you goin’ next?”
Putnam shrugged. “I don’t know. I don’t have a horse, I got only five dollars. Don’t seem to me like there’s many places I can go.”
“You interested in a job?”
“By job, do you mean the kind of job that got me in prison in the first place?” Putnam asked.
“I can furnish each of you with a horse and saddle, and twenty dollars advance,” Dinkins said.
“It is the same kind of job that got me in prison in the first place, isn’t it?” Putnam said.
“You got ’ny better prospects?”
“No, I don’t reckon I do.”
“I don’t know about Johnny, but if the offer is for me as well, I’m in,” Parnell said.
