Sergio De La Pava - A Naked Singularity

“Good night young Master.”

I went upstairs, fell asleep earlier than I had in years, slept uninterruptedly through the night entire, and dreamt nothing I could remember.

“Want to see his cell,” asked The Guard as he inexplicably looked me up and down the next day.

“I don’t have much time with him today.”

“That’s just it. It’s going to take some time to get him from medical so I was just thinking of your entertainment.”

He took me to the cell. It resembled a box. A small one.

“Eight feet long by five feet wide,” said The Guard.

Built into the cell’s door was a hole.

“Four and a half inches high by eleven inches wide,” said The Guard.

Through that hole was where Jalen got his meals. Fresh fruit was never included. Inmates were allowed out of their cell only a short time.

“Forty-five minutes to an hour a day,” said The Guard. The only personal items permitted in the cell were books and pictures not to exceed six in combination. Far as I could tell Jalen had nothing other than the letters Toomberg and I had sent him, a spongy marble notebook, and three poorly-lit photos of his mother none depicting a smile.

“That’s basically it counselor. I thought about your kid last night. I know his date’s coming up and everything, well unless you can do something about that of course. I don’t mean to suggest that I know how that’s going to ultimately turn out. I thought about you meeting him for the first time. That must have been tough. I’ve seen them all come and go is what I’m saying and I think I’ve gained some insight into the type of things you might be feeling right about now. Anyway your kid’s date is coming up and I think I can help you if you’ll see me after you meet with him today. I’ll give you something that I think will help you with his case is what I’m saying. Quietly though, I wouldn’t want people around here to know that I was helping the enemy so to speak. So after you meet with him we’ll talk. Let’s go back, it shouldn’t be much longer.”

In the same space I had met with Jalen the day before, I sat and waited and pictured him in that cell. Then I pictured myself in that cell and how I would probably pace and pace in the available space looking for a way to end it. When Jalen came in he smiled and was happy.

“Hey,” I said

“you came back,” he said.

“Yes, I told you I’d be back today.”

“i know but everybody said you probably wouldn’t.”

“Oh.”

“but you did.”

“Yes, did you think about the things we talked about yesterday?”

“how did you know? i even wrote some of the things down that you had said on this paper they let us have.”

“Good and now you probably have a better understanding of what’s happening with your case right?”

“i had never had anybody visit me before.”

“I know.”

“i told everybody that i had gotten a visit from an important lawyer, that’s you.”

“You’re my most important client Jalen. If I lived around here I would come every week.”

“is today the last day you’re going to come visit?”

“Probably, but remember I told you yesterday that you were going to be getting another visit this time from a doctor, a psychiatrist.”

“yes, i remember.”

“And remember I told you he was going to be interviewing you on more than one occasion so he can help us convince the judge to change your sentence, remember?”

“yes, the doctor. he’s going to come more than once right?”

“Yes exactly. You’re going to keep getting visits.”

“and you’re going to come back again after the doctor?”

“I think today is probably the last time I’ll ever see you Jalen.”

“…”

“That’s all right. Other people are going to come and help you too, I’ll make sure of it.”

“who’s going to take me to maple?”

“We talked about that remember?”

“i know but if there’s no one to take me then—”

“We talked about not discussing Maple anymore remember? I only told you that so you could know how good it will be if you get out but it’s kind of like a secret, understand?”

“but who would take me is all i want to know.”

“I’ll come and take you if you’re going to get out don’t worry.”

“…”

“We don’t have a lot of time so let’s talk about the things we need to talk about so I can help you.”

“okay i want you to help me now that i know, and can you bring me fruit next time?”

“What?”

“can you bring me fruit? they don’t give fruit here. the food is good i’m not complaining but they do not give fruit. another guy here says i haven’t had fruit since the day i got here.”

“What’s your favorite fruit? Never mind. If I come pick you up that day I’ll bring a whole damn basket okay?”

“yes, and there’ll be fruit where i’m going right?”

“A ton.”

“like the rainbow?”

“The what?”

“the rainbow fruit. my mother used to make it. it’s in the stores too though, i seen it. do you know what it is?”

“Yes.”

“you do?”

“Yes.”

“my mother would make it better than anyone. it’s my favorite. right it’s in the stores?”

“Yes.”

“it’s called rainbow right?”

“It’s called Skittles?”

“that’s right that’s the other name! right that that’s real fruit?”

“I, I think so, yes.”

“i knew it, that’s what i said, your eyes are funny now.”

“Who else lived in your house besides you and your mom?”

“usually it was just me and her but then sometimes i would have a different dad like for a while.”

“Would one of them be around more often than the others?”

“yes that was gary, he was my real dad but then he would drink and he would have to leave, so someone else would come and stay until they left, like that.”

“You have no brothers or sisters right?”

“i had a big brother but he’s an angel now, he was always an angel, even before i was born. my mother said he was only here for three weeks before he had to go to heaven because he couldn’t breathe right. he was one of the people in prayers at night.”

“I see, did you always live in the red brick place?”

“yes in the red brick always. that’s where i was when the police came to rest me that night. i was hiding in a closet but my mother said i had to come out.”

“In school why weren’t you in special classes?”

“the teachers would say i should be in a different room but then my mother would go and yell at them and they would keep me where i was. the teachers really wouldn’t mind because i was quiet. and when i was old enough i quitted.”

“You were quiet?”

“yes… i… had a stutter then.”

“Did you get into fights at school?”

“no never.”

“Never?”

“no.”

“Did you used to get in trouble in school at all?”

“no.”

“Why did you quit school?

“i wasn’t graduating and then the sizers started coming.”

“What do you mean?”

“sizers i started having.”

“Seizures? Is that what you’re saying? You started having seizures?”

He did, every few weeks even though there was no indication of them in any of the meager medical and school records I had. And he said they only started after the Big Bike Headache, which I gathered was an ugly unaddressed head injury that resulted from a school prank involving Jalen’s bicycle. From what I gathered that bicycle must have been quite a sight. It was called a Rose Lady, it was his mom’s, and it had one of those absurd banana seats and those exaggerated fenders that curl around the top of the tires. It was Jalen’s daily means to and from school and it was the kind of thing other kids tend to notice. One of the kids who noticed it took a wrench and completely loosened then removed the screws that attached the bike’s body to its front tire. When the bell rang ending that school day, a larger crowd than usual gathered around Jalen’s bike, and though they took extra care to avoid his eyes a nervous laughter seemed to course through them as Jalen got on. And those bikes are designed fairly well because, though wobbly, it actually managed to ride forward a short while. But only a short while because the parking lot Jalen rode in was covered with things like shattered glass and spent cans and when that front tire met its first resistance it immediately quit while the rest of the bicycle continued forward. The quickly ascending rear wheel pitched Jalen past the handlebars and drove him face-first into the choppy pavement. Jalen said that against the crowd’s laughter he just picked the glass out, wiped the tears and blood off, and pulled the bicycle home, the body with his hands, the amputated wheel over his shoulder. He told no one what had happened and the seizures started coming a short while later. We spoke about other things like that.