A Pain

“Boy it’s gloomy out”, said Roger as he rubbed the long scar across his face.

Larry looked up from the wheelbarrow and up at the dark gray sky and shrugged.

“So what. It’s gray, big deal”, said Larry and he forced his heavy load along the rocky road.

“I’m just saying. I mean, it’s pretty gray for so early in the day. That’s all”, said Roger.

Roger looked back down at the pile of rocks he’d been banging away at with the sledgehammer. The same pile he’d been swinging at for the last 16 years. The pile seemed to be the same height it was when he first arrived at Stone Briar Prison. It didn’t seem to matter how hard he swung the hammer or what part of the pile he hit, the rocks just stayed unbroken.

In four years Roger would be released from prison having served his twenty years. He was lucky not to receive the death penalty for his part in the botched Chamberlain kidnapping.  It was all that idiot Sonny’s idea. He figured they’d snag the little brat, get some ransom and be on easy street for the rest of their days.

Normally it wouldn’t have been something Roger would have been involved with, but he’d lost his teaching job when the school closed, his wife had left him for some Tango instructor and frankly, drinking didn’t appear to be the most promising of careers. So he agreed to help Sonny.  

All Roger had to do was sit in the car and wait for Sonny to come out of the mansion with the little Chamberlain boy and then drive them to a cabin up near Pike’s Bay. Sonny said there was a hunting lodge up there where they could hide out for months if they had to. Roger convinced himself that he wouldn’t really be doing anything wrong necessarily; it was just a way to get back at those who had so much while he had so little. It wasn’t fair.  

Sonny blew it all though. He made it out of the mansion all right and Roger drove them up to the cabin. Sonny did have the cabin all set up as well. Unfortunately he didn’t know young master Steven Chamberlain was a diabetic and required a shot every day. So before long, young Chamberlain got sicker and sicker until he died.  Sonny went crazy and decided to cut the kid’s body up and mail it back the Chamberlain Estate. Roger tried to stop him. That’s how he got the long, jagged scar across his face. The reason none of the other prisoners really bothered him. It was a tough looking scar. But for Roger it was a painful reminder of how foolish he’d been and how everyday he regretted the poor young life lost. He wished he could take it all back.

Thankfully the jury took some pity on him and only gave him 20 years. Sonny wasn’t so lucky; he tried to escape and was gunned down in the prison courtyard ten years ago. He had a life sentence anyway.

Rain drops began to fall in the prison yard and one of the guards tapped Roger in the back.

“Keep digging, meat”, said the guard.

Roger lifted the sledgehammer over his shoulder and swung down on the never ending rock pile and felt the familiar ping in his hands. It was a penance never to be forgiven and Roger knew it. The rain fell harder and would never wash him clean of his sin.