Jonah always wrote back.
His letters were neat, with sketches in the margins. A coffee cup. A tired waitress. Owen as Captain Algebra after I mentioned his failed math quiz.
At the next visit, Jonah asked, “Did Owen retake the test?”
Jonah always wrote back.
I blinked. “You remembered that?”
“You wrote it down.”
“I write a lot of things down.”
“And I read them.”
That annoyed me more than it should have.
Kindness is harder to ignore than cruelty.
“You wrote it down.”
***
Once, after a double shift, I read Jonah’s case file on the kitchen floor.
Owen stepped over the papers with cereal in hand.
“Please tell me that’s something fun and not prison husband stuff.”
“Prison husband stuff. Look at this date.”
He crouched beside me. “October fourth.”
“Prison husband stuff.”
“Jonah was already in custody on October fourth.”
“So he couldn’t have signed this transfer order.”
