“1996" (excerpt)

“Look, we’re off of that now — get your head back in this game,” Wood lowered his chin, looking to make eye contact with Lee. “We’ve been plotting this for three thousand, five-hundred-eighty-two days — and the six wake ups before we got pop to get you transfered over here. Now isn’t the time to start shaking. You’ve been spending too much time letting that chick get in your head.” Wood shook a thick index finger at his brother; a sly smile forms. He imagines his perfect teeth that he doesn’t get to see, but thru smudged aluminum.

“These motherfuckers think they got over on us, Lee — but nah — this is just the way we like it.”

“Woodley,” a quick doubletap, wrapped steel on bare, “accounted for,” correctional officer Shane Haynes talks into a radio on his shoulder, but doesn’t press or release any buttons. The bars open smooth, as if it were already set to slide. An incredibly short amount of time later, a dapper, brown sugar colored man steps out and away from the cell — fully uniformed and clean shaven, holding a freezer-sized ziploc — eight years of beard covering every corner.

“Shorty ready?”

“All systems go, Wood.”

The men bump fists, cracking similar and simultaneous smiles.

“Let’s go kill these niggas, man.”