CRIME OF PENSION

Chapter 4

In the corner, off to the side of a basketball court noisily active in its designed sport, stood a smallish man talking animatedly to a tall, thin man, squatting on his haunches.

“Aw right, Henry Lee, give id up.  Waad’s the deal?  Is someting wrong, why did Reid send a visitor?  G’head, g’head!  Talk!” he said rapidly, with an almost constant movement of his feet and hands in a thick Brooklyn accent.

“Take it easy, Sonny,” slowly drawled Henry Lee, with his arms draped across his knees and seemingly rapt attention to the round ball being passed around. “There’s nothin’ wrong.  You know that ole Reid’s brain is always workin’ overtime and he’s come up with a good un this time.”

“A gig!  He’s got a gig!  Well, dat’s great,” whined Sonny sarcastically.  “We’ve got another two an a half years of dis joint.  What good is a gig at dis point?  It’s too early.  I mean whaa......”  said Sonny, scuffing his foot loudly on the wooden floor.     

“Settle down, boy!  You’re gonna like this, just gimme time to explain an’ you’ll see it’s fine as frog’s hair,”  said Henry Lee, with a little, knowing grin.

“Frog’s hair!  Frog’s hair, Henry Lee?  What the devil’s frog’s hair?  Even in Brooklyn, we knew frogs didn’t have any hair,” said the exasperated figure.

“See, what I mean, a frog’s hair is sooo fine, ya jest don’t see it,” smiled the Southerner.

“Okay, okay, Henry Lee,” said Sonny, holding out his hands, working them up and down.   “It’s fine!  It’s great!  It’s the best damn hair on any animal in the whole wide world but, get on wid it. What the devil did Reid say, waddid he say?”

“Boy, you are gonna blow a gasket if you don’t slow down a bit, but anyhow here’s kinda how it works,” he said, shifting his look from the sport and back to Sonny. “Seems that prisons are a bit overcrowded,” he said, dragging out that word as only a country boy could.

“Yeah, shure..yeah, shure.  Tell me somethin’ I doan know,” interrupted Sonny.

“And Reid,” states Henry Lee, as though Sonny had not uttered a word, “says that that don’t make any difference to the govament regulators.  See!” said Henry Lee, holding out one hand looking as though he were reading some document.  “They got these ‘do good’ rules they gotta follow,” he said, pointing to various parts of his extended hand, “ like reviewin’ the progress of each ‘an every inmate....’an, ‘an tryin’ to see that we get rehabilitated.”