Peace
Peace and quiet
This I crave
Settle my nerves
Still my mind
Heal me
~ Hannah Gunner ~
Hank sat nervously on the edge of his bunk; after all, this could be the day that changed his entire life. His favorite guard appeared at his cell, opened the door, and handed him a suit.
“Here, your attorney told me to give you this. Put it on, and you can meet with him before you leave for the courthouse.”
Hank took the hanger and thanked the guard.
“No need to thank me. I didn’t buy it.”
The suit was a tad too big, but Hank pulled it off by tightening his belt and rolling the bottom of the pants underneath by a couple of inches and securing them with tape acquired from the guard.
“What you really need is a few safety pins, but you know the rules. I’ll see if I can swipe one, might not work, but I can try.”
“Thanks, it sure can’t hurt!”
A few minutes a later, the guard reappeared.
“Are you ready? Let’s go.”
Hank was escorted to a small room that had one table and two chairs. Michael and Nigel were waiting for him. Greetings and handshakes were exchanged before they sat down and got to business.
“I don’t expect this to take long,” Michael told Hank. “Once we present the appeal based on testimony from all of the witnesses, including James and Lewis, I’ll ask the judge to overturn your conviction and release you for time already served.”
Hank, for the first time in years, was trembling.
“I don’t expect you to have to take the stand at all, but it is possible that the judge may ask you a few questions.”
Hank nodded. Answering a few questions shouldn’t be a big deal. Michael continued as Nigel furiously scribbled notes and tapped away on his iPad. Hank didn’t know what Nigel was writing.
“Are you ready for your overdue day in court, Hank?”
It took him a second to answer; images of Gloria and Hannah from a lifetime ago flashed before his eyes. It had all gone wrong, so quickly, so many years ago, but he would have given anything if Gloria were going to be there waiting for him today.
“Hank, are you ready?”
“Sorry. Yes. Yes, sir, I am. As ready as I’m ever going to be, I suppose.”
Nigel signaled the guard that Hank was ready to be escorted out. He was cuffed and taken to the waiting dock for a van to arrive that would take him to the courthouse. Nigel and Michael discussed the details of his case on their way to court. Receiving a text message that Sharon, Mr. Stoddard’s daughter, was on her way pleased them both. If the judge needed to question her, they wouldn’t have to track her down.
Hank rarely left the prison grounds. Riding in a vehicle didn’t feel familiar to him anymore, and he couldn’t help but notice his knuckles were white from holding onto the armrest too tightly. He had given up hope of being paroled early, let alone released early. Forcing himself to think only of that moment, he tried to clear his mind, but it was impossible. His freedom, yet again, was at stake and there was nothing he could do about it.
His attorney’s car pulled up to the courthouse several minutes before the prison van arrived. Shocked by what they saw, Michael grabbed his cell phone and started filming the crowds that greeted them and instructed Nigel to do the same.
“That’s, that’s Hannah!”
Nigel pointed to the slim teen standing on the courthouse steps chanting something he couldn’t quite make out yet. She was holding a sign up above her head. In fact, just about everyone who had gathered at the courthouse was holding some sort of sign.
“How many people do you think are here?” Nigel asked.
“I don’t know, honestly, a hundred maybe? A hundred fifty, if not more?”
The signs read all kinds of things from RIGHT THE WRONG, FREE HANK! to WRONGLY CONVICTED! WHO’S THE CRIMINAL NOW? The media was on site, and multiple reporters were trying to grab an interview with Hank as soon as he arrived. Hannah spotted Nigel and made her way down the steps toward him. Cash and Lindsey were by her side.
“Is he about to be here?”
Nigel nodded. “This is amazing! How did you do it?”
“What, this?” Hannah smiled. “It was Kathy, Cash, and Lindsey, really, who helped me. Phone calls, Twitter, Insta, Snap, you name it, we were spilling our story everywhere.”
“Well, it worked!” Nigel reached out and hugged her. “It worked! The community is on his side, and that can’t hurt. Well done!”
The crowd suddenly started to cheer, clap, and broke into a chant free Hank, free Hank, free Hank, indicating that the prison van had finally arrived. Staring out the window in disbelief at the support that he had received from what was left of his family and total strangers, Hank, shaking and holding back his tears, couldn’t help but break down. The guard assigned to escort him laid a firm hand on his shoulder. No words were exchanged. He sat in place for a few minutes and gathered himself. Taking deep breaths, wiping the stray tears away with his hands, he stood on trembling legs and made his way to the door of the van. Slowly he stepped off the steps and onto the concrete. Nigel grabbed Hannah’s hand and led her over to the side entry. For the first time in over eleven years, Hank came face to face with his daughter, no glass barricade between them. A guard stood between him and Hannah. The crowd spotted them and once again started chanting, but this time the chant sent a different haunting message. Wrongly convicted, robbed! Wrongly convicted, robbed! Wrongly convicted, robbed! The guard showed zero expression on his face as he stepped to the left and let Hannah look into the eyes of her father for the first time—no glass between them—since she was a little girl.
Cash slipped his arm around her waist, as he watched her nervously take three steps toward Hank. Hank, still cuffed, looked his daughter up and down. How tall she was now! How beautiful she had become, a true young lady. She had Gloria’s nose, her little chin, and there were those big, beautiful blue eyes. His heart was pounding in his chest and he wasn’t prepared for Hannah as she suddenly lunged toward him and wrapped her arms around his neck. The crowd, which had been chanting nonstop, suddenly went silent. The reporters crowded the pair as Hannah burst into tears.
“I can’t believe it’s you. You’re here. You’re really, really here.”
Hank could barely hold his emotions intact as the years flashed before his eyes. Here stood, right before him, his First Matey, that pirate child still somewhere inside those blue eyes. Wanting to reach out to hold her, he raised his cuffed hands, but Hannah kissed his cheek and whispered in his ear.
“Don’t worry about that now, Captain, those damn cuffs will come off inside.”
Michael tapped her on the shoulder.
“It’s time, Hannah. We have to go.”
Hank’s hands, cuffed together, reached up and touched her face. She was truly there, standing in front of him, and it wasn’t a dream. They led him up the concrete stairs as the crowd once again started to chant his name. Reporters tried to ask him questions, but he ignored them as he tried to speak to Hannah one last time. He yelled her name, but she hadn’t heard him over the crowd. Frantically, he yelled it again.
“Hannah. Hannah.”
Cash and Kathy cleared a path for her as she ran up the stairs before he entered the courthouse.
“Cap. Right here!”
“I just want to say,” he started to say, but struggled to find the words. “I just want to say, well…”
“I love you, Dad!” Hannah said.
“I love you too,” he managed before they pulled him inside the door.