Sit down.
It says here that you've served 30 years of a life sentence?
You feel you've been rehabilitated?
Oh, yes, sir?
Without a doubt.
And I can honestly say I'm a changed man.
No danger to society here?
God's honest truth.
Absolutely rehabilitated.
30 years?
Jesus, when they say it like that?.?
You wonder where it went?
I wonder where ten years went?
Here?
Little parole rejection present.
Go ahead and open it?
I had to go through one of your competitors. I hope you don't mind?
I wanted it to be a surprise?
It's very pretty, Andy.
Thank you.
Are you going to play it?
No.
Not right now?
Tier 3 South. Clear.
Tier 4 North. Clear.
Tier 1 South. Clear.
Fall in!
Lights out!
Andy was as good as his word.
He wrote two letters a week instead of one.
In 1959, the State Senate finally clued into the fact
they couldn't buy him oft with just a $200 cheque.
Appropriations Committee voted an annual payment of $500 just to shut him up.
And you'd be amazed
how far Andy could stretch it.
He made deals with book clubs, charity groups.
He bought remaindered books by the pound.
Treasure Island.
Robert Louis?.?
?.Stevenson?
Fiction, adventure.
What's next?
I got here Auto Repair and.?.
?.Soap Carving?
Trade skills and hobbies? Goes under Educational. The stack behind you.
The Count Of Monte Crisco?
That's Cristo, you dumb shit?
By Alexandree.?.Dumass?
Dumb-ass?
Dumas. You know what that's about?
Uh-uh.
You'll like it. It's about a prison break?
We ought to file that under Educational, too, oughtn't we?
The rest of us did our best to pitch in when and where we could.
By the year Kennedy was shot,
Andy had transformed a storage room smelling of rat turds and turpentine
into the best prison library in New England,
complete with a fine selection of Hank Williams.
# Lawd I don't know what I'll do- ooo
# All I do is sit and sigh?.?
That was also the year Warden Norton instituted his famous inside Out programme.
You may remember reading about it.
It made all the papers and got his picture in Look Magazine.
No free ride.
But rather a genuine, progressive advance
in corrections and rehabilitation?
Our inmates, properly supervised,
will be put to work outside these walls,
performing all manner of public service?
These men can learn the value of an honest day's labour,
while providing a valuable service to the community and.?.
at a bare minimum of expense to Mr and Mrs John Q Taxpayer.
Of course, Norton failed to mention to the press
that "bare minimum of expense" is a fairly loose term.
There are a hundred different ways to skim off the top.
Men, materials, you name it.
And, oh, my Lord, how the money rolled in.
If this keeps up, you'll put me out of business.
- Ned! - This pool of slave labour you've got,
you can underbid any contractor in town?
Ned, we're providing a valuable community service here.
Well, that's fine for the papers
but I've got a family to feed.
Sam.?.
Sam, we go back a long way.
I need this new highway contract.
I don't get it, and I go under.
That's a fact.
You just have some of this fine pie
my missus made especially for you,
and you think about that.
Ned, I wouldn't worry too much about this contract.
It seems to me I already got my boys committed elsewhere?
You be sure and thank Maisie for this fine pie.
And behind every shady deal,
behind every dollar earned,
there was Andy, keeping the books.
Two deposits. Maine National and New England First?
Night drops as always, sir?
Get my stuff down to the laundry.
- Two suits for dry-clean and a bag of whatnot? - Yes, sir.
Tell them if they overstarch my shirts again, they'll hear about it from me?
How do I look?
- Very nice, sir? - Big charity to-do up Portland way.
The Governor's going to be there.
Want the rest of this?
The woman can't bake worth shit.
Thank you, sir.
- He's got his fingers in a lot of pies, I hear. - What you hear isn't half of it.
He's got scams you haven't even dreamed of.
Kickbacks on his kickbacks.
There's a river of dirty money running through this place.
But the problem with having all that money is you'll have to explain
- where it came from. - That's where I come in?
I channel it, filter it, funnel it?
Stocks, securities, tax-free municipals?
I send that money out into the real world?
- And when it comes back... - Clean as a virgin's honey pot, huh?
Cleaner.
By the time Norton retires, I'll have made him a millionaire?
If they ever catch on, though, he's gonna wind up in here wearing a number himself?
Now, Red, I thought you had a little more faith in me than that.
I know you're good, Andy, but all that paper leaves a trail.
Now, anybody gets curious, the FBI, the IRS, whatever,
it's gonna lead to somebody.
Sure it is. But not to me?
And certainly not to the Warden.
All right. Who?
Randall Stevens?
Who?
The silent silent partner. He's the guilty one, Your Honor. The man with the bank accounts.
That's where the filtering process starts.
If they trace anything, it's just going to lead to him.
But who is he?
He's a phantom, an apparition?
Second cousin to Harvey the Rabbit?
I conjured him...
out of thin air?
He doesn't exist, except on paper.
Andy, you can't just make a person up.
Sure you can, if you know how the system works, where the cracks are.
It's amazing what you can accomplish by mail.
Mr Stevens has a birth certificate,
a driver's license, social security number.
You're shitting me?
If they ever trace any of those accounts,
they're going to wind up chasing a figment of my imagination?
Well, I'll be damned.
Did I say you were good?
Shit, you're a Rembrandt!
You know, the funny thing is,
on the outside, I was an honest man, straight as an arrow.
I had to come to prison to be a crook.
Ever bother you?
I don't run the scams, Red, I just process the profits?
Fine line maybe but...
I also built that library
and used it to help a dozen guys get a high school diploma?
Why do you think the Warden lets me do it?
To keep you happy and doing the laundry.
Money instead of sheets?
Well, I work cheap? That's the trade-off?
# Willy And The Hand Jive
# I know a cat named.?.
Tommy Williams came to Shawshank in 1965
on a two-year stretch for B&E.
That's breaking and entering to you.
The cops caught him sneaking TV sets out the back door of a JC Penney.
Young punk.
Mr Rock'n'roll.
Cocky as hell.
Hey, come on, old boys! Moving like molasses!
Making me look bad.
We liked him immediately.
So I'm backing out the door, right?
And I got the TV like this?
It was a big old thing. I couldn't see shit. Suddenly, I hears this voice.
"Freeze, kid! Hands in the air. "
Well, I just stand there,
holding onto that TV. So, finally, the voice says,
"Do you hear what I said, boy? "
I say, "Yes, sir, I sure did?
But if I drop this fucking thing, you got me on destruction of property, too? "
Hey, you've done a stretch in Cashman, right?
Yeah. Yeah, that was an easy piece of time, let me tell you?
Weekend furloughs, work programmes.
Not like here.
Sounds like you done time all over New England?
Yeah, I've been in and out since I was 13. You name the place, chances are I've been there?
Perhaps it's time you tried a new profession?
What I mean is, you don't seem to be a good thief. Maybe you should try something else?
Yeah, well, what the hell do you know about it, Capone?
What are you in for?
Me?
The lawyer fucked me.
Everybody's innocent in here? Don't you know that?
As it turned out, Tommy had himself a young wife and a new baby girl.
Maybe it was the thought of them on the streets or his child growing up not knowing her daddy.
Whatever it was, something lit a fire under that boy's ass.
I was thinking of maybe trying for my high school equivalency.
I hear you helped a couple of fellas with that.
I don't waste time on losers, Tommy?
I ain't no goddamn loser.
- You mean that? - Yeah.
You really mean that?
Yes, sir, I do?
Good. Because if we do this,
we do it all the way, 100%, nothing half-assed.
The thing is, see?.?
.?.I don't read so good.
Well?
You don't read?.?
so well.
We'll get to that?
- R. - R...
- S? - S...
So Andy took Tommy under his wing.
He started walking him through his ABCs.
Tommy took to it pretty well, too.
The boy found brains he never knew he had.
Before long, Andy started him on his course requirements.
He really liked the kid.
It gave him a thrill to help a youngster crawl off the shit heap.
But that wasn't the only reason.
Prison time is slow time.
So you do what you can to keep going.
Some fellas collect stamps.
Others build matchstick houses.
Andy built a Library.
Now he needed a new project.
Tommy was it.
It was the same reason he spent years shaping and polishing those rocks.
The same reason he hung his fantasy girlies on the wall.
In prison,
a man will do most anything to keep his mind occupied.
By 1966, right about the time Tommy was getting ready to take his exams,
it was Lovely Raquel.
Time.
Well?
Well, it's for shit.
I wasted a whole fucking year of my time
- with this bullshit. - It's probably not as bad as you think?
It's worse. I didn't get one thing right. It might as well have been in Chinese.
Let's see how the score comes out.
Well, I'll tell you how the goddamn score comes out.
Two points right there.
There's your goddamn score!
Goddamn cats crawling up trees, 5x5 is 25.
Fuck this place!
Fuck it!
I feel bad? I let him down?
Ah, that's crap, kid.
He's proud of you.
We've been friends a long time so I know him as good as anybody?
- A smart fellow, ain't he? - As smart as they come?
He used to be a banker on the outside.
What's he in here for, anyway?
Murder.
The hell you say!
You wouldn't think it to look at the guy?
He caught his wife in bed with some golf pro.
He greased them both?
What?
About four years ago,
I was in Thomaston on a two-to-three stretch?
I stole a car. It was a dumb-fuck thing to do.
About six months left to go,
I get a new cellmate in?
Elmo Blatch.
Big, twitchy fucker?
Kind of roomie you pray you don't get?
You know what I'm saying?
Six-to-twelve, armed burglary.
He said he'd pulled hundreds of jobs?
Hard to believe, high-strung as he was?
You'd cut a loud fart, he'd jump three feet in the air?
Talked all the time, too?
That's the other thing? He never shut up.
Places he'd been in,
jobs he'd pulled, women he'd fucked.
Even people he'd killed?
People who gave him shit.
That's how he put it.
So.?.
one night, like a joke,
I say to him, I say, "Yeah, Elmo, who did you kill? "
So he says?.?
I got me this job one time bussing tables at a country club.
So I could case all these big rich pricks that come in.
So I pick out this guy,
go in one night and do his place.
He wakes up.
He gives me shit.
So I killed him.
Him and this tasty bitch he was with?
That's the best part.
She's fucking this prick, see, this golf pro?
But she's married to some other guy.
Some hotshot banker?
And he's the one they pinned it on?
I have to say that's the most amazing story I ever heard?
What amazes me most is you were taken in by it?
Sir?
Well.?.
it's obvious this fella Williams is impressed with you?
He hears your tale of woe
and quite naturally wants to cheer you up.
He's young, not terribly bright.
Not surprising he wouldn't know what a state he'd put you in?
Sir, he's telling the truth.
Well, let's say, for the moment, this Blatch does exist.
You think he'd just fall to his knees and cry,
"Yes, I did it! I confess!
And by the way, add a life term to my sentence"?
That doesn't matter? With Tommy's testimony, I can get a new trial?
That's assuming Blatch is even still there?
The chances are he'd be released by now.
They'd have his last address, names of relatives?
There's a chance, isn't there?
How can you be so obtuse?
What?
What did you call me?
Obtuse? Is it deliberate?
Son, you're forgetting yourself?
The country club will have his old timecards,
records, W-2s,
- with his name on them. - If you indulge this fantasy, that's your business.
- Don't make it mine? This meeting is over. - Sir, if I were to ever get out,
I would never mention what goes on in here. I'd be as indictable as you for laundering money?
Don't ever mention money to me again, you sorry son of a bitch!
Not in this office.
Not anywhere! Get in here now.
I'm just trying to set your mind at ease, that's all. Sir, I?.?
Solitary. A month?
- Yes, sir. - What's the matter with you?
- Get him out of here. - This is my chance to get out! Don't you see?
It's my life! Don't you understand?
- Get him out! Get him out! - This is my Life!
No!
A month in the hole?
It's the longest damn stretch I ever heard of?
It's all my fault?
Oh, bullshit.
You didn't pull the trigger and you certainly didn't convict him?
Red, are you saying that Andy is innocent?
I mean, for real innocent?
It looks that way.
Sweet Jesus.
How long's he been here now?
1947. What is that?
- 19 years? - 19 years...
- Williams, Thomas. - Yeah, over here.
- Paxon, Edward. - Yeah.
What you got? Board of Education?
- The son of a bitch mailed it? - Looks like he did.
Are you gonna open it or stand there with your thumb up your butt?
The thumb up my butt sounds better?
Hey, Skeet, come on, give me that, you shithead?
- Floyd, come on. - Over here, over here!
Hey, Red!
Come on, will you throw that away, please?
Well, shit.
The kid passed. C+ average.
Thought you'd like to know.
The Warden wants to talk?
Out here?
That's what the man said?
Warden?
Tommy?
Tommy.?.
I'm asking you to keep this conversation just between us?
I feel awkward enough as it is.
We got a situation here?
I think you can appreciate that?
Yes, sir.
I sure can.
I tell you, son, this thing really came along and knocked my wind out?
It's got me up nights, that's the truth?
The right thing to do.
Sometimes it's hard to know what that is?
You understand?
I need your help, son.
If I'm going to move on this,
there can't be the least little shred of doubt.
I have to know if what you told Dufresne was the truth?
Yes, sir.
Absolutely.
Would you be willing to swear before a judge and jury,
having placed your hand on the Good Book
and taken an oath before Almighty God himself?
Just give me that chance?
That's what I thought.
I'm sure by now you've heard.?.
A terrible thing.
A man that young, less than a year to go, trying to escape.
It broke Captain Hadley's heart to shoot him?
Truly, it did.
We just have to put it behind us?
Move on?
I'm done?
Everything stops?
Get someone else to run your scams.
Nothing stops?
Nothing.
Or you will do the hardest time there is.
No more protection from the guards.
I'll pull you out of that one-bunk Hilton
and cast you down with the Sodomites?
You'll think you've been fucked by a train?
And the library?
Gone.
Sealed off, brick by brick.
We'll have us a little book barbecue in the yard.
They'll see the flames for miles.
We'll dance around it like wild Injuns?
You understand me?
Catching my drift?
Or am I being obtuse?
Give him another month to think about it.
My wife used to say I'm a hard man to know?
Like a closed book.
Complained about it all the time.
She was beautiful?
God, I loved her.
I just didn't know how to show it, that's all.
I killed her, Red.
I didn't pull the trigger.
But I drove her away.
That's why she died, because of me?
The way I am.
That don't make you a murderer.
A bad husband, maybe.
Feel bad about it if you want to, but you didn't pull the trigger?
No, I didn't.
Somebody else did.
And I wound up in here?
Bad luck, I guess.
Yeah.
It floats around?
It's got to land on somebody?
It was my turn, that's all.
I was in the path of the tornado?
I just didn't expect the storm would last as long as it has?
Do you think you'll ever get out of here?
Me?
Yeah.
One day, when I've got a long, white beard
and two or three marbles rolling around upstairs, they'll let me out?
I tell you where I'd go.
Zihuatanejo?
Zi.?.what?
Zihuatanejo?
It's in Mexico?
A little place on the Pacific Ocean?
You know what the Mexicans say about the Pacific?
No.
They say it has no memory?
That's where I want to live the rest of my life?
A warm place with no memory.
Open up a little hotel,
right on the beach?
Buy some worthless old boat,
fix it up new.
Take my guests out.
Charter fishing.
Zihuatanejo, huh?
In a place like that, I could use a man who knows how to get things?
I don't think I could make it on the outside, Andy.
I've been in here most of my life?
I'm an institutional man now?
Just like Brooks was.
Well, you underestimate yourself.
I don't think so.
I mean.?.in here, I'm the guy who can get things for you, sure?
But outside, all you need is the Yellow Pages?
Hell, I wouldn't even know where to begin?
The Pacific Ocean?
Shit?
- About scare me to death, something that big. - Not me.
I didn't shoot my wife and I didn't shoot her lover?
Whatever mistakes I've made, I've paid for them and then some?
That hotel, that boat.
I don't think that's too much to ask.
I don't think you ought to be doing this to yourself, Andy.
These are just shitty pipe dreams.
I mean, Mexico is way the hell down there and you're in here?
And that's the way it is.
Yeah, right? That's the way it is.
It's down there and I'm in here?
I guess it comes down to a simple choice, really?
Get busy living
or get busy dying?
Andy?
Red?
If you ever get out of here, do me a favour?
Sure, Andy?
Anything.
There's a big hayfield up near Buxton? You know where Buxton is?
- Well, just?.? There's a lot of hayfields up there. - One in particular?
It's got a long rock wall
with a big oak tree at the north end?
It's like something out of a Robert Frost poem?
It's where I asked my wife to marry me.
We went there for a picnic and made love under that oak.
I asked and she said yes.
Promise me, Red,
if you ever get out,
find that spot.
At the base of that wall, you'll find a rock that has no earthly business in a Maine hayfield.
A piece of black, volcanic glass?
There's something buried under it I want you to have?
What, Andy?
What's buried under there?
You'll have to pry it up to see?
No, I'm telling you, the guy is?.?
He's talking funnier?
- I'm really worried about him? - We ought to keep an eye on him?
That's fine during the day, but at night he's got that cell all to himself.
Oh, Lord.
What?
Andy come down to the loading dock today.
- He asked me for a length of rope? - Rope?
Six feet long.
And you gave it to him?
Sure I did? Why wouldn't I?
Jesus, Heywood.
Hey, how the hell was I supposed to know?
Remember Brooks Hatlen?
No.
Andy would never do that.
Never.
I don't know.
Every man has his breaking point?
Lickety-split.
- I want to get home. - Just about finished, sir?
Three deposits tonight?
Get my stuff down to the laundry.
And shine my shoes. I want 'em looking like mirrors.
Yes, sir.
It's good having you back, Andy.
The place wasn't the same without you.
Lights out!
I've had some long nights in stir.
Alone in the dark with nothing but your thoughts,
time can draw out like a blade.
That was the longest night of my life.
Give me a count.
Tier 3 South? Clear?
Tier 4 North. Clear.
- Tier 3 North. Clear. - Man missing on Tier 2.
- Cell 245. - Dufresne?
Get your ass out here, boy. You're holding up the show.
Don't make me come down there? I'll thump your skull for you.
Damn it, Dufresne, you're putting me behind! I got a schedule to keep?
You'd better be sick or dead in there, I shit you not!
You hear me?
Oh, my holy God.
I want every man on this cel block questioned?
- Start with that friend of his? - Who?
Him!
Open 237.
What do you mean, he just wasn't here?
Don't say that to me, Haig?
Don't say that to me again.
But, sir, he wasn't.
I can see that, Haig!
You think I'm blind?
Is that what you're saying? Am I blind, Haig?
No, sir.
What about you?
Are you blind?
- Tell me what this is. - Last night's count?
You see Dufresne's name there? I sure do? See? Right there?
Dufresne?
He was in his cell at lights out?
It stands to reason he'd still be here in the morning.
I want him found?
Not tomorrow, not after breakfast?
Now!
Yes, sir!
Let's go, let's go! Move your butts! Move it!
Stand.
Well?
Well, what?
I see you two all the time. You're thick as thieves, you are.
He must have said something.
No, sir, Warden?
Not a word?
Lord, it's a miracle!
A man up and vanished like a fart in the wind.
Nothing left but...
some damn rocks on a windowsill?
And that cupcake on the wall?
Let's ask her.
Maybe she knows? What say there, Fuzzy Britches? Feel like talking?
Ah...
I guess not?
Why should she be any different?
This is a conspiracy.
That's what this is.
One big.?.
damn conspiracy!
And everyone's in on it!
including her!
In 1966,
Andy Dufresne escaped
from Shawshank Prison.
All they found of him was a muddy set of prison clothes,
a bar of soap
and an old rock hammer damn near worn down to the nub.
I remember thinking it would take a man 600 years to tunnel through the wall with it.
Old Andy did it in less than 20.
Oh, Andy loved geology.
I imagine it appealed to his meticulous nature.
An ice Age here,
a million years of mountain-building there.
Geology is the study of pressure and time.
That's all it takes, really.
Pressure...
and time.
That and a big goddamn poster.
Like I said,
in prison, a man will do most anything to keep his mind occupied.
It turns out Andy's favorite hobby was toting his wall out into the exercise yard.
A handful at a time.
I guess after Tommy was killed,
Andy decided he'd been here just about long enough.
Lickety-split? I want to get home?
I'm just about finished, sir?
Three deposits tonight?
Andy did like he was told.
Buffed those shoes to a high mirror shine.
The guard simply didn't notice.
Neither did I.
I mean, seriously, how often do you really look at a man's shoes?
Andy crawled to freedom through 500 yards of shit-smelling foulness I can't even imagine.
Or maybe I just don't want to.
500 yards.
That's the length of five football fields.
Just shy of half a mile.
The next morning, right about the time Raquel was spilling her little secret,
a man nobody ever laid eyes on before
strode into the Maine National Bank.
Until that moment,
he didn't exist,
except on paper.
May I help you?
He had all the proper ID,
driver's licence, birth certificate, social security card.
And the signature was a spot-on match.
I must say, I'm sorry to be losing your business?
I hope you'll enjoy living abroad?
Thank you.
I'm sure I will.
Here's your cashier's cheque, sir.
Will there be anything else?
Please?.?
Would you add this to your outgoing mail?
I'd be happy to?
- Good day, sir. - Good day.
Mr Stevens visited nearly a dozen banks in the Portland area that morning.
All told, he blew town with better than $370,000 of Warden Norton's money.
Severance pay for 19 years.
Good morning, Portland Daily Bugle.
Byron Hadley? You have the right to remain silent?
If you give up the right to remain silent, anything you say will be held against you in court.
I wasn't there to see it.
But I hear Byron Hadley started sobbing like a little girl when they took him away.
Norton had no intention of going that quietly.
Samuel Norton?
We have a warrant for your arrest. Open up.
Norton!
Open the door.
I'm not sure which key it is?
Norton!
Make it easy on yourself, Norton.
I like to think the last thing that went through his head,
other than that bullet,
was to wonder how the hell Andy Dufresne ever got the best of him.
Carter, James?.?
Not long after the Warden deprived us of his company,
I got a postcard in the mail.
It was blank but the postmark said...
Fort Hancock, Texas.
Fort Hancock.
Right on the border.
That's where Andy crossed.
When I picture him heading south in his own car with the top down,
it always makes me laugh.
Andy Dufresne,
who crawled through a river of shit
and came out clean on the other side.
Andy Dufresne,
headed for the Pacific.
Hadley's got him by the toes, right?
And he says, "I believe this boy's about to have himself an accident? "
Those of us who knew him best talk about him often.
I swear, the stuff he pulled...
"These friends of mine could use a couple of beers!"
- And he got it. - And he got it!
Sometimes it makes me sad, though,
Andy being gone.
I have to remind myself that some birds aren't meant to be caged.
Their feathers are just too bright.
And when they fly away,
the part of you that knows it was a sin to lock them up does rejoice.
But still...
the place you live in is that much more drab and empty that they're gone.
I guess I just miss my friend.
Please sit down.
Ellis Boyd Redding.
Your files say you've served 40 years of a life sentence?
Do you feel you've been rehabilitated?
Rehabilitated?
Well, now, let me see?
You know, I don't have any idea what that means.
Well, it means you're ready to rejoin society?.?
I know what you think it means, sonny?
To me, it's just a made-up word.
A politician's word so that.?.
young fellas like yourself can wear a suit and a tie and have a job.
What do you really want to know?
Am I sorry for what I did?
Well, are you?
There's not a day goes by I don't feel regret?
Not because I'm in here or because you think I should.
I look back on the way I was then.
A young?.?
stupid kid who committed that terrible crime.
I wanna talk to him.
I wanna try and talk some sense to him,
tell him the way things are.
But I can't.
That kid's long gone?
This old man is all that's left?
I gotta live with that?
Rehabilitated?
It's just a bullshit word.
So you go on and stamp your form, sonny, and stop wasting my time.
Because to tell you the truth,
I don't give a shit.
Here you go, miss.
Rest room break, boss?
You don't need to ask me every time you need to go take a piss. Just go? Understand?
Yes, sir.
40 years I've been asking permission to piss.
I can't squeeze a drop without say-so.
There's a harsh truth to face.
No way I'm gonna make it on the outside.
All I do any more is think of ways to break my parole...
...so maybe they'd send me back.
A terrible thing to live in fear.
Brooks Hatlen knew it, knew it all too well.
All I want is to be back where things make sense,
where I won't have to be afraid all the time.
Only one thing stops me.
A promise I made to Andy.
Here it is.
Much obliged, sir?
Dear Red,
if you're reading this, you've gotten out.
And if you've come this far, maybe you're wiling to come a little further.
You remember the name of the town, don't you?
Zihuatanejo?
I could use a good man
to help me get my project on wheels.
I'll keep an eye out for you
and the chessboard ready.
Remember, Red,
hope is a good thing.
Maybe the best of things.
And no good thing ever dies.
I will be hoping that this letter finds you
and finds you well.
Your friend, Andy.
Get busy living or get busy dying.
That's goddamn right.
For the second time in my life,
I'm guilty of committing a crime.
Parole violation.
Of course, I doubt they'll toss up any roadblocks for that.
Not for an old crook like me.
Fort Hancock, Texas, please.
I find I'm so excited I can barely sit still or hold a thought in my head.
I think it's the excitement only a free man can feel.
A free man at the start of a long journey
whose conclusion is uncertain.
I hope I can make it across the border.
I hope to see my friend and shake his hand.
I hope the Pacific is as blue as it has been in my dreams.
I hope.