JACK FROM WAY BACK

 

Harriet knew Jack from way back. She’d baked him a pie, as she recollected. (It was either a pie, or banana bread…some baked good. It’s not important.) The fact is their relationship started when she volunteered for the prison bake sale (a novel idea proclaimed by the, then warden, but not anymore, since the riot). Jack had earned the privilege on the basis of ‘good time served’, and was very helpful in setting up the tables and chairs. She was shy, averting her eyes, she thought him too painfully good looking to consider her seriously, but she had to admit she did enjoy the brief episode of teasing between them. It had something to do with the size of the table, and his insinuation that her ‘assortment’ could do with a TV tray, given the meager offering. It was her first bake sale, she was only thirteen, she was trying so hard, and it endeared her to him...in a big-brother way, not ‘the other’ way.

Eight years went by, but don’t ask where. Harriet graduated high school, went to the junior college, and took a job at Hastings Bank, while Jack served his time and returned to his town. 

He worked first as a laborer, but showed enough gumption that the foreman took notice and upped his position to ‘detail supervisor’, which meant that he was in charge of all prisoners on work furlough. At first he met with some resistance, but the crew grew to tolerate, if not fully respect him, and they managed a bond of sorts. But it started to unravel with the inclusion of Derek Haskell. Haskell was trouble, and Jack sensed it immediately. He tried to counsel him, to steer him right, but Haskell was a stubborn and conniving  soul, with a gift for gab, and eventually he managed to generate some attention from Jack, and not in a good way. 

On the day the bank was robbed, Haskell was safe in his cell, but Jack, acting as his accomplice on the outside, was jittery and reluctant as he approached the window. He extracted the note from his pea coat and slid it across the counter to the cashier.

“Jack?” she said.

V