Prisoner!

The heavily bolted iron door was opened and the bedraggled man received a hard thrust on his back which caused him to topple outside. Bright, warm sunlight engulfed him as he exited the chilliness of the prison. He stared besotted at the sun, as he was seeing it after six long, harsh years. He stretched himself and breathed the pure, fresh air, relieved to be out of the unkempt and stifling prison. He looked around him and acknowledged for the first time ever how beautiful the world exactly is. The cell in which he was imprisoned had been the morose of all places he had laid eyes upon. It consisted of just a drab shade of grey upon cold hard granite, a light bulb that flickered feebly and a moth eaten single bed.

He started walking, intending to put as much distance between himself and the hell-hole of a prison as possible. Soon he neared a busy street. He caught a reflection of himself on the pulled up window of a speeding car. His eyes had deep purplish-black circles etched beneath, his lank hair lay matted tousled around his forehead and his whole face had a gaunt appearance. He had the vestiges of real good looks, but something~ perhaps all those tormenting years in prison ruined them. He used to be a town hoodlum, living off scraps of stolen food or pick pocketing, and he was used to such life. Until some ruffian drug dealers fooled him to do their bidding, and ill-fated as he was~ he got caught in the act while the real perpetrators ran free.

He had no family; no wife, no children and his parents had left him long ago to fend for himself in this ever so changing world. He had nowhere to go, no home, no place he could call his own and no money either. He spent his nights sneaking into a narrow alley and curling up into a corner. He had no friends and no relatives that he was aware of. He had only himself and after having learnt his lesson the hard way, he has decided he would befriend no one nor mingle with anyone.  He was as alone as one could be and surprisingly, he was contented that way. He needed no one, because he’d never experienced what it really feels like to be loved, to be wanted and to have a family.

All around him cars honked and people spoke in loud voices as they went about their ways. Had it always been so noisy outside? He could not tell, for his cell had no window and the only sound he heard inside it was the steady ‘drip drip’ of damp water. He also could never make out when it was the pearly white moon or the blazing yellow sun that ruled the sky. The only person who ever came to visit him was the matron who pushed in stale food at certain intervals.

He rubbed throat and realized how awfully thirsty he was. He started looking around frantically and his ardent eyes soon spotted a man in the crowd talking animatedly on the phone. He was swift as a hawk and silent as a cat as he snatched away his wallet.

He grinned as he counted the money. Enough for a drink at the nearby pub; maybe even two! Yes, he thought elatedly, life was back to normal again.

Nothing had changed.