2 Chapter 2

Don’t want what you can’t have. 730 days.

He pushed the dinner tray outside and gazed around the cell. An electric shaver sat on the rusty sink. Next to it, an old-fashioned plastic black comb held red hairs and dandruff. Felipe remembered his father having a comb like that, taking it from a back pocket, using it to comb Felipe’s hair before school. For a moment unshed tears about his father wet his eyes.

A clatter at the door and a stoop-shouldered old man waited while the guard unlocked it.

“You take care, Harley,” the guard said, his voice quiet.

“Thanks, Al.” The old man held a brown paper bag with liver-spotted hands. A new-looking blue knit cap covered his head.

Felipe rose from the bed, embarrassed that he’d sat on it. He held out one hand. “I’m Felipe.”