RED (V.O.)

The Sisters kept at him. Sometimes he was able to fight them off… sometimes not.

ANDY BACKS INTO A CORNER IN SOME DINGY PART OF THE PRISON,

wildly swinging a rake at his tormentors.

RED (V.O.)

He always fought, that's what I remember. He fought because he knew if he didn't fight, it would make it that much easier not to fight the next time.

The rake connects, snapping off over somebody's skull. They beat the hell out of him.

RED (V.O.)

Half the time it landed him in the infirmary…

INT -- SOLITARY CONFINEMENT ("THE HOLE") -- NIGHT (1949)

A stone closet. No bed, sink, or lights. Just a toilet with no seat. Andy sits on bare concrete, bruised face lit by a faint ray of light falling through the tiny slit in the steel door.

RED (V.O.)

…the other half, it landed him in solitary. Warden Norton's "grain & drain" vacation. Bread, water, and all the privacy you could want.

INT -- PRISON LAUNDRY -- DAY (1949)

Andy is working the line.

RED (V.O.)

And that's how it went for Andy. That was his routine. I do believe those first two years were the worst for him. And I also believe if things had gone on that way, this place would have got the best of him. But then, in the spring of 1949, the powers-that-be decided that…

EXT -- PRISON YARD -- DAY (1949)

Warden Norton addresses the assembled cons via bullhorn:

NORTON

…the roof of the license-plate factory needs resurfacing. I need a dozen volunteers for a week's work. We're gonna be taking names in this steel bucket here…

Red glances around at his friends. Andy also catches his eye.

RED (V.O.)

It was outdoor detail, and May is one damn fine month to be workin' outdoors.

EXT -- PRISON YARD -- DAY (1949)

Cons shuffle past, dropping slips of paper into a bucket.

RED (V.O.)

More than a hundred men volunteered for the job.

Red saunters to a guard named TIM YOUNGBLOOD, mutters discreetly in his ear.

EXT -- PRISON YARD -- DAY (1949)

Youngblood is pulling names and reading them off. Red exchanges grins with Andy and the others.

RED (V.O.)

Wouldn't you know it? Me and some fellas I know were among the names called.

INT -- PRISON CORRIDOR -- NIGHT (1949)

Red slips Youngblood six packs of cigarettes.

RED (V.O.)

Only cost us a pack of smokes per man. I made my usual twenty percent, of course.

EXT -- LICENSE PLATE FACTORY -- DAY (1949)

A tar-cooker bubbles and smokes. TWO CONS dip up a bucket of tar and tie a rope to the handle. The rope goes taught. CAMERA FOLLOWS the bucket of tar up the side of the building to --

THE ROOF

-- where it is relayed to the work detail. the men are dipping big Padd brushes and spreading the tar. ANGLZ OVER to Byron Hadley bitching sourly to his fellow guards:

HADLEY

…so this shithead lawyer calls long distance from Texas, and he says, Byron Hadley? I say, yeah. He says, sorry to inform you, but your brother just died.