Gideon looked up, a scowl on his face. “All I can do is yell that I love her when the operator’s askin’ if she’ll take the call. I ain’t got the money to talk to her the way I wanna.”

“Man, that sucks.”

“Got that right.”

“I can’t stand the way they rip a guy off in here—charging an arm and a leg just to call his girl.”

“No shit. I called my mom collect and they charged her ten bucks just to say hi.”

“That’s bullshit,” Gavin said, dumbing his vocabulary down to put Gideon at ease. “And your cousin’s out there free and clear, doggin’ on your girl all he wants, and ain’t nothing you can do. You can’t even tell her how you feel.”

“Why you doin’ me that way, man? Why you fuckin’ with me—making me feel like shit? It’s bad enough I’m locked up and all.”

“I have an idea that might help you out.” Gavin nodded in the direction of his cell, then stood and walked.

Gideon hesitated, but followed Gavin. Once inside, Gavin stayed near the door to make sure that they weren’t overheard. “I feel bad about your situation, Gideon. I mean, you didn’t do nothin’ but defend your honor. Hell, folks used to expect a man to defend his honor. Now they throw you in jail for it.”

“Ain’t that the truth?”

“There ain’t much I can do to get you out of here, but I can make your stay a little better—if you let me.”

Gideon looked at Gavin with a suspicious eye. “What the hell you talkin’ ’bout?”

“I want to buy you a phone card, and put a little scratch in your commissary fund.”

“Why would you do something like that?”

“You’re a good guy, Gideon. I saw that right away. You didn’t make fun of my speech impediment or go all predator on me. I appreciate that.”

“You do talk funny, but I figure that ain’t somethin’ you got control over.”

“That’s an honorable way to look at it, Gideon.”

“Ain’t no big deal,” he said. “And I thank you for the callin’ card and stuff.”

“No problem. We have to help each other out, because no one else is going to do it. Am I right?”

“Amen to that.” Gideon held his fist up and Gavin gave him a bump.

“I do have one small problem, though,” Gavin said. “It’s not much, but I could use your help.”

“What’s that?”

“I have this friend who might be important to my case. I need to reach him, but I don’t really want the powers that be to know about it. I mean, he might help me, but then again, he might hurt my case quite a bit—if you know what I mean. I wrote him a letter.”