He said … he said he thought it was too long. And he said he thought the regimen was too strict. He said he thought we should have more beer and more recreational reading. More contemporary reading.

Like what?

Oh, you know. More new stuff. He thought we should have been allowed to read what was on the best-seller lists.

In short, he didn’t want to have to read the classics, correct? He just wanted to skip Melville and Twain and Tolstoy, didn’t he?

Essentially, yes. That’s correct.

He thought they were a bunch of old geezers, didn’t he?

Well. Not in so many words. I guess you could put it like that.

Didn’t he actually say that once, though? Didn’t he once, in the presence of two other prisoners, call Sophocles ‘a dried-up old fart’?

I …

You don’t remember.

No.

Your memory just comes and goes, doesn’t it? Well, why don’t you just see if you can remember what happened on the afternoon you met Mr. Varrick in the yard, before you were taken in for involuntary sex? I’m sure everybody would just love to hear that.

It may take a while.

I’ve got all day.

[Deep breath, gathering will] Well. Like I said, we thought it was beer call. I mean, it was almost four o’clock. We just thought they were a little early.

Were they ever early for a beer call?

Not usually, no.

Up until that time, had you ever seen an early beer call?

No.

Wasn’t everything timed to a very strict schedule, right up to the minute?

Yes. Well anyway. I saw How—Mr. Varrick, standing in line on the yellow footprints, and I went over to him. We talked for a minute. He’d been writing some poetry—

Whose? Raymond Carver’s?

and he said he thought something funny was going on. He said they’d been heavy on his grading. He said all his papers were coming back with red marks on them, and they’d caught him with three comma splices in one week. And he’d lost his thesaurus. He was worried.

Under oath, Mr. Lawrence. Did he mention anything to you at that time about involuntary sex?

He said … he said he thought we were in for it. Those were his words.

He didn’t specifically mention involuntary sex?

No. Not in so many words. I just told you what he said.

But you knew. You knew what was coming.

We didn’t know for sure. They hadn’t told us anything.

You knew it wasn’t beer call yet. Didn’t you?

Well, everybody else was beginning to line up. They all had their papers. We hadn’t been given any reason to suspect. We … we thought they’d let us slide. At least, I did.

And why was that? Had they ever let anybody slide before?