Chronicals of the Incarcerated: Sun Tea

A pale tea is brewing behind the razor wire. Is your prison fashioned of concrete and rebar or flesh and blood? Does guilt and shame hold you captive or is it greed and keeping up with the Joneses?

The label on the plastic container read 0.9% Normal Saline 1 liter.  The salty liquid was long since used up and the container was being recycled for it’s clear and transparent property.  The color of the fluid that  now filled the bottle was a pale brown with a tinge of orange to it.  Five tea bags hung into the fluid.  The whole concoction sat on a yellowed picnic table within the walls of concrete.  The floors beneath the table was concrete as well. 

One half of the span above the area was covered by the buildings overhang.  The other half was enclosed with chain link fencing. As you exited the infirmary door into the  inmate recreation area, the sun and metal mesh left a shadowed diamond grid on the wall to the right .  A portion of the rock like floor was decorated with a like pattern.   Most importantly, the sun caressed  the one liter of water graced with the nectar of the tea bags that hung suspended in it’s volume.  It cast a yellowed ray of hope onto the tables bench seat. 

There was time taken from the day to brew sun tea in a life that would be cut short by faits irony.  The man shall remain nameless but his destiny is being held in the palm of huntington’s disease hand... a cruel disease that steals gait, speech, and life. 

His eyes are bright and dance with mischief.  His face holds a waxy plastic appearance.  He stands bent severely at the waist to aid in holding his balance and keep him from falling to the floor.   All the while sun tea is brewing. 

The wheeled walker, that sports it’s own seat, is equipped  with hand activated brakes.  Painted paper flames adorn  either side of the walker and give testimony to his personality. His humor helps him cope with his reality, a fairly short sentence being converted to a life sentence by a genetic mishap.  

Jokes are told through slurred speech.  Laughter finds a home in the dwelling place of murderers and rapists.  Society’s lowliest inhabitants dwell here and sun tea brews in this place. 

My mind wanders to  a time of great pain in my own world.  I discovered the infidelity of my first love.  My children’s father was unfaithful and in love with another.  I held murderous thoughts in my heart.   I wanted them both dead.  My second husbands infidelity was visited upon my own children.  Vengeance has toyed with my mind in many ways. So how am I different from this bright-eyed man, who lives not only within a prison of concrete, chain link twisted metals and razor wire but also within the prison of his own flesh.  The flesh that houses his soul is destined to steal his life. 

His punishment is righteous yet ever so severe when I reconcile that I have desired to commit his crime ten fold.   I consider that my heart is evil and, in that, I have found my own humanity.  

Still, tea bags and sunshine spawn a simple pleasure. 

As sun tea brews, I will consider the state of my own heart and the walls that hold me captive.  My walls are constructed of regret and tears are the mortar that binds and gives my prison strength to hold me in it’s grasp.   I seek a slice of sunshine to caress my face as I sit and sip on the love child of dried tea leaves and daylight.  

Reviews

[Sara Muschweck]

Seeing the solace of the sun tea in the eyes of the prisoner serving time for crime, as well as having his body slowly quit on him, was such a vivid image. Knowing that inside all of us are dark thoughts of vengeance yet only few ever act on those thoughts, and they sit now inside of their own sentences walking further into that dark path. Seeing that you have built you own "prison" around your heart with your "regret and tears" and knowing that you control the keys to your destiny. Looking for the "slice of sunshine to carress my face" Wonderful write.

[BrightEyes]

wow...impressed with this piece I must say. I have to agree with Tammy, this definitely holds a novel within it...one that needs to be written. this speaks to everyone, as I'm sure we've all had that anger, the one where you wish actual harm on others. we recover and find our sanity once again...yet what if? I love the metaphor of the sun tea....bringing hope and light. I can't cover everything I loved about this work here...just..an amazing write.

laura

[Ailee Way]

I have shivers. You tell this story beautifully. It's amazing to see a subject like this turn into vivid beautiful words. You make these totally unique sentences that are full of so much feeling, spare nothing, but somehow are concise: The flesh that houses his soul is destined to steal his life. I consider that my heart is evil and, in that, I have found my own humanity.
Really amazing. I don't think your heart is evil. You are the lioness who would kill to defend your babies-- that's courageous, i think, and far from evil. just my 2 cents. But i wouldn't change a word of this piece.

[Emily B]

Life ain't always beautiful. You've taken a difficult subject full of stark reality and a bleak future, and you've drawn us in. We all are serving time in our own bodies. We all have our own cells. This was a great write!

[TL Boehm]

a novel whispers in the lines of this, begging to get out. The voice is quiet yet powerful. I cannot pull myself away from the starkness of this place - and that surreal sun tea container in the midst of it all. you have a unique story here. It wants to be told.

[TheNewerLisa]

I think there are things here that we can all relate to. This is a nice juxtaposition of feeling low, sinking low, and paying the consequences...along with those things that are not in your control (ie disease and infidelity of another), and the simple pleasures that life still has to offer us in spite of all the pain. I really liked this piece.

My one suggestion: spellcheck

[Donald Meikle]

Not the nicest of subjects to write about but as they say write about what you know. Illustrating the humanity of these men by their still burning sense of humor and finding common ground by your own desire for personal justice is a great format. The tea! A way to show the passage of slow time in its own sweet essence. Sun tea is well worth the wait. And this was well worth the read

[Chantal-lise Mirman]

What a great insight gleaned from an unusual perspective! I love to way you've used the Sun Tea to tie the life of the prisoner to your own. The irony of the tea being brewed in what had been a receptacle for life-giving saline is interesting as it now serves to capture a bit of sunshine in a desolate space.

Against this backdrop of the Sun continuing to brew tea regardless of what else happens, you examine the walls that imprison people, both figuratively and literally. How we cope with not only problems, but the cosequences of our actions is under the microscope, just as the former jug of saline filters the Sun. The realization that we are all capable of the same urges (although I think it an important distinction that we do not necessarily act on those urges) does not reduce us to the lowest common denominator, but instead points out our humanity.

Nice detail, good imagery.

Very nice observational story that holds a message of hope.

Just a few suggestions:

1. I think it might be better to have the whole description of the prison area in the present tense.

2. The third paragraph is a bit awkward. I think that the point of ironic fate belongs at the end of the paragraph about the wheelchair. Just stop the sentence at "...cut short." Also, it might flow better to say "... in the palm of a hand crippled by Huntingdon's Disease."

3. In the 7th paragraph, there should be an apostrophe in "second husband's infidelity" and a question mark at the end of "prison of his own flesh?"

Well, I have to say, I really relate to this, having been married twice and having worked in the criminal justice system, as well, so I have to save this to my favorites!

Good job!