Along time ago I befriended a man who held those keys that would open those cold steel doors. From January to December that was his main job and nothing else.
As time went on he didn’t do what he did because it became too much for him. You could see the years took its toll on his old craggy looking face.
In his time working there he witnessed and saw things that no man should see. Also over the years, he began to have that never caring attitude.
Nothing would give him more pleasure than to pick up his bag and leave but the problem was he didn’t know-how.
The nights were the worse for him been locked inside that control room with only a thick shatterproof glass to look through. The only sound he heard was these huge cockroaches and rats running around looking for food or those huge cobwebs hanging from that raw red brick that wasn’t finished since they built it five years ago. The only comfort that he had was his small portable radio.
Sometimes he wished that he was of pensionable age but that was four years from now. In his lifetime he attended more funerals than he can remember some of them were people he didn’t even know that well but it still brought tears to his face.
Then one rainy day I heard over the loudspeaker new inmates coming in as he was still talking to one of the wardens something just told him to look to his left. That look alone on his face said it all when he saw his only grandson whom he loved among those new inmates.
He couldn’t believe it at that moment in time, he thought that he was dreaming but in truth, he wasn’t. His worst nightmare has just begun.
He didn’t even ask his grandson why are you here. That same day without even saying a word to anyone he just went into the office put the keys on the desk and walked out never to be seen again.
