Imprisoned

IMPRISONED

Holding onto the bars, it was visiting time for Michael to the prison
his friend was at.

'I want to get out,' his friend on the other side of the bars said as
she held his hands to kiss them.

Loosening his grip on the bars, Michael reached to cares her face. 'You
can get out is you really want to, no one is holding you back.'

'I cannot escape from here,' the girl said as she heard footsteps
approach. 'The warden is around too often for me to contemplate any
escape, even if I had help.' She kissed his hand. 'I want to be with
you, but we both know I can't. I am frightened, but at the same time
want to be with you too much, only these are preventing me,' she hit
the bars.

'You can be with me if you really wanted,' Michael tried for her to see
she could if she really needed to be with him.

'I am scared.'

'Of what? Getting caught?' Michael frowned as she pulled her hand back
inside as the warden came to see her.

'What are you doing here?' she asked in a decisive manner to
Michael.

'I came to visit my girlfirend. I have a right.'

His girlfriend looked to him, 'Don't Michael. Don't argue with her, she
would prevent your visiting me and I don't ever want that to happen. I
am frightened of hurting you Michael, but am also frightened of hurting
the warden.'

'That's right,' the warden smiled. 'You stay here where you know you
will be safe and free from harm.'

'You will never hurt me, but don't listen to other people all your
life. Tell then what you want and go to get it,' Michael said, trying
to tell his girlfriend to leave as soon as possible.

She looked to the warden.

'Don't listen to him. You know where you are happiest and you don't
want to go getting yourself into trouble, do you?'

Shaking her head, the girl only wanted to please and not hurt either of
them.

The warden walked on into the darkness, happy in the fact that she
thought she knew she had the girl where she wanted her.

'I can't come with you,' she whispered. 'You will do what you want with
me, then hurt me like the rest of the boyfriends I had and I would be
in here once more, only next time it may not be as easy as this
time.'

'I think deep down you know I will not do that to you,' he placed his
face near the bars.

'Do I?'

'I thought you would have trusted me enough by now to know you can
trust me and I won't push you into doing anything you do not want to.'
Michael knew what he wanted, but had to try and convince the girl to
listen to what he was saying as he believed it was the truth.

'I want to free myself. Let myself and my spirit to be free from this
place, but I don't want to be hurt. That has happened to me too many
times in the past and that was why my confidence was shattered and
ended up in here - afraid to trust men. The warden taught me a few
lessons and said my other boyfriends were not interested in me, and now
I can see that, having had time to really think about it being stuck in
here. Men, they only want one thing from me and I am fed up of being
treated like dirt. I want to get my own back, but I am in here feeling
safe that no one can hurt me ever again.' His girlfriend was decided
and knew what she wanted, but still Michael desperately wanted to show
her not to live in the past. This was to be the first day of her future
and her future should be happy and decisions should be made by her, not
the warden.

Michael had enjoyed her friendship and knew she felt equally as he did,
but was afraid to push too hard, it may alienate her from him, and he
did not want that. She may back away from him so much that she would
become lost in the prison forecer and who knew what may happen to her.
She was delicate, always used to letting other people tell her what to
do.

Retreating from him as Michael pushed his hand through the bars to
touch her, she shouted at him, 'No! I don't want to be a part of you,'
and cried as she fell to her knees.

Footsteps were heard aproaching again.

'Quick, you have to go. Don't let the warden catch you still here,' his
girlfriend needed him to leave. Her life was bad enough without him
making it worse by letting the warden see him twice in the space of
half an hour.

'I know you have had bad experiences and I do not wish to invade your
past if you don't want me to, but you have to escape to be with me and
our life. Your past is history, and I don't judge people for what they
have done, it is what they are now that is more important. People
change.' Michael was almost pleading for her to go with him.

'You have to go,' she whispered, seeing the warden.

'What are you still doing here?' the warden's deep voice echoed off the
walls.

'I have a right to see my girlfriend,' he replied.

'Not if she doesn't want to see you.' The warden looked to hhis
girlfriend.

'I want to see him mam,' she shouted as she grabbed onto the bars and
felt them melt under her fingers. 'I want to lead my own life and if
that means leaving you behind and going forward in a positive
direction, it is my decision and my life. A decision in my life I know
will make me happy and contented, not let all the decent men slip under
my fingers and be your little baby forever.'

Michael held her as he led her from the prison.

Waking from her daydream, Louise felt contented that her life was, from
now on, going on a course she knew she wanted. The prison bars had held
her where her mother had wanted her for as long as the world
past.

She had become to realise that time waits for no man and that the world
had recently slowed down enough for her to jump on the band wagon and
be swept up onto the merry-go-round of love.