yancey was released from prison after serving eight years for the murder of yolanda carter.
he knew what to expect. he received eight hundred dollars and a new suit of clothes and new shoes.
the prison was thirty-seven kilometers from civilization. a bus ran to the city twice a day, with a one way fare of forty dollars. as he had no one to meet him at the gate, yancey could either pay the forty dollars or walk the thirty seven kilometers.
during his eight years he had heard many stories about the bad things that could happen on the thirty seven kilometer walk, especially from desperadoes and con men and evil women who cruised the highway to pounce on the newly released convicts and divest them of their little bonuses by various brutal or smooth means.
but he had also heard assurances that these tales were urban myths, that a) there were not enough convicts being released every day to make it worth anybody’s while to constantly roam the highway, and b) that the highway police did regularly cruise the road, making it one of the safest places in the empire, especially during daylight hours.
yancey decided to walk. he had hoped that his assigned parole officer, mr oliver, would pick him up and introduce himself, but this did not work out.
yancey had kept in shape during his incarceration, and was still young. he felt he night actually enjoy the long walk in the cool morning air.
so he set out.
yancey, like 28 percent of the inmates, had decided to become a preacher when he got out. he had read the books of the reverend jake and fund them instructive. the reverend jake had a fairly large following in the prison, though not as large as the reverend selim’s.
the followers of jake and the followers of selim did not mix much. actually, none of the inmates had much contact with each other at all. there was not much conflict, or opportunity for conflict. only the works of preachers like jake and selim, who preached the ways of peace, were made available on the prison library shelves.
yancey had not made up his mind as to whether to preached the gospel of jake, or to develop his own gospel. he was inclined to preach jake’s at first, then perhaps to strike out on his own if and when he got a handle on preaching at all.
and of course, he needed a job.
when yancey had been young and innocent and free, he had thought he wanted three things - a job, a girl, and a dog.
now he would gladly settle for a job, and worry about the girl and the dog later.
all these thoughts had, of course, occupied much of his waking hours in the prison.
i am out now, he thought as he walked along, i should get some new thoughts.
how he wished mr oliver, the parole officer, had picked him up!
just as he thought this, he saw a car approaching.
an ordinary looking car, it was painted a dull blue, and looked like a four seater.
it slowed down, and the driver, who seemed to be alone in the car, looked at yancey as it passed him.
yancey looked back after it had gone by.
the blue car was making a u turn on the highway, and started back toward him.
uh-oh!
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