Parole - a Novel by Bruce Hartman; mult character narration (m/female)
Description
Vocal Characteristics
Language
EnglishVoice Age
Young Adult (18-35)Accents
North American (US General American - GenAM)Transcript
Note: Transcripts are generated using speech recognition software and may contain errors.
The driver's window of the black BMW glided open and a 45 caliber glock settled into a firing position under a foggy streetlight in downtown L A man stepped off the bolt bus lugging a plastic garbage bag. A skinny white guy in gray sweats who looked like an aging skinhead, followed by a big black guy also in gray sweats. A Mexican woman lugging a battered suitcase and a little girl, three shots flared out from the glock in the car window. People shouted, screamed, howled more shots and the men went down dragging the woman and the girl with them, all of them lay motionless, silent bleeding on the sidewalk. The men sprawled on the sidewalk were Kenny Ruffin and Kat mcgrath. They had been paroled out of San Quentin that morning and stuck on the same bus back to L A inside the prison. They instinctively hated each other. Ruffin was black mcgrath white and if they'd ever made eye contact, one of them would probably have ended up dead on the laundry floor. Now, squeezed together next to the stinking toilet in the back of the bus. They were supposed to play nice. You ever been paroled before mcgrath. The white guy said out loud without looking at ruffin, his face was wisened and blotchy, his neck ringed with tattooed snakes and American flags. The first thing you notice about him was his new white prison teeth. A going away present from the warden who hoped never to see him again. Well, I've been in and out a few times so I know the drill. You spend your time inside waiting for the big day when you finally get out. But believe me, outside is a **** of a lot worse than inside. You think it's bad in Quentin? Maybe you forgot what things is like out here just as bad as inside worse. Only more complicated, more dangerous. Would he have to listen to this Peckerwood all the way to L A? Ruffin wondered that eight hours was going to be like spending another 10 years in a joint. You gotta watch your *** every minute mcgrath went on on the inside. You know who your enemies are, turn your back on them and you're a dead man. Same is out here. Ruffin thought, try it and find out outside. You can't trust nobody. Especially your parole agent unless you want to be his ***** for the time. You're outside the time. I'm outside. Rough and bristled. What's he talking about? He thinks I'm going back inside. Oh, you'll go back in mcgrath said, reading his mind. Everybody goes back in. That's how the system works. But you want to make the most of your time on the outside. The first thing I'm gonna do when we get off this bus is get laid. The first thing I'm gonna do. Ruffin said is kick your ***. The second thing is kick it again. That would be a parole violation. Mcgrath smiled, showing off his new teeth from now on everything you do is gonna be a parole violation. You look cross eyed at a cop that's a parole violation. You don't eat your mashed potatoes. That's a parole violation. You wear the wrong color lipstick when you kiss your parole agent's ***. That's a parole violation. Don't you ever shut your mouth? Now that you mention it, I guess I don't. Folks been telling me that all my life, even my own dear mama, son. She said if you don't stop your damn babbling, I'm gonna knock that pacify down your throat, but I just can't do it. It's a weakness I admit been that way all my life.