3- Story Be Told

Caspalina was hundreds of miles away from the big towns and thousands of miles away from home. The native inhabitants of Caspalina have been dragged away after the government made the area a site for nuclear power plants and after their plan has failed, there were several international mining companies around there. I was assigned with one of the mining companies that relocated into Caspalina in late 2001 and I have signed a contract of six years. I have lived in Caspalina for over five years now, and I was waiting to go back home a few months later. There was a metaphor people used to say "Caspalina drags people in, hard to leave". I did not really understand what it meant clearly.

Almost ninety-nine percent of Caspalina's occupants are not the native inhabitants. A lot of them moved there in search of work and somehow they get comfortable in the setting and start a new life there. Meanwhile those people had the urge to feel like they belonged to the land, and they formed a big community. There wasn't enough opportunities there, but if you build up your resume from Caspalina, you're more likely to find the best job all around the world. Especially if you've studied mining engineering. A lot of people that I went to University with ended up working in the big cities and they started leading an ordinary life, but me growing up in an ordinary family setting made me fight to stay on the top. I always felt like, normal is not for me, it always has to be beyond that.

I used to read some articles on the internet that Caspalina had the most corrupted law system, especially with the local police officers and court laws. Nevertheless I never believed it, at least what I have expected and the reality were different until I was dragged out of my place and thrown in a cell. I also used to hear rumors that the police officers used excessive power into individuals, and a bitter treatment to young females who relocate from bigger cities. All these was a story to me. I have lived in Caspalina for over five years, and never heard any peculiar news hence my first day.

The prison cells were smaller than my bathroom. It was barely six feet by four. The walls were the same thick grey stone as the dwellings of the region, but instead of a wide window with a flower box there was a mean barred opening with thick metal bars and no glass. These walls cannot hold a prayer, nor a positive spirit. And so I call to the lord, and I promised to cooperate with the police officers if they let me out of the cell for just a minute. I looked at the guy who was locked with me and he seemed like he's been locked up for a long time at the police station. He had a dead soul. His eyes were big and never stopped staring at me. During this time, he never said a word and it creeped me out. Anger seized me, my fingers refused to move, I sat rigid for one long moment. Bitterness had preyed upon me continually for hours and before I know it I realized that I was locked up for three days.

Three days have passed on and I was going for my fourth day in the prison cell and had no interrogation at all. Not being able to see the news frustrated me, because I didn't know what the world was talking about me during the time of my imprisonment. I tried talking to one of the officers, but it seemed like neither one of them were trying to take responsibility of me. On my fourth day inside the cell, Officer Martin came along with Chief Officer Lance and they put handcuffs on me and took me outside the cell. The sense grew stronger as they led me down the hall past a break room and nurse's station towards the quiet hallway lined by prisoners' cells, each housing four to five prisoners. As we kept on walking, the hall gets darker and darker. The light appeared to be in every ten yards of the hallway and then finally we reached to a door made with firm and rusty steel. In the dark room, even the ticking of the clock had a relaxed feeling, as if it was a heart-beat at rest. It felt as if the air moved like cool water. The dark room was like a place out of time, a place to rest without consequence. The darkness in that way was a sanctuary, a place to recharge and forget the things the world said had to be done, but the reality was the opposite. Officer Martin and Chief Officer Lance had no expression on their faces. They did not smile nor did they frown, or show either surprise or curiosity or friendliness. My whole body was trembling, I bloated out with terror and that time I didn't even know how to speak.

"I hope you will help us get the answers we're looking for," the deep voice of Chief Officer Lance had a way to ignite another fear inside me. This time I was completely honest with them. I had no clue if that dark room would be the last place I'd visit alive before I turned out to be a dead man. "You haven't gave us the answers we're looking for!" he stormed out. "You see, your life can end right now right here. If you want to risk your life over some none sense friendship you and your buddy got, its the easiest way for us. See, your mugshot is archived and it's easy for us to tell the whole world that you conspired in the kidnapping of Loise Thomason, and you know what else?" he blew the cigarette smoke straight to my face and gave me this deadly glare "you'll end up dead in my facility!" his voice sounded like a rumbling thunder.

This time, I had no other words to use to make them believe me. They already made their decision that I conspired with Rony in the disappearance of Loise Thomason. Serving time for something I had nothing to do with felt getting stabbed numerous times in the back. "Rony set you up!" a voice in my head started playing tricks on me. I started hallucinating, with total disbelief, I was disorientated. 'if you can care for a friend or one you love, if you leave them to suffer when you could have saved them from it-that's betrayal' the voice in my head continued. I was already in solitary confinement after the interrogation. I could feel my brain cells shutting down, and my soul possessed with the greatest anger and rage. Like a fierce-full animal, I started groaning and crying loud. My voice started freaking me out, I was scared of myself in the solitude.