Chapter 34
Thirty-Four
When Arthur answered the phone, there was a click and a hiss, and then a prerecorded message began to play. A somewhat robotic
female voice informed him that he had a call from Erin Oakes at the Black Cricket Women’s House of Correction, that the call
would be recorded and monitored, and that if he did not wish to speak to this prisoner, he should hang up now. He did not
hang up.
“Well,” she said, and there was happiness and relief in her voice, and he knew the rest without her saying anything. When
he drew his next breath, it felt like the first time he had been able to properly fill his lungs in four years.
“Well,” he replied, a little word that was doing a lot of work, because it meant “I love you,” and “Oh thank God,” and also
“When can I come get you?”
Saturday, it turned out. That Saturday, Dr. Erin Oakes walked out of the House of Correction with Arthur at her side.