Red Highway Read Online Free PDF Page A

years ago,” beamed the older man.
    â€œI thought you was too smart to end up here.”
    Moss shrugged his bull-like shoulders. “Tell that to the cops in Kansas City. Me ’n’ Floyd was takin’ off from a bank job downtown, when boom!” He clapped his hands. “We run smack into a police roadblock. Whattaya gonna do in a situation like that?”
    Virgil laughed heartily. “How is your brother?”
    â€œFloyd? Ornery as ever. They let him go a coupla months ago, on accounta no previous record. I got eighteen months to go.” He eyed the cane on which Virgil was supporting himself. “What’s with the gimp? Catch a bullet?”
    Virgil shook his head. “I busted my legs. Doc took the casts off a month ago, but they’re still weak. I been in the prison hospital since I got here.”
    â€œBoth legs?” Moss’ piggish eyes narrowed. “That’s pretty rare, ain’t it? Both of ’em?”
    The younger man met his stare. “I fell down two flights of stairs.”
    They remained silent for a long moment, looking into each other’s eyes. Then Moss exploded into laughter and punched Virgil in the shoulder. “That’s rich, kid. You oughtta be in vaudeville!”
    â€œThat’s what everybody says,” agreed Virgil, laughing and massaging his arm.
    â€œTwo legs! Jeez!” The stout convict wiped the tears of laughter from his eyes. “You must be the original Hard Luck Harry! Imagine! Two bustid legs ’n’ prison besides! How long you got?”
    â€œThree years, if I behave myself.”
    â€œHell, that’s nothin’! When the screws talk, just smile and nod. Take whatever they got to give. It’s a waltz.”
    â€œSome waltz. They tell me the guards beat a guy to death in the shower room just last month.”
    Ralph Moss laughed, but it was an embarrassed laugh. “Yeah. Well, that was his own fault. A screw told him to go back in and take another bath, he was filthy, but he told him to go to hell. He just didn’t play by the rules, that’s all.”
    â€œFor that, they killed him?” Virgil was more afraid than angry.
    â€œI guess they got carried away. But that’s just what I told you about. You leave them alone, they leave you alone. Be amiable. Follow the rules. You’ll be out like that.” He snapped his callused fingers.
    Virgil sat down on the edge of the bottom bunk of the ugly double-decked bed. His gray prison uniform hung on him like a sack. “Two years, or one, or six months, what’s it matter? It’s just too damned long! I only been here a little while, and it’s driving me crazy. Now I find out that they’ll kill you if you act like a man. I want out, Ralph. I want out now.”
    Moss laid a rough hand on the youth’s shoulder. “You’ll make it, kid.” He sat down beside him. “You think this is my first time? Listen, I been in and out of these joints all my life, ever since I was old enough to lift a gun. It passes, believe me. You just got to wait it out.”
    â€œThat’s not it,” insisted Virgil, shaking his head. “As soon as I get out on the street, I’m gonna get picked up again. I just know it. And then I’ll land right back here, or someplace like it, and that’ll be it.”
    â€œWhat makes you say that?”
    â€œFigure the odds.” Virgil began counting on his fingers. “I’m a crook. I don’t know how to do anything else, it’s all I been doing since I was a kid. I’m also a con. When I get out, I’ll be an ex-con. No difference. The state has my prints and picture. I been netted, labeled, and pinned to a board, just like a butterfly. There just isn’t any job I can pull that’s safe.”
    There was a twinkle in the older man’s eye. “It don’t have to be that way, you know.”
    Something in Moss’ voice made