Thursday, November 23, 2006

Thanksgiving

I worked today, interviewing 12 inmates. Silly me asked the front entrance CO if they served any Thanksgiving lunch or something; the COs just laughed.

Earlier I posted how I was having some trouble getting older black men to open up to me, feel comfortable enough with me to discuss their side of the story. Well, I interviewed four this morning, and it went really, really well! I am very happy. One guy had the most happy, expressive face I've ever seen; he had a happy heart to match, and we had a lot of fun chatting. Another guy reluctantly (but with a smile) told me he'd been seeing a lady other than his wife, and I got to rib him about that good-naturedly, that was fun too. He was like 65!! :)

I also spoke with a girl who danced on the weekends in Miami. She had a dancer's nonchalance, that sort of unpretentious ease in giving and receiving compliments, in completely disregarding personal space. She was lovely, with an angular face and eyes that naturally seemed fashionably lined with eyeliner, just by virtue of her skin color. She was also very kind. I hope everything works out for her.

My last interview was with an 18 year old. It was very strange, but in an interesting way: this kid and I were as opposite as worlds can be, and yet I felt like he and I were family in some way. I know that sounds strange, and it was, but his mannerisms, his immediate comfort with me, his lack of any kind of attitude - I felt like I was sitting in a room with my brother. Like we could have talked about Nintendo or something, or I could have asked him why he ate all the Rice Krispies and he'd laugh at me and say Sorry, or something. Or like he'd just plain hang out. He was quiet most of the time, reading all the paperwork, and maybe that's what it was, just two people being comfortably quiet around each other. It felt really good, for me. I hope he felt it, too. Who knows. It was very strange.

And then I come home for real family-time. And a certain family member is going to join our police force in February, and that person's amor du jour is a detective who, upon hearing that I worked for the PD's office interviewing people, said, "God, I'm sorry, you know they're all lying, right? How do you do it?" then shook his head, wandered off with his Glenlivet scotch to go have a Nicarauguan cigar with Big Kahuna. I didn't want to push his eyes in because of what he said, I wanted to push his eyes in because of his tone. Know what I mean? I can't even describe it, it makes me so angry.

Anyway. It was mostly a good day.

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