Parchman, стр. 13

Max spoke up. ‘You have a plan?’

‘No, but we have fighters and we have a castle. Well, as good as a castle. Look around, this place is almost impenetrable. Not to mention the menaren’t afraid to fight for this world they have built. The CommanderGeneral will have to come through the front gates as it is the weakest pointof the prison. We have guard towers and battlements all around and willpost guards just in case. We then load the front of the prison with themajority of our weapons. We have machine guns, RPGs, you name it wehave it. It won’t be easy. It just depends on how many men the CommanderGeneral has to sacrifice. I’ll be honest Logan we need you. Every gun atthat wall counts,’ said Mendez.

‘Did Rose say when the CommanderGeneral planned to attack?’ saidMax.

The Professor shook his head ‘She couldn’t be sure. A day or two at themost. Either way, we need to be ready.’

‘It seems we have little choice,’ said Max.

‘Yes, we only have one choice. To fight,’ said Logan looking at the floor.

Mendez slapped him on the back hard ‘Yes amigo. Yes we will fighttogether against this tyrant. But tonight we will celebrate. You know thedate?’

‘2

^nd

November?’ he replied.

‘Día de losMuertos?’ said Xander.‘Correcto, mi pequeno amigo,’ said Mendez.

‘You fight tomorrow but tonight you celebrate?’ said Max.

‘It’s tradition,’ said the Professor. ‘The prison has a majority of Mexicaninmates. These men may not live to see next week so tonight they celebratethe day of the dead because soon they may be with their familia again.’

The boys, minus Logan, sat in the canteen whilst the celebrations started ready to carry on through the night. The prisoners wore masks and facepaint of skulls. They worshipped to the alters they had created and dranktheir home-made tequila.

Three inmates came and sat down next to the boys squeezing them closertogether. The men all had matching tear tattoos under their eyes and theboys realized that this had some kind of significance.

Xander piped up, ‘Are you guys sad or something?’

The other boys cringed in their seats hoping that the men saw the funny side ofXander’s sarcasm.

‘You know what this mean?’ said one of the men pointing to his tattoo andrunning his finger down his check. ‘This shows that you are high up in thegangs. It shows you have loyalty and that you are willing to do anythingfor your gang leader. They don’t just give anyone one of these.’

‘Cool,’ said Xander. ‘Maybe I’ll get one when all of this is over,’ he saidchuckling away to himself, whilst the other boys tried to inch out of theirseats. ‘So what have I got to do to earn a tear?’

‘You got to put someone in the ground son,’ said another of the men.

‘Ah, I see. Well, I put my Auntie Mora in the ground, does that count?’ helaughed to himself and took a swig from a bottle of clear liquid on the tableand grimaced. ‘I’m just ribbing you man.’

The table went silent for a minute.

‘Why’d you kill a man sir?’ said Chuck.‘He was ribbing me,’ said the man.

Xander gulped and the other lads started laughing.

Meanwhile, on the other side of the canteen Mendez came and sat downnext to Logan who was deep in thought.

He held out his hand to Logan with some bread. ‘Pan de meurto. Try it,’he offered. ‘It’s sweet. Orange’.

‘Thank you,’ said Logan putting the bread to his mouth.

‘You worry about your Tallulah?’ he said.

Logan nodded.

‘Today is important to me more than most. I remember my family,’Mendezheld up a photo. ‘But more so I owe it to the families of myvictims,’ he paused. ‘I lost count of how many and that makes me sick tothe pit of mi estomago,’ he said patting his stomach. ‘I was a good father,but I became greedy. They were happy with their life. They had food onthe table and a roof over their head. It’s all they ever needed, but I wantedmore for them. More for me. When the pandillas came knocking I didn’trefuse. I embraced the life and forgot what was important. I drove myfamily away and all I was left with was dinero and a body count. I not onlylost my family, but I took away other fathers from theirs. So tonight, I celebrate their lives and hope that one day when I meet them they canforgive me. You have someone you should remember tonight?’

‘My brother,’ said Logan. ‘I sent him to the reservoir and because of mehe is dead’.

‘You sent him to that reservoir to save lives my friend, not to die. He dieda hero not a bad death. Yourbrother waits for you with open arms,’

Mendez pulled on the arm of a man walking past him and took somethingfrom him. ‘You see this? It is a skull, made from sugar. It represents yourbrother. You place it on the alter over there and you say a prayer for him. I know you are sad, but tonight it isnot a sad day’.

Logan took the skull and started walking towards the alter that the menhad constructed. He placed it on the shrine and closed his eyes, picturinghis brother Danny. He could see his face as clear as if he was in the roomwith him. Tears started streaming from Logan’s faces and onto the floor.

Mendez joined him in front of the mass of gifts for the dead and placed ahand on Logan’s shoulder. ‘He will always be with you Logan. He haspassed allthat was good of him to you,’ said the ex-con pressing on hisown chest. ‘Mi familia es para siempre.’

‘You’re a very wise man Isaac,’ replied Logan.

‘I’ve had a lot of time to become wise Logan. I wish I had your wisdomwhen I was your age. I may have