Common Oddities Speculative Fiction Sideshow, Autumn 2014, Page 2

Trial Participant Statement from USP Lee, Prisoner {name redacted}:

  “Look, the hole does strange things to you anyway. I mean, you gotta have a certain mindset to do solitary and get out ok. I don’t even like talking about it and I was only in there for forty days. Ain’t nothing to do in there and it gets at you, you know? I’ll take general pop any day, fun as that is...

  Now, I knew Klentch from before we both went in. Did some street time together, that sort of thing, but nothing too bad. He come in after me, about two months. I never seen him much in there, but you hear things. So yeah, I knew he was there, and yeah I heard he took the dot...

  Thinking about it, maybe a certain type of person can handle never being bored. But Klentch wasn’t one of ‘em. He just had a… a capacity I’ll call it, to... shit, I don’t even know what to call it. A capacity to have to do something all the time anyway. You know? Giving a man like that a pill that takes away his down time? No wonder he killed hisself.”