“I won’t pay your bail.”
The man behind the glass had a shocked look on his gaunt face, a silent terror in his eyes, “Why not, honey?” he asked innocently, but she wasn’t fooled.
Her eyes flashed, “ You committed a crime”, her tone severe, “you deserve to be punished.”
“But, honey, don’t you miss having me around?” he pleaded, rather loudly, and the guard looked in there direction.
She had a sad and pitying, yet determined expression in her deep green eyes as she took up her bag and stood.
“I’m sorry. I have to go.”
The terror heightened inside him as she seemed to be going and the guard approached, “No, when will you come back? How could you do this? I’m your father!”
“I know, I know….”
But before she could say anything more, a guard was forcedly guiding the man back into the bowels of the prison. She turned, and for once since she had made her rash decision, Ellyn felt a wave of regret and guilt come over her. Of course this idea had been a bad one, to come and visit her father in jail, when she had been instrumental in his indictment, unbeknownst to the man who had raised her.
It’s strange, she thought, walking out of the jail, the formidable iron gate clanging behind her. The prison was built in such a fashion as to scare people out of committing crimes in the first place. I never felt any guilt in calling the police in the first place, when I finally had the proof, so why should I now? Visiting his holding was definitely the wrong thing to do.
Ellyn had been fourteen when the police had finished their secret investigation, and a month after her fifteenth birthday, they had come to arrest her father. When he was gone, she hadn’t felt sad, because for the longest time, she had hated him so much, thinking he could never do the right thing at the right time, or say the appropriate words the situation warranted. Not until Ellyn visited Mr. Watson in jail had she begun to wonder what life would be like if she hadn’t made the call in the first place.
After her father had been taken away, Ellyn had gone to live with her best friend, and had been supported by a grandmother, who had died shortly after the incident, leaving Ellyn her estate, which was enough to get her through high school and college. Because of this, Ellyn had a lot of independence, and was therefore forced to grow up quickly, becoming an emancipated minor, not wanting anything to do with the man who raised her; her mother having died long before.
When Ellyn left he jail, she walked down the street, not knowing where to go, but wanting to get away, her heals clicking on the cement, and her auburn hair swinging. At about five feet ten inches, she was tall and physically mature for her fifteen years. Because of all she had been through, she was emotionally mature as well. But at the moment, all she wanted to do was curl up and cry, seeing her father again after so long and in such conditions, she couldn’t help but have the wall she had built towards him silently for so long slightly crumble.