Ted (![[info]](https://www.insanejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small} i_worknumbers) wrote in ![[info]](https://www.insanejournal.com/img/community.gif){kind=small} we_coexist,@ 2008-12-25 02:07:00 |
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Prison wasn't the place that Ted particularly wanted to be.
But it was a hell of a shock as he walked out of his cell, supposedly to go to lunch, and found himself standing in the middle of a sidewalk. At first he wondered if he had been slipped some kind of drug, but logic told him that Charlie's friends were way too attentive for that to happen. Which left him wondering if he was having a stroke.
Ted didn't want to have a stroke.
He felt like he was still pretty young. A lot of years ahead of him. Lots of stuff to do. Like getting out of prison. Dying in prison would be worse than spending a few years in it. Ted didn't want to die in prison. But what was the likelihood that he would survive a stroke in a prison hospital? They didn't even really pay much attention to the inmates, surely not enough to tell that there was something very off about one of them. His smile was already crooked, so how would they know if it was off more?
The air smelled so fresh. The sun was so very bright. He wasn't entirely sure, but these were pretty atypical symptoms of a stroke as far as he was aware. Sure they probably happened occasionally, but why would he get so lucky? Ted was the kind of guy that should have had a black out stroke, not a pretty 'here, you're back in the world' hallucination stroke.
"Hey, guy? Are you okay? Do you need to sit down?" It was a woman's voice. Why was there a woman's voice in prison? They didn't allow women to just wander around the prison floor. Ted turned and looked, and sure enough, there she was. Blond. Blue eyes.
Then he realized something else. There was snow. There was a lot of snow. It didn't snow in California. Not in this part of California, anyway.
"I think I'm okay." He answered her. She smiled and walked on. Ted had a look at himself and noted the orange jumpsuit. He'd definitely just been in prison. Now he was definitely not. He wasn't positive yet that he wasn't having a stroke, but it was becoming less likely. You didn't really hallucinate other people. Probably.
That just left the question of where he was. Okay, and how he'd gotten here. Alright, also why he was still wearing the orange jumpsuit.
Ted was too bewildered to be too scared, but too scared to do much other than just stand there for the time being. Watching the people around him. Noticing more and more things as he looked from side to side. That there were cars. Actual cars. There were no cars in prison. And a kid on a bike. Stores. Trees. The snow again. More snow. The sky.
Ted Earley was definitely not having a stroke.
"I'm not in prison anymore." He muttered to himself.