His Last Wife

“No need, sis,” Auset said, waving off her crew. “I only come in peace,” she added, mocking Garcia-Bell’s stance and subsequent stare down.

“Well, go in peace too, then,” Garcia-Bell said.

Auset rolled her eyes at Garcia-Bell and popped out an encouraging smile at Kerry before stepping back.

“Remember what I said, Sister Kerry.” She looked at Garcia-Bell, but kept her words aimed at Kerry. “And beware of people trying to keep you from the truth. You never know who the agents are.” She bowed with a nod that Kerry awkwardly returned and then went back to her circle, who gave Garcia-Bell averse stares.

When she was gone, Garcia-Bell turned to Kerry, ready to laugh at the mystical, righteous dialogue with Auset.

“Chick is crazy,” she said.

“She’s not crazy. She just sees things differently than you. Things you can’t see,” Kerry countered, borrowing some of the words Auset had used the first time she spoke to Kerry.

“I can’t see?” Garcia-Bell scrunched up her face at Kerry in disbelief. “So, you see it? You’re saying you really believe this stuff? Like Auset and this Seti character?”

“Why not? Why shouldn’t I?”

“Because it’s a silly conspiracy theory and they’re just playing with your emotions,” Garcia-Bell argued. “I’m just saying. What proof do they have that any of this is true?”

“I guess I’ll find out soon.”

“How?”

Kerry glanced down at the computer on Baba Seti’s page. “I e-mailed him,” she revealed.

“What?” Garcia-Bell’s mouth widened.

“I contacted him. Told him who I am and said I wanted more information. I wanted to know if he could put me in contact with Jamison,” Kerry said. She’d already e-mailed Baba Seti that morning from her inmate e-mail account.

“You what? Why would you do that? I don’t get it. You know this stuff is all lies. Just let it go.”

“I can’t,” Kerry said with glassy eyes. “I love him. He was my husband. And I feel like if I let this go, then I?

??m letting him go. And I won’t do that. Not if there’s a chance. Because if there is, I’m going for it. Because I’d want him to do it for me. Because I’d want him to know the truth.”

“Kerry Ann Jackson,” someone called from the door and the librarian, Kerry, and Garcia-Bell looked, expecting to see Auset, but instead it was one of the female guards.

“Yes,” Kerry answered, wiping a tear that had fallen when she was speaking.

“Warden wants to see you on main right now. Follow me. You’re going home,” the guard announced with no feeling.

Everyone in the library, including the redheaded librarian, Auset and her crew, and the two silent sisters looked from the guard to Kerry, who grabbed Garcia-Bell’s hand tightly for support as she worked to understand what had just been said.

“Home?” Kerry repeated, like her three months on the inside had felt like three lifetimes—and it did, to her anyway. “I’m going home?”

“Yeah. Something about the DA. Think he was on the news this morning. Your lawyer’s already here. I’m sure they’ll tell you all about it. Let’s go,” the guard said in an explanation that sounded like a riddle to Kerry.

Kerry looked at Auset, who threw a tight revolutionary fist in the air, and then at Garcia-Bell, and repeated, “I’m going home.”

Kerry returned to her cell to get some things she wanted to take home: Just some pictures, Tyrian’s artwork, a few letters she’d gotten from her best friend Marcy, and some newspaper articles she’d collected about Jamison’s death.

Garcia-Bell was standing against the wall in the cell watching Kerry organize her things and the guard was in the hall talking to another guard about some fight that had broken out on the yard between two women who shared the same baby daddy.

“I can’t believe this is happening. Like, just like that,” Kerry said, peeling the tape from one of Tyrian’s pictures from the wall beside her bed. “Just a day or so ago and the DA wouldn’t even take my attorney’s calls and now he’s letting me out.”

“Hmm,” Garcia-Bell let out, nodding in agreement.

Kerry was finding it hard to tell if her only jail friend was happy for her leaving or what, and in her own happiness and surprise she didn’t have time to sort out Garcia’s-Bell’s feelings. She kept thinking of seeing Tyrian. His smile again. Letting him know they’d never be apart again.