Florida State Prison, August 2010
Dear Ava,
What are you thanking me for? I haven’t done anything; I should be the one thanking you. Writing to you has given me something worthwhile to think about. It’s made me able to drag myself out of this God awful place so that I can, if only for a short while, block out the harsh sounds around me.
Every morning I’m awoken by the rumblings of the food cart and the whir of electric gates, signifying the start of another long day, and immediately I begin to wonder if it will be the day that I hear good news from my attorneys, or will it be just like all the rest, one day nearer the end? Every morning begins this way; I’m stuck in a recurring nightmare, the worst nightmare imaginable.
Every noise is amplified in this concrete warren and it hurts my h
