“I don’t want a last meal. I want a bath.”
The guard vouched for him. The prisoner was old, what could be the harm? The guard, who had been a young man when he started in death row. The guard, who had grown to know the man who would die for a crime he didn’t commit.
When he took him to the small bathroom, his final act of mercy was unlocking the cabinet of cleaning supplies, dropping the keys down the toilet. The bleach and ammonia would do the rest.
“Thank you,” the prisoner said as he started to breath.
—
Fie found the ring in the carrot patch. She slipped it into the pocket of her dirty coveralls before going back to the weeding.
Then, it was a bouquet of roses in the cabbage patch, blood red and fragrant as day. She let them sit, save for one, which she placed in her wide-brimmed hat.
As she dug around the sweet potatoes, she found small, foil-wrapped chocolates, dirt clinging to their ribbons. The truffles melted on her tongue.
“I was already yours, you know,” Fie said, kissing the scarecrow’s cheek. “I’m not going anywhere.”
His silent stitched mouth continued smiling.
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