Chapter 44
Getting released took an excruciatinglylong time. The prison doctor gave Beckett a cursory check up and removed his bandages. His hands were scarred, pale and wrinkled. They didn’t look like the kind of hands that should be heading out to labor, slinging sandbags against a rising tide. They were desk job hands, yet Beckett hadn’t ever had the privilege of a desk job. Just this, service to the government against the water levels, since he was seventeen years old. The scar was jagged across his palm. He rubbed it thinking about that day, jumping into the water, working alongside Dan. He had made friends, saved a whale. It seemed like such a long time ago, yet mere days. He would miss those guys, that ship, that freedom. He had his head shaved and changed into his fatigues and boots, ready for his return to service.
Then he sat in a hallway outside a door while his paperwork was completed. Waiting. Wishing he had his watch.Why the hell was it taking this long?His three hours was ticking by.
Finally a secretary handed him his release forms paper-clipped to his service forms, and without any irony at all told Beckett he was free to go.
Beckett raced to the hallway where Sarah and Dan were waiting to drive him to see Luna.
