The Art of Tetman Callis

“I miss the rain.  I miss standing beneath the sky and looking up at the moon and stars.  I miss the wind.  I miss cats and dogs.  I miss wearing real clothes, having a real toothbrush, using a real pen, drinking iced tea, eating ice cream, and going for walks.

“I’m tempted to say the thing I miss most is fruit.  I haven’t had a piece of fresh fruit in about eight years, and before that I only got it once a year.  The prison used to give everyone two apples and two oranges on Christmas, but then they stopped, said it was a ‘threat to security,’ along with tea bags and dental floss.  So I haven’t had any in nearly a decade now.  They prevent scurvy by giving everyone a cup of watered-down orange juice for breakfast.  It doesn’t have much taste, but enough vitamin C to keep your teeth from falling out.

“In the end, it’s not the fruit I miss the most, though if you rolled all the deprivations into one thing, it would be this: I miss being treated like a human being.” – Damien Echols, Life After Death