Good Night, Princess

The phone rang only once before the guard’s call was picked up.

“Daddy!” shouted his daughter, who had just turned seven the week prior.  

“Hi, princess,” the guard responded.  He checked his watch; 8:30 P.M.  He was just on time despite his current predicament.  

The guard (known to his workmates and the inmates as Officer Burke) had been working at Neibolt State Penitentiary for as long as he could remember.  Three years of studying criminology in college and then he was 42.  It’s crazy how fast time goes by.  

Starting about two years prior to the birth of his little princess, Baylee, he had started to pull the late night shift.  Since he couldn’t be there in person to say goodnight to her, he would call her every night before she went to bed.  When it got to be around her bed time, his wife would hand the phone to their daughter and let her hold it until he called.  Even on days where she was especially moody or her mother told her she couldn’t have ice cream until she finished her vegetables, she was always excited to get her goodnight call.  

During tonight’s call, it was Officer Burke who had a bad day.

The guard went on; “How was your playdate?”

“It was so good!  Hannah and I dressed up and did our own play and Hannah’s mommy recorded it so I can show you when you get home!  And then…”

Her words were drowned out as Officer Burke’s attention shifted outside of the cell that he was trapped in.  The inmates had gotten worse.  There were clothes, mattresses, and personal belongings all over the dayroom.  He could even see the vibrant flickers of a fire up on the second level.  

“...And then we went to get ice cream and I got rainbow sherbet, like always,” she finished.

“That sounds like a ton of fun,” the guard responded.  “I’m glad you had a fun time.”

He could feel her smile radiating through the phone; he wished he could be there to see it.  “Me too!  How’s work, Daddy?”

“Well, it-” his answer was cut short by a large thud that echoed in the cell he was in, despite all of the other noise throughout the prison.  What Officer Burke saw outside of the cell made him gasp for air, almost as if he had been the one who had made the thud.  Laying on the concrete floor, having just fallen from the second floor, was the barely living body of Officer Goodreau.  A lake of blood rapidly grew in size on his navy blue officer’s uniform, starting from a shard of glass embedded in his stomach.  

The guard clasped his hand over his mouth, stifling the hysterics that would be sure to follow.  The last thing he needed was for Baylee to hear him crying.  He did cry, however.  He couldn’t help it.  There had never been a riot at Neibolt and it was so much worse than he ever could have imagined.  The tears streamed from his eyes and ran over the hand that he was covering his mouth with.  

“Hurry the fuck up, boss.  I told you, you’ve got two minutes,” said the gravelly voice of the man who had been keeping the guard captive in the cell.  

Officer Burke removed his hand and gasped for air, trying his best to stay quiet.  He gathered himself as best as he could; “Work is okay, just busy.  Princess, I need you to know that uhh…” his voice broke, his breaths becoming choppy.  “I’m not going to be coming home tomorrow.”

The smile that he previously felt through the phone turned, quickly, to a frown.  “Why?  Are you okay, Daddy?”

The tears came down harder.  He couldn’t stand to lie to her but he had no choice.  He couldn’t scare her.  She had to be strong.

“Yeah, yeah.  They just… really need me at work tomorrow.  So, I’m just staying here.”  He couldn’t stand to lie to her.  He never lied to anyone, especially his own daughter.

Baylee paused for a second before giving her response; “Okay,” she said, drawing out the ‘y’.  “I’m going to miss you while you’re gone.”

Officer Burke squeezed his eyes shut, willing the tears to just hurry up and be finished with already.  He brought his phone down from his ear and covered it over his lap while he whimpered. 

The inmate behind him leaned down and whispered in his ear: “Forty seconds.  You can spend it crying or saying goodbye to your daughter.”

The guard sniffled and swore to himself.  He picked up the phone hurriedly; “Baylee, I’m going to need you to take care of mommy while I’m gone.  Okay?  I need you to be strong for her.  For me.”

“Okay!  I can even make her the sandwiches that I make before school.  They’re really good, I think she’ll like them, too.”

The guard’s face broke into a smile as he laughed, making the tears streaming down his face appear happy for a brief moment in time.  “I’m sure she will.”

He closed his eyes and replayed his times spent with Baylee.  Her first day of school; when she made fun of him for crying as he dropped her off.  The time that they went to the dog park with their golden retriever, Chewie, and she ran around, playing with the dogs with the biggest smile on her face.  The family game nights that his wife and Baylee did every Friday.  She would always do a little victory dance when she would win.  

She had been the light of his life.  The thing that he most looked forward to coming home to every morning.  He supposed that it was only fitting that a person of this much importance to him was the last person he would talk to.  

“I love you, Baylee.  I love you so much,” the guard said, wiping the tears from his face.

Her cheerful voice continued; “I love you too.  Good Night, Daddy!”

There was no holding back the tears now.  Now shot in hell.  Officer Burke had known that this would be his last conversation with his daughter but it had just settled in that the next words that he spoke would be the last he would ever say to her.  He had already heard the last of his little princess’s voice.  

The father closed his eyes, feeling the tears drop onto the knees of his pants.  He pulled the phone back up to his ear.  “Good night, Princess.”

He removed his phone from his ear and kept his eyes closed.  His mind returned to the fantastic memories that he and his daughter shared together.  

A smile crossed his face as the memories played through his mind.  The tears ran into his mouth as he felt the cold, metallic blade of the inmate’s shank sink into his neck.