Life After Death: The Shocking True Story of a Innocent Man on Death Row

videotaping the whole thing. Instead of grading us himself, the entire class would watch the tapes and grade one another. He showed us movies like
The Manchurian Candidate
and introduced us to the music of Pink Floyd. Sometimes we’d take the day off and play a quick game of baseball. This is a guy who made you want to go to school. He could also tell a joke that appealed to the teenage mind, a task most adults aren’t up to. He was open to any topic you cared to discuss, and he would give advice. You don’t find many teachers like that.
    It was in one of his classes that Deanna came back to me. Mr. Baca had sent us out to work on one project or another, and he assigned Deanna and me to the same team, along with three others. It’s one of the times that are fixed crystal clear in my mind. We all went into the gym, and one guy operated the video camera while another guy and girl interviewed the janitor. I was sitting on the stairs and looking out a back door that had been propped open. Summer was just arriving and the sunlight was so bright it dazzled the eyes. There was just the slightest breeze blowing in. Deanna came and sat next to me, and I was scared to move or say anything, lest she move away like a frightened deer. My throat closed up so I could barely breathe, and I wanted to cry. This was the closest she’d been to me since she left me.
    “Want to talk?” she asked.
    “About what?” I managed to croak. I knew damned well what. My heart beat like it was trying to escape my chest.
    “Why did you do that?” she asked, referring to the fight that had taken place almost a month ago by this time. We hadn’t spoken since. I shrugged, not knowing what to say. We talked about other things for a while—the guy, who was now her boyfriend, and Domini, who was now my girlfriend. She asked me whether or not I still wanted to be with her.
    If I’d known then what I know now, I’d have run for my life. I didn’t know, though. “Yes,” I said, almost hissing the word, hoping she could sense the force and determination behind it. She nodded her head as if she’d just made a decision, then without another word left me sitting there. What did this mean? Was she coming back to me?
    I never even came close to sleep that night. I felt like I was on the cusp of something big. The next morning Jason stopped by and we walked to school together. My nerves were too jangled for me to be much of a conversationalist.
    Deanna was standing there waiting for me when I arrived, and she indicated that she wanted to talk to me alone. I told Jason I’d see him later and followed her over to what used to be “our corner.” She was crackling with happiness as she told me she had dumped the other young gentleman. She said that since she had been the one to mess things up, she wanted to fix them properly. In a very official tone she asked if I would take her back.
    I should have run like I was on fire. I should have shaved my head and taken a vow of celibacy. I should have instructed this raven-haired package of pain to go bugger herself. I did none of the above. Instead I crushed her to me, buried my face in the top of her head, and inhaled deeply. Her face was against my chest and she said she was breathing my scent. When I asked her what she smelled, her response was “home.”
    She asked if I’d broken up with Domini, and I explained that I’d yet to see her, so I hadn’t been able to. She folded her arms across her chest and looked at me through narrowed eyes, but there was no real anger or jealousy, because she knew there was no competition.
    Did I seek out Domini that night and tell her that it was over? Indeed I did. All was right with the world and I cared about nothing else. Domini has earned the right to call me an asshole many times over. I could tell her heart was broken and I offered no comfort. I couldn’t get away from her fast enough, because I was living in denial. I wanted to believe the split with Deanna had never happened, the tryst with Domini had never taken place. Because I knew that a vase that has been broken, even if it’s been glued back together, is never the same.

Eleven
    S leep deprivation is a direct result of the lights. They turn the lights off every night at ten-thirty. Then they’re turned right back on at two-thirty, when they start to serve breakfast. If you could manage to fall asleep the moment the lights went out, then sleep through all the guards’ activity, you would still get