Salvation, Mississippi

Parchman Farm Prison, 1992

What if I told you I'm no criminal? It may look that way, me being locked up and all, but my crime was a necessary one. A much-needed payday for my sick and dying mama, and a reprieve from the Mississippi Delta's suffocating poverty. But I got caught, and the payday never came. Maybe that's why my notorious cellmate is preying on me like he is. It's the need he senses, a burden I'm wearing like a heavy coat I can't remove.

His name is Earl Gates, but everyone calls ...