Summary

After serving 12 years, recently released Clyde, possessing nothing but his black-and-white TV, waited outside for his partner Melissa to pick him up from E.C. Brooks Correctional in Muskegon, Michigan. He compared the sunshine to “the light in heaven” (190). Near Clyde, two officers talked about fishing and Clyde piped up about his own experience fishing. In response, one of the officers asked about the TV he was taking home and told him not to end up back there. Clyde promised them he would not.

Despite taking prerelease classes, Clyde thought, “No one told him he would want to hug everyone he met at the gas station on the way home, or that the smell of gasoline as he filled the tank would cause him to blink back tears” (191-192). In those classes, the teacher had told them “more than half of them would...