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CHAPTER

1

MARS, MELVIN

In here, anywhere, anytime, they called out your name backward, and he would instantly respond when he heard his

Even on the toilet Like being in the ht here very ainst his will

“Mars, Melvin?”

“Yes, sir Here, sir Taking a crap, sir”

Because where else would I be except here, sir?

He didn’t knohy they did it this way and had never bothered to ask The ansould not have uard baton slaainst the side of his head

He had other things to concern him here at the Texas State Penitentiary at Huntsville It was called the Walls Unit because of the prison’s redbrick walls Opened in 1849, it was the oldest prison in the Lone Star State

And it also housed the execution chamber

Mars was officially Prisoner 7-4-7, like the plane The guards at the death row prison froht called hie, he wasn’t small either Most folks would look up to him, if only because they had to Six-two, plus three-quarters of an inch tacked on for good measure

He knew his exact height only because they’d measured hi about hih the process his mind had drawn parallels to slaves on the market square as potential owners methodically poked and prodded the merchandise Well, unlike his slave ancestors, at least he would have had lots ofdays were over

He was also still two hundred and thirty pounds No fat, just rock No mean feat with the crap they served for food in here, processed in huge factories, loaded with fat and sodiu from concrete to carpets

Killing me softly with your crappy food

He’d been in this place al as he’d not been in this place

And the tione by fast It didn’t feel like twenty years It felt like two hundred

But it didn’t matter anymore It would be over soon This was the day

His final, final appeal

Denied

He was dead

He had been brought to the Huntsville Prison froston, Texas, sixty miles to the east, in anticipation that this ti wait His lawyer’s pale face had held a bleak expression when she’d conveyed this news to him But she would wake up the next day