Baccano! - Volume 8 - Chapter Ep

DIGRESSION

OUT OF JAIL!

San Francisco BayAlcatraz Island

“You’re being released today, aren’t you? Congratulations.”

In response to Misery’s words, Isaac laughed, looking self-conscious.

“Really, I can’t thank you enough. I mean, you took care of everything for me!”

“…You’re the third person I’ve been directly in charge of admitting. So far, I’ve only done the entry procedures for the other two; they haven’t been released yet.”

“Wow, amazing! You mean I’m the only one?! No, hang on: I was in prison, so there’s no way I’m amazing… Maybe it’s not me! Maybe you’re the amazing one, Warden!”

“No, I’m not the ward— Well, yes, it’s true that Warden Johnston is an amazing person.”

Misery, who’d been thrown off his stride, murmured this, then turned the conversation back to Isaac’s release.

“It’s incredibly unusual for someone to leave this island after such a short time, unless it’s as a corpse… Well, this is true for paying for your crimes in prison as well, but how you live in society after your release determines whether you’ve actually atoned. From now on, turn over a new leaf and live for the good of society and for America. For the sake of your loved ones as well.”

“Yessir! I’ll do my best!”

Isaac delivered that remark with the energy of a little kid. Misery exhaled, impressed, then drew an envelope from his jacket.

“Hmm… I never thought the day would come when I’d be saying things like this. At any rate, these are your wages for one month of prison labor, so take them without reservation. There’s a little extra as a parting gift.”

Isaac, who’d accepted the envelope, smiled happily and thanked him over and over.

“Say, thanks! Wow, I’m thrilled! Really, thanks so much, Warden!”

“No, as I said, I’m not the warden…”

“Then you’re some kinda big shot?”

“…Well, erm, I wouldn’t say that characterization bothers me.”

Smiling wryly, Misery saw him off, and Isaac left the office.

Then, escorted by a guard just as he had been when he’d arrived, Isaac put the little island behind him.

The cliffs were tinted orange by the sunset light, and they encircled the island’s scenery in a truly beautiful way.

“How pretty…”

As he looked at Alcatraz Island, which he’d seen countless times as a small child, Isaac remembered his past—

—and more than make him anticipate his freedom, it just made him want to see Miria.

“Well, drat. This isn’t enough money to get me back to New York.”

After going through several formalities at a Bureau of Investigation branch office, Isaac finally had his freedom.

In most cases, after leaving Alcatraz, people did their remaining time in other prisons. Since Isaac hadn’t gone through a formal trial, though, they’d simply released him.

Originally, Victor had been scheduled to come and meet with him, but apparently, there’d been some sort of trouble in New York, so instead, Isaac was released after speaking with a man who said he was Victor’s superior.

The news about the Chicago incident was playing on radios all over town, but Isaac didn’t hear it.

His wallet and the clothes he’d been wearing when he was arrested had been returned to him, and he immediately combined the wages he’d been given with the contents of his wallet and headed for the station.

…Carrying only his desire to see Miria again soon.

However, no matter how he figured, he didn’t have the cash to take a transcontinental train back to New York.

The pay for prison labor was meager, and on top of that, Isaac had worked for only a month. Even with the extra Misery had thrown in, plus everything in his wallet, his travel funds would run out partway there.

Up until now, Isaac would have decided, “I know! I’ll steal it from some bad people!”—however, as far as he was concerned, Misery was an amazing person, and Misery had told him to “turn over a new leaf…for the sake of your loved ones.” Remembering that exhortation, he stopped himself in the nick of time.

For just a moment, he remembered he was currently very close to his family home…but then he thought of Miria’s face and immediately discarded the idea of going back there.

“After all, if they find me…they just might kill me.”

Muttering something deeply significant to himself, Isaac decided to make a phone call from a nearby facility.

The switchboard operator connected him to Alveare.

There, Seina passed the phone on to Ronny, who told him where he could find the person he was looking for, so then he dialed the other place.

The operator connected him once again, and this time, the voice that answered belonged to a familiar tattooed youth.

Jacuzzi sobbed and told him how glad he was, and after that—

—he heard a voice he’d missed very much.

The voice he’d most wanted to hear.

Even choked with tears, that voice gave vent to all the happiness it could hold, and it brought a smile to Isaac’s face.

Isaac had worried quite a lot over what he should say to her and where he should start, but—

—he abruptly remembered something, and just as he always did, he shouted without even taking the time to think about it:

“Miria, I’m sorry! That wallet—it was in my pocket.”

He wasn’t trying to deceive her or hide his embarrassment. He’d simply thought, I’ve got to apologize. In answer to his frank words, on the other end of the line, without a moment’s hesitation, Miria’s voice responded: “It’s okay! I’m not mad or anything!”

Her words relieved Isaac, and he went on to say the rest of his reunion speech, as if it wasn’t easy to get out.

“The thing is…I don’t have enough money to get back there…see… Erm, this is pretty hard to say, but, Miria…do you think you could get the train fare out of my piggy bank and bring it to me…?”

“ .  ,  !”

Through the receiver, Miria’s voice was so enthusiastic that she seemed ready to head right over.

As Isaac listened to her, he thought it would be rough on Miria to make her come all the way here, so he decided to take the train as far as he could on his own.

Isaac checked his notes on timetable and fare information, and his eyes fell on the name of a station he’d visited once before.

The name of the city in which he and Miria had dressed up as major leaguers and had rendered gangsters speechless.

“Then…let’s make it Chicago! I can get that far!”

Hearing vigorous agreement through the receiver, Isaac let his thoughts run to his journey east. He felt invigorated.

“Yeah, I’ll hop on a Chicago-bound train right now. Let’s see, where should we meet…?”

As he put the note with the meeting place and time in his pocket, Isaac was filled with hope for the next day.

His thoughts went east, and the sun went west.

Isaac, who’d been set free, spoke firmly into the receiver.

Very, very simply.

He wasn’t thinking of a single thing besides meeting Miria.

For that very reason, his words were decisive—and they relieved the listener on the other end of the line.

“Well then…see you in Chicago!”