The day I bought a cardboard brief case (Ernie the king of cardboard)

I would have never thought I’d live to see the day in which I would buy a cardboard brief case for my documents; instead , here it is!

To tell you the truth it is not really a brief case but more something like an elegant box. It’s made of sturdy cardboard, thin at the same time (I think it is the one from the shipments of the prison Industry Authority). It stands on its own , just like a briefcase, and it even has a semi-circular hollow , on one of the long sides, to let you grab folders and magazines with ease. On one of the short sides it has two protruding pockets, rigorously made of cardboard, one for pens and pencils and the other , tiny , for eraser and pencil-sharpner the finishing is so meticulous that even the outlines that normally would show the cardboard wavy veinin(?) have been covered with small stripes of paper obtained from the same raw material. Every thing patiently glued and even refined with sand paper to smooth (???) the unavoidable breaks.

The name of the craftsman that gave life to this creation is Ernie and he is a carpenter in his normal life; it’s easy for me to believe also that he is a good carpenter after seeing what he manages to do with simple cardboard.

I am writing on a “made by Ernie” notepad; I have seen him saw and glue curious coffee tables, sturdy television shelves , elegant boxes for chess pieces or simple trash cans.

Everything the prisons severity denies us Ernie creates out of nothing : out of cardboard.

I am an excessively neat individual , almost anal in my precision somebody would say, and that must be the reason why the other day Ernie approached me with his project.

Maybe he saw me struggling in my attempts to keep my papers , documents and magazines organized while trying to book quickly one of the few available tables.

The luxury of order would cost me two dollars but it become a full deodorant after I saw Ernie performing his magic on the briefcase for an entire day (all of three dollars at the current market value).

Ernie is a drug-addict and once, while talking to me, confessed without a shadow of embarassement that he loves his drugs; maybe he will get high again after leaving this place.

For sure after seeing those hands holding the cardboard I cound’t avoid thinking that there must be a better way: Ernie would fit so well drinking a glass of Chianti with a couple of folks I know back in Borgo a Buggiano . J

How can I explain to you the joy one can feel in keeping organized four pieces of paper after living three years with half his stuff in bags like an homeless person?

For sure Wayne did not need any explanation (he is the same guy of the suicidal poems on this blog); as he read the joy in my eyes he started drawing on the brief case fake labels with the names of prison and airports of my four year long night mare.

This way on top of the order given to me as a present from the king of cardboard I can also imagine myself breathing the stuffy air of those airport terminals that now a days I almost have trouble remembering.

At least until next inspection …. L

Carlo Parlanti F25457

310-1.12U

The king of cardboard is:

Ernie Gutierrez F37883

310-1-14L