cmk418 | Homebody - OZ - McManus (with Sister Pete)

So a few weeks ago, I picked up this prompt in the

1_million_words weekend challenge & I haven't done anything with it until now. The prompt was a quote from "The Time Traveler's Wife"- It's hard being left behind... it's hard being the one who stays.

Ten years in at Em City and he’s developed an unrealistic attachment to everyone in his unit from inmates to staff. When Rebadow passes on quietly in his sleep, he doesn’t talk to anyone for days, it’s like a part of himself has gone with the old man. When Beecher is paroled again, he fakes being happy. Sister Pete can see through his ruse and drags him into her office.

“Seriously, Tim, what do you expect? Everyone to stay here with you forever?”

“Yes.”

“Well, it’s not going to happen. People get paroled, die, retire.”

“Who’s retiring?”

“I’m not getting any younger.”

“You can’t retire, Pete. Who’s going to stand up for the prisoners with me during staff meetings?”

“Ray is still here. I’m sure he’ll help you out.”

“If it doesn’t have something to do with Alvarez, he can be pretty quiet.”

“What about Sean?”

“Well, yeah, that’s a given. Sean will be here as long as he’s here.”

“Ah,” Sister Pete says, like the lightbulb has just gone off. “You’re afraid Murphy’s going to leave.”

“I’ve been afraid of that since the day he started. It’s his turn.”

“What do you mean?”

“I could have gone to college here. Gone to the same school as Sean, been in all the same classes with him, probably wound up in Attica with him too. We talked about it. He wanted me to stay, but there was something… I don’t know. I just had to move on. You can’t expect an eighteen year old kid to be a homebody when there’s a great big world out there. Sure, I’d be home for vacations and we’d see each other then, but it wasn’t the same. And it’s taken me a lot of years, but now I know, it’s hard being left behind. It’s hard being the one that stays.”

“Why do you stay?”

“Em City. I’m responsible for her and the people that stay there. I lost her once to the riot, once to Querns, it’s not going to happen again. And if I have to watch everyone around me leave, one way or the other, so be it. It won’t be easy, but there will be new inmates, new COs, and I’ll be the one constant in the midst of it all. Well, me and Mineo. I think Joe’s a fixture here.”

“Tim, you can’t cling so tightly to one thing that you miss all the wonderful opportunities out there, and you can’t expect everyone else to miss them too, just to stay by your side. Be happy for them. Let them go and be happy for them. Who knows, it might make it easy for some of them to return to you.”

“You going to come back every Tuesday for the staff meeting?”

“I think the Warden will be grateful to have me out of his hair.”

“With my luck, it’ll be me and Querns here at the end with the bricks of Em City falling around us.”

“Let’s hope it doesn’t come to that. How are you feeling?”

“A little better.”

“Good. So the next time somebody gets paroled, retires, or, God forbid, dies, you don’t have to act like a three year old who just lost his best toy, okay?”

“Message received, Sister.”

“And, Tim, you don’t have to be the one that’s left behind. If you find something or someone worth it, go.”

Tim gives Sister Pete a nod, leaves her office, and heads back to Em City.