Seamus Coffey

I have no idea how I survived.

I don’t normally watch the news. Between my Facebook feed and Twitter, I usually knew enough about current events not to care. For whatever reason, I found myself sitting in front of the television at five-in-the-afternoon and decided to watch the news. I kinda wish I hadn’t. The television switched from a commercial to showing the anchor sitting in front of the camera with a somber face.

My name is Melvin. I am a good son. Mother has done her best to raise me up over the past 40 years. I’m not very smart. Mother tells me that the world is not kind to boys like me.

If you hear of the Schlessinger Farm, don’t try to find it.

My daughter Emily is three. She spends her days playing with an app on her tablet learning her letters or watching Zig & Sharko on Netflix. Shortly after we moved into the house, she started talking to what we assumed was an imaginary friend. One day while I was sitting on the sofa in the living room, I mentioned going into her room to grab her tablet. It was then that Emily said something that I can’t forget.

As the story goes, if you look Old Jim in the eyes, he’ll come to your cell and kill you. More than one inmate had been found mutilated in their cell over the years. Even with the cameras in place, there was no evidence that anyone had been in the cell aside from the victim.

“There is no one who loves pain itself, who seeks after it and wants to have it, simply because it is pain…”

Ever heard of Elsewhere, Kentucky? I thought not.

I could barely focus on anything. After forcing myself through my morning routine, I ended calling a cab and headed over to the doctor’s office.

Our town is a small community mostly isolated from the rest of Kentucky by the Appalachian Mountains.