Shadow tasted fear in the best breitling watches back of his throat, bitter as old coffee. The bad thing was happening....
     There was a voice in the back of his head whispering that they were going to slap another year onto his sentence, drop him into solitary, cut off his hands, cut off his head. He told himself he was being stupid, but his heart was pounding fit to burst out of his chest.
     "I don't get you, Shadow," said Wilson, as they walked.
     "What's not discount uggs for women to get, sir?"
     "You. You're too fucking quiet. Too polite. You wait like the old guys, but you're what? Twenty-five? Twenty-eight?"
     "Thirty-two, sir."
     "And what are you? A spic? A gypsy?"
     "Not that I know of, sir. Maybe."
     "Maybe you got nigger blood in you. You got nigger blood in you, Shadow?"
     "Could be, sir." Shadow stood tall and looked straight ahead, and concentrated on not allowing himself to be riled by this man.
     "Yeah? Well, all discount uggs for women I know is, you fucking spook me." Wilson had sandy blond hair and a sandy blond face and a sandy blond smile. "You leaving us soon."
     "Hope so, sir."
     They walked through a couple of checkpoints. Wilson showed his ID each time. Up a set of stairs, and they were standing outside the prison warden's office. It had the prison warden's name-G. Patterson-on the door in black letters, and beside the door, uggs discount a miniature traffic light.
     The top light burned red.
     Wilson pressed a button below the traffic light.
     They stood there in silence for a couple of minutes. Shadow tried to tell himself that everything was all right, that on Friday morning he'd be on the plane up to Eagle Point, but he did not believe it himself.
     The red light went out and the green light went on, and Wilson opened the door. They discount uggs for women went inside.
     Shadow had seen the warden a handful of times in the last three years. Once he had been showing a politician around. Once, during a lockdown, the warden had spoken to them in groups of a hundred, telling them that the prison was overcrowded, and that, since it would remain overcrowded, they had better get used to it.