Tut…I Can’t Wait

I’ve heard stories of men who walked out of prison after decades and cried tears of joy. Man, I wondered if I would cry too?

Some days I lie awake, thinking about being free. Me, on the other side of the fence. No more standing for count time, or surprise lockdowns, or being trapped in a cell when my celly needed to drop a load. Free! Me!

I know I’ll be scared, because it won’t feel real. I’ll probably need my family to take me to a restaurant where I can buy a real cheeseburger. I’m talking Angus beef grilled to perfection! Onions, lettuce, tomatoes and some kind of cheese that my sister would say will blow my mind. I’ll eat it fast, because after twenty plus years in prison, I’m programmed to eat quickly, so another pod could come in and take…wait, I’m free, none of that matters anymore. So if I eat fast or slow, who cares, I’m home and they’ll be happy to see me without restraints and those gawd awful state blues that I’ll never wear again.

Wow, I can wear clothes of my choosing. Jordan 1s, 2s and so many other sneakers I watched rappers screw up with those tight jeans I’ll squeeze into at least once. Yeah, I’ll place on something lit–yeah, I’ll even be able to use the lingo that the millennials shout out on social media.

Oh man, a cellphone! I can finally text, hop on Instagram and showoff my tattoos and follow some of the women that I’ve watched on TV for years. I’ll tag it #FreemanTut. Yeah, it’s corny, but my siblings will help me get things situated.

Man, I’ll even gather my family together and take a picture with them. They’ll smile, cry, laugh and praise God for this splendid day–and I’ll send that picture to my comrades in prison, so that they can enjoy the blessing as well.

I’ll sit down with my nieces and get to know them. They’ll want to show me everything that they love and I’ll be eager to learn about it, because I want to know them so badly. Plus I’ll finally get to meet my sisters’ baby daddies and confront them as to why they haven’t put a ring on their fingers?

What will stop me the most would be my parents. They’ll finally see me as a man of God and that their shared faith in the Lord wasn’t wasted. We’ll pray…man, to be in a room with them, hand in hand–Praise God! I can hear my father preaching proudly and accepting all the credit for getting me home. We’ll let him have that one, because he paid his price for all that we endured for two solid decades.

It’ll wind down when I get in a tub and relax there. My thoughts would swim about me, but I’ll be OK, because I’ll look back and realize that I did the impossible. Tears will come–too many to count. But when I get out of that tub, I’ll wash the pain away, then go out into the world and prove to myself that those I hurt will be honored every chance I get, because I want them to know that this was about us becoming a beacon of hope, joy and making a way for those that follow me to be reminded that you can shape the world through your testimony–and when I do, I’ll search for a God fearing woman to spend the rest of my life with.

Me, free…what a dream that will be when it comes true. The cool thing is this: Anything is possible if I can see the gates and walk through them when they’re locked. Hey, this was my dream, so whatever I can imagine can be made true.

Oh yeah, I can’t forget this: I’ll be able to go into an IMAX theater and watch some Marvel movie and talk about it on social media. That will be the cherry on top for me…I really can’t wait…free.

*Please sign and share his petition: https://www.change.org/…/tutankhamun-waterman-

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