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By Root 1458 0

the beach a lot, a blonde, when her hair is kind of brownish-blonde on her arms and the sun hits it? Well, Penn had hairs on his arms like that, and he had real pretty hair, little curls, and he had beautiful blue eyes. He looked like a little sparrow, and he loved me because he loved jazz, and he'd follow me around. We were on the chain together to go to Quentin. They called, "Penn, Pepper." So we were handcuffed together. We got on the Grey Goose and we sat together; it just happened to work out that way. They took us off the bus at Soledad and they called the names for the cells, and it's "Penn, Pepper" in the same cell, which was nice because he's clean, very neat, and he adores me. I had someone to flatter me, and he's telling me the records he's got and when he saw me at soand-so, how much he loved it, how much his old lady loved it. The next morning we got back on the bus and it was the same thing: we sat together. So people see us come; we're handcuffed together; we eat together; we go through the physicals and the different things you go through when you go in and we're always together because of our names. And, evidently, a few people decided this cat was my kid, my punk, my girl friend.

You get very aware in prison. You're careful to observe things. It's a jungle; there might be a snake there or a centipede. You never walk around half conscious. When you go into a toilet you look at every person. If you're in line you look at everybody behind you. It becomes a habit. Eyes are always moving. So I noticed this one guy, kind of cold-eyed, who was watching me. He was about five, nine, and there was nothing violent looking about his build, nothing physical, but he had a scary way about him and I never saw him talk to a living soul.

I noticed him watching me. I'd be standing someplace in the upper yard, and I'd look over, and he'd be behind an iron girder looking at me. I'd look at him and he'd lower his eyes and turn around. I'd look away and back, quick, and he'd be staring at me again. He'd lower his head. I'd find myself in the canteen line, and there he'd be standing at a distance, but I'd feel his presence. And I really started getting worried.

I hit on a guy I knew. I said, "Man, don't look now. I don't want this cat to know I'm pinning him. But this cat standing over by So-and-so.. . " And I said real low, "Do you know that cat?" And my friend said, "I sure do, man! That guy is murder three. Everybody's terrified of him. Nobody messes with him, and he doesn't have anything to do with anybody. He's a real death-shank type cat. He does everything single-O." I hit on another guy. Same response. I hit on another guy and he said, "Man, don't have any dealings with him and don't ever do anything he doesn't like or you're dead." I thought, "What is this cat looking at me for?" I hit on another guy and I copped out. I asked him, "Well, why do you think the cat's watching me?" The guy said, "Well, there's only one reason I can think of. He's a lifer. He's gonna be here for life. He's looking at you. That means he has eyes for you." He wasn't a fruiter. See, the guys that are doing life, rather than just playing with themselves, with books, they learn to make it with a man and think of the man as a woman. They're not fruiters in that sense of the word. Maybe if I was there for life I'd do the same thing. I doubt it though.

Finally, one day a guy that was a friend of Penn's, Bob, came up to me and said, "Wait a minute. Don't look now but-now look! See that guy standing over there by the third girder?" I looked and said, "Oh, man, are you kidding? That cat's been looking at me for weeks now. I'm terrified." Bob said, "Well, he approached me the other day, and he wants to make a meet with you." Bob said, "I don't know what he wants, man, but you gotta see him. You gotta make a meet with him and find out." I said, "Okay. Tell him I'll see him downstairs in the lower yard."

I go down to the handball court. The guy walks up to me. He says, "Art Pepper?" I say, "Yeah." He says, "Man, I hear you're a great musician." And