A BOOK ON U.S. APPLICABLE LAW
Deacon San Nguyen
FIRST LOVE IS ALSO THE LAST
Vietnamese people have a song that begins by a sentence: “The road to Love has a hundred times of happiness but a thousand times of sadness.” This song might be useful to tell a love that happened in an American detaining center too. Rick and Stacy were imprisoned in a jail. They were waiting for the day the Judge decides on their fates. Both were drug peddlers. Strangely, they fell in love with each other but never saw each other. To communicate with each other, they used “toilet phone”, a way to communicate through the pipes that extracted water from toilets. It was stunk and dirty but it was very useful to talk with each other freely.
At that time, I was the Chaplain of the jail that consisted of 13 levels; each level contained 170 prisoners. In each cell that kept 2 or 3 men, there was a toilet and a washing sink. If anyone wanted to talk with another, he or she had to find a way to extract all water in the toilet, then bend the head into the toilet and talk! With this kind of communication, the prisoners could hear very clearly each word of others. However, if there was a guy making tools at upper story, the communicators had to wait until the other guy finished his business, then extracted water again before they could continue the talks. Because of this problem, the communicators must wait until midnight, sometimes at 2 or 3 a.m. in the morning, when everybody slept soundly.
This is the story of Rick and Stacy. Stacy was a 38 year old widow. She had 3 children, the eldest was 12, the youngest was 7. Stacy was born from a poor family in a small town. Her family had 8 children. Because she was the oldest, her parents forced her to marry a rich man in next town, when she was just finished 10th grade at school and was just 16 year old. Her husband was 40 year old. They never got to know each other before marriage. Stacy’s husband was an addicted to liquor and games. Whenever he lost money to games, he got drunk and came back home to beat his wife terribly. Stacy was a devoted Catholic, therefore, even though she suffered a lot, Stacy tried to keep calm. Knowing that her parents still needed her financial support, she could not file a divorce. Being treated badly like that for a long time, gradually, her mind became tougher and tougher. She reacted with the life like a robot. Suddenly, her husband died in a car accident. Being drunk, he drove his car through the rail of a bridge on a river and died under the water.
After her husband died about 3 years, Stacy ran out of her husband’s money. Having no choice, she sold heroine to survive. Luckily enough, she made more money than when she lived on her husband’s support. With the gain from heroine, Stacy looked much younger and more beautiful. She didn’t know that some days, she ran out of luck, too. One day, one of her men was caught by police when he kept a great volume of heroine of hers. He pointed his finger to Stacy. She was arrested. Now, she was waiting for the judgment day.
Rick was a 28 year old bachelor. He was arrested because he kept a volume of heroine that was worth about $500.000.00 in his car. Rick was handsome like James Dean. He also had a good voice. He liked to sing, play piano, keyboard for a band at his town. Rick’s family was a troubled one. He was the only son in a family where his parents divorced since he was 2 year old. Rick lived with his mother. When he turned 6, his mother remarried with a school mate who divorced several times already.
As Rick turned 18, he came to his biological father and lived with him. Rich’s father was a jealous man. Six months later, his father committed a murder to his wife. He asked his wife’s ex husband to kill her. The court testimony lasted 2 years then his father was sentenced to death. His father appealed the death sentence to the State Superior Court requesting the Court to exchange to a life sentence but no result yet. The day Rick was handcuffed, his father was already in jail for 10 years.
Most of prisoners who were detained at the jail where I served as a Catholic Chaplain knew the way of communication through the toilet water extracting pipe. Regardless the uncomfortable position of the communicators when they had to raise their bottoms up and bended their heads into the toilet bowls, the communicators felt very happy because they could open their minds to the friend they love.
Rick and Stacy were kept separately in two different cells. They had their own room and not sharing with anyone else. The warden believed that they were belonged to important syndicates that organized the business of selling cocaine. Rick and Stacy were not allowed to meet anyone besides their lawyers and Chaplain. Before being in jail, they did not know each other. Stacy was arrested first. One month later, Rick was brought in. Stacy was in 4th floor, and Rick was in 5th floor. Both were Catholic, therefore, right after the arrest, they filled out the Request Slip to have a Chaplain to meet them. Then, every 2 weeks, I came and talked with them about Gospel. I also gave them Holy Communion and spiritual counseling, too.
Perhaps, God blessed those two lonely guys to make friend with each other, so He arranged for her to stay right under Rick’s bed. If they were living to the right or the left of other, they would not be friends, because only the ones lived right on the exact vertical line of other could talk through the water pipe.
One day, Stacy was allowed to leave her cell to watch TV at 4th floor, she was told about the communication pipe in a toilet. Coincidentally, on the same day, Rick was told how to have a girl friend when he watched TV on the 4th floor, too. That night, although no appointment was set, both of them waited until 2 o’clock at midnight and tried to talk with each other. Just like God’s will, they could talk for several hours and never got tired.
Having faith in me, every time I visited them, Stacy asked me to bring “a burning kiss” to Rick who did the same with “eternal loving kiss” to Stacy. When seeing me, Stacy always asked about Rick. “How does he look like?”, she asked, “As you know, we never meet each other. I want to know how he looks.” “Oh, he was just another James Dean!” Hearing my reply, Stacy knelt down on her knees and thanked God: “My Lord, I thank you for giving an ideal lover whom I imagined since I first know how to love.”
About Rick, he asked, “Sir, please tell me about my darling Stacy. Is she beautiful?”
I said, “Of, she looked like Julie Andrew who had a magic voice similarly to the voice of angels”. Rick reacted like Stacy did. He knelt down and thanked God seriously.
The “toilet-phone Love” between Rick and Stacy lasted about 4 months then, they requested me to arrange a wedding ceremony for them. I accepted their requested and told them that there was no problem at all. I could ask permission from the warden. Both of them got no problem, though. Stacy was a widow. Rick never married. Thus, the Catholic Church found no way to stop them doing that. However, there was a question about their intention: they never saw each other’s faces and, they might not see their lover for a very long time: 10, or 20, or 30 years later. I did not know how they could confront this issue, so I decided to seek advice from a Priest who was professional with this issue before I could process the wedding. At the meantime, I needed to teach them a Pre-Marriage course so that they could be together for their whole life. Both happily accepted my term as well as the waiting period.
Nevertheless, things changed rapidly. Right at the time I prepared my lectures, the secretary of the Chaplain Office announced the death of Rick: Rick committed suicide by hanging himself in his cell.
The sad news made me stagger for a while. I had a feeling like being hit by a thunder. I cried a lot, having pity for a sinned man. Before visiting his corpse, I walked to Stacy with the intention to let her know the bad news. However, Stacy knew that already. She did cry so much that she had no more tear to shed. “I thanked God,” she said calmly before The Holy Cross, “He had given me a precious love from Rick. We had lived with each other many nights. We heard each other’s words, we felt each other’s warm breath, we shared burning love with each other. From now on, I will gravely keep this rare Love in mind till my end. At the time I leave this world, I will ask God to let me see my lover whom God called on before me.”
Stacy was in jail for 15 years straight. Should she behaved well, she could leave jail after 7 years and half. Her wish was to look for Rick’s grave, then, she would place on it a bunch of white flowers representing her genuine love. And, she would give Rick’s grave a “burning kiss”. “I wished that you still remember”, she answered my question about the burning kiss, “when Rick was still alive, I always asked you to send my burning kiss to him! Now, since he was no more in this world, I swear that I will keep my faithfulness to him forever. My first love was my last one already. Also, I wished that once I was gone, my body could be placed next to his.”
As you know, not all Lovers need to be side by side with each other. It was not necessary to keep hands in hands to show off a Love. It might happen through a toilet water extracting pipe but it still was a great Love. Love is a sacrifice. Love accepts everything even though not all the things Love accepts are good.
