An Eye for an Eye

Nurse Lucinda Mendoza pushed the medicine cart slowly down the jail corridor. She was working her usual 3-11:30 pm shift at Godwin T. Jackson Prison in Oakdale, California. It was time for medication pass, and she had to get to inmate pods to service them. This shift weighed heavy on her because Lucinda knew this shift was going to be different. She was worried, as Deputy Carr walked quickly ahead of her. On this shift, she was going to have to kill someone.

Remembering last night’s conversation with Joseph made her heart race. Joseph Rodriguez used to be her neighbor. She had lived next door to his family ten years ago. Her son Roddy, and Joseph, were the same age and became fast friends when they moved to Oakdale. She smiled to herself, remembering how her son and daughter were happy to finally have a yard to play in. Those were hardest years of her life. Her husband Jose died of a heart attack, leaving her a single 35-year-old mother of two small children. They moved into a single room at a boarding house, because it was all she could afford on her grocery store cashier salary.

She applied to nursing school and was accepted. She took on student loans, knowing that she was on her way to a better life for her and her children. She quickly got a job as an RN at the local hospital, working days, but took on the job at Jackson Prison to help save money to buy a home. That was ten years ago, and here she was now---a nurse, a homeowner, and a mother of teenagers.

While she loved both of her children fiercely, it was Roddy who broke her heart. Little did she know that moving next door to Joseph and his family would be the worst decision of her life. The boys spent countless hours together. Lucinda tolerated Joseph’s mother, Rocio. Rocio allowed Joseph to do whatever he wanted, with no discipline. When the boys reached high school, she could see changes in her Roddy, and she knew that she needed to get him away from Joseph. She enrolled him in a new school but, it was too late. Joseph was Roddy’s hero, no matter what. It always made her mad when she pulled up in her driveway after her shift at the prison, to see Roddy and Joseph, still awake at midnight, smoking weed on the front porch.

When Joseph got into selling drugs, Lucinda begged Roddy to stop hanging around Joseph, for fear that he would be arrested or worse. Then, one night when Joseph was at her house, she instantly recognized a tattoo on his arm as that of the OD Gangstas. She had seen the same tattoo on some of the prisoners at the jail; the OD Gangstas were notorious—both inside and outside of the prison—for being violent drug dealers. Rumor had it that they were affiliated with a Mexican cartel.

After high school, Roddy kind of fell into things that came his way. He had no ambitions it seemed. Lucinda was always worried about what Roddy would fall into next. Her worries became real because that summer after graduation, Roddy shot and killed Joseph’s little brother, Matteo.

Roddy and Joseph were sitting in the front seat of his black BMW, smoking. Joseph was showing Roddy a gun---a black Smith & Wesson .357 Magnum. Joseph wanted to play Russian Roulette, telling Roddy the gun was not loaded. Joseph’s little brother, Matteo, was sitting in the back seat with his headphones on. Joseph passed the blunt to Roddy, then spun the chamber on the gun. He pulled the trigger. The gun clicked; and they laughed. Roddy took a puff of the blunt, and took the gun from Joseph. He pointed the gun at Joseph, and squeezed the trigger. The gun clicked. Nothing. Roddy then pointed the gun at Matteo, and pulled the trigger. He shot Matteo in the head, and killing him instantly.

Joseph tried to stop the bleeding from Matteo’s head, but it was too late. Roddy, with the gun still in his hand, ran away. Lucinda arrived home at midnight to yellow tape and police cars surrounding her home. Her heart flew to her throat because she did not see Roddy or Julissa anywhere. The police told her that Roddy had shot Matteo, and Matteo was dead. However, they could not find Roddy anywhere. The police asked her if she knew where her son was, and Lucinda had no idea. They searched for Roddy for two days, and finally found him hiding in an abandoned building near the south side of the city. He was arrested, and charged with murder. His friend, his hero, Joseph, testified against him at trial, and made it clear to the jury that Roddy killed his brother Matteo. Roddy went to prison at the age of 18, serving 25 years to life.

Lucinda had worked with Officer Carr for the last three years. He had been a deputy at the prison for almost 16 years. How the hell did Joseph get him involved in this? She was absolutely stunned that Officer Carr would do something like this. Lucinda began questioning her whole employment at the prison. Her son was convicted of killing someone, and now she had to do the same. Her heart felt like it was going to explode in her chest.

The events of last night kept replaying in her head. She came home early from shift at the hospital to a pizza box on her porch. She looked around, puzzled, because she had not ordered a pizza. She picked up the box, but it was pretty heavy for a pizza. She brought the box inside, and put it on the kitchen table. Inside was what amounted to $20,000 dollars! Lucinda gasped in shock. There was a note attached to the top of the pizza box. Lucinda read the note:

“Ever since Roddy killed my brother, my eyes have been watching you---and Julissa. You will pay for what Roddy did… An eye for an eye. A life for a life. You owe me, or else I will take one of yours. I will call you in two hours. Don’t call the police because my soldiers are everywhere.”

-----Joseph Rodriguez

Lucinda slumped down in a chair. Her head was spinning. She hadn’t seen Joseph since his family buried Matteo. She heard they moved to Texas; but she’d also heard rumors that Joseph had risen in the ranks of the ODs. After Roddy went to prison, but it had been rough for her and Julissa. Julissa barely graduated high school because of everything that happened. They called Roddy a murderer at school, and she began having anxiety attacks. Lucinda was already worried about her daughter. She did not want to lose her too.

She tossed the note in the trash, and hid the money under her bed. How could she kill someone? The thought sickened her, and she vomited into the kitchen sink. Maybe she should go to the police. No, she couldn’t go to he police. Did Joseph have police officers working for him? What did he mean by ‘soldiers’? These questions were flooding Lucinda’s mind.

Lucinda sat on her sofa, and waited. She was going to have to call off of her shift at the prison tonight in order to take Joseph’s call, which should be around 3 pm. At 3:05 pm, the phone rang, and Lucinda jumped at the sound. She let it ring two more times before she answered. “Hello” she said hoarsely. “Hello, Lucinda.” Joseph’s voice was the same as always, but had been deepened by years of smoking. She recognized him immediately. She began to cry. “There is no time for tears, Lucinda. I am all cried out since Roddy killed Matteo. There is a man at Jackson Prison by the name of Roberto Jimenez, and you are the nurse on medicine pass for tomorrow from 3-11:30 pm. He has decided to testify against me, and you are going to kill him. The prison guard will assist you. If you decide not to do what I have asked, your son---or your daughter----will be dead within 24 hours.” As he spoke to Lucinda, Joseph crossed the name of Roberto Jimenez off of a list of four men listed in numerical order in a small black notebook. Roberto Jimenez was listed as number 3. Roddy Mendoza was listed as number 4.

Lucinda could barely breathe. “Why are you doing this to me?” she managed to ask Joseph. Joseph hung up. Lucinda curled up in a ball on the sofa and cried.

The next day, Lucinda arrived at the prison for her 3-11:30 pm shift. She had called off again from the hospital because she was just too nervous. How the hell was she going to do this? She took a Valium that she had left over from her knee surgery. By the time she arrived at the prison, she was calmer, but still not calm enough to kill someone. If she went to the police, Julissa was as good as dead.

Once Lucinda arrived on her nursing unit, Lucinda looked through her patient lists. Roberto Jimenez was on the 4th floor. She pushed her cart towards the watch office, and Officer Carr was there waiting on her. He nodded at her, and she nodded back. She pushed her cart toward the elevator, with Deputy Carr following her. He pushed the button to the 4th floor, while simultaneously placing a small yellow pill into a slot on her cart. They rode to the 4th floor in silence.

The door to the 4th floor opened, and Deputy Carr stepped out and began walking ahead of her. She was breathing hard, and pushing the cart slowly. She hurried herself along after Deputy Carr reminded her about head count. Deputy Carr opened the first pod of inmates. Medicine pass went fine with only ten inmates in the pod. Jimenez was in the second pod. Deputy Carr slammed the door shut on the first pod, and opened the second. He called the inmates down for medicine pass. “Johnson, Paschal, Anderson, Jimenez, Matthews, Biebart, Riley, and Slocumb! Medicine pass. Line up!” Carr’s shouting unnerved Lucinda even further. She dropped two of the empty paper pill cups. She picked them up, and slipped the single yellow pill from her cart into one of the cups. She gave Johnson, Paschal, and Anderson their correct meds.

When she got to Jimenez, she looked up and froze. Carr looked at her and licked his lips. Jimenez did not notice the look that passed between Lucinda and Officer Carr. Roberto Jimenez took the pill cup, swallowed the pill, and drank a swig of water. He opened his mouth and stuck out his tongue to show that he did not hide the pill under his tongue. Jimenez turned and walked back toward his dorm.

On her way back to the elevator, escorted by Deputy Carr, the red lights on the walls of the prison began to flash. “Man down on 4th floor!” someone yelled over the loudspeaker. Carr turned and began to run back towards the pods. Two deputies from the guard tower began shouting on their radios. Lucinda turned and got on the elevator when it stopped. Another deputy ran past the elevator as the doors were shutting, and it was all Lucinda could do to not scream. Tears ran down her face as she descended to the main floor. She had made her choice. An eye for an eye. A life for a life. She and her children were alive, for now. Lucinda slowly wheeled her cart back to the medication room, and sat down at the nursing desk. She fished out another Valium from her pocket and swallowed it. It was beyond her now.