The Shawshank Redemption Chapter 1 by Stephen King Shi Jiqing Zhao Yongfen Translated by Qi Ruolan Spring Hope The Shawshank Redemption is dedicated to Russ and Florence Dole No. I can get you anything, whether it’s fancy cigarettes or marijuana if that’s your preference, or a bottle of brandy to celebrate a son or daughter graduating from high school, pretty much anything I mean within reason I I’m responsive but many situations don’t necessarily make sense I came to Shawshank Prison when I was just twenty years old In this happy little family I’m one of the few who readily admits what I’ve done I committed a murder I’m the elder Wife of three took out a huge life insurance policy and fiddled with the brakes on a Chevrolet that her dad gave us as a wedding present Everything was going exactly as I planned except she stopped halfway to pick up a neighbor The wife and her young son were going down Castle Hill into town together when the brakes failed and the car went faster and faster through the bushes on the side of the road and hit the base of a Civil War memorial, which caught fire. Onlookers said the car must have been going faster than an hour. Fifty miles I didn’t think I’d get caught but I’m in jail Serving a long sentence here Maine has no death penalty but the prosecutors put me on trial for three murders and the judge sentenced me to three Life in prison for several crimes combined so I won’t have a chance for parole for a very, very long time and the judge also said in the verdict that I’ve committed a serious crime and deserved to die. That’s true, but these things are in the past now, you can check it out. Castle Rock’s old newspaper archives about my verdict was the headline in the local paper alongside the news about Hitler, Mussolini and Roosevelt’s operatives with those initials. Am I rehabilitated? I don’t even know what rehabilitated is.
At least I don’t know what that means in prison. I think it’s just a politician’s word. The word may have some other meaning. Maybe one day I will Will understand what it means But that’s the future And the inmates in the prison have long since learned not to think about the future I was born poor but young and handsome I got a rich girl to conceive She was born in a mansion on Cabin Street Pretty and pampered but always sullen Her father agreed to let us get married on the condition that I have to work in his eyewear company to climb up the ladder on my own.
Later I found out that his real intention was to keep me under his surveillance all the time like a tuber My resentment has built up over the years like a dog or cat that doesn’t obey and bites at home, and finally I’ve done it.
If I were given another chance, I would never do it again, but I’m not sure if that means I’ve done it.
But what I really want to tell is not my story but Andy Dufresne’s story But before I start telling Andy’s story A few things about me before I say it won’t take much work anyway as I said for almost forty years in Shawshank prison I’ve been able to get you anything but contraband like cigarettes and booze that’s always at the top Besides I have a way of getting a thousand other things for people here to pass the time Some of the stuff is absolutely legal it’s just not easy to get in a place like this because jail is supposed to be a punishment like some guy raped a little girl and it involved a few Ten exposed cases I found him three pieces of pink Vermont marble and he carved three lovely statues a baby a boy of twelve and a young man with a beard he called the statues three different parts of Jesus Period now these statues have been in the living room of the previous governor or if you grew up in northern Massachusetts you must remember the name of this man Robert Allen Cotter who attempted to rob Morchanik in 1951 The robbery at the First Commercial Bank in Virginia turned out to be bloody and six people died, including two robbers, three hostages, and a young cop who let a bullet go through his eye because he looked up at the wrong time. Kurt has a penchant for collecting coins. Of course he wasn’t allowed to bring his collection in but with the help of his mother and the laundry truck driver I managed to get him what he wanted and I told him you must be crazy to want to be in a place full of thieves Coins in the Stone Hotel He looked at me and smiled and said I know where to hide them and it’s safe you don’t worry he was right and his coin collection never showed up until he died of a brain tumor in 1967 I’ve tried trying to get chocolate for my cellmates on Valentine’s Day and three of those green milkshakes that McDonald’s sells for a crazy Irishman named O’Malley on St. Paddy’s Day.
I’ve even had midnight screenings for twenty people. The titles of the movies are Deep Throat and The Devil in Miss Jones and they’re all porn and they pooled money to rent them, and even though I got locked up for a week for these escapades, it’s the kind of risk I have to take to maintain my supernatural fame. Can get reference books and porn tickling powders and all sorts of prank novelties and even get wives or girlfriends panties for dudes with long sentences and I guess you know how these guys spend their days like that It’s been a long night of knives these things ain’t free some things cost a lot but I don’t do it just for the money what’s money to me I can’t own a Cadillac let alone fly in February I’m going to Jamaica for a two week vacation for the same reason that the top market butchers don’t sell meat that isn’t fresh