It is to be a memorable day.

As usual, we are waking at 4 a.m., a foolish and dark time of day.

After breakfast, a group adjourns to the basketball court.

It is my cellie’s 71st birthday, and he is particularly chipper as he organizes ice, water and paper cups.

‘Cowboy’ can ball. In fact, most of the Indians have game. But ‘Cowboy’ does it all.

And we hit it off.

He has no upper teeth. But prisons are a teeth-optional zip code, between fights and meth. So his gums are not the surprise.

Cowboy is a former bull rider at Indian rodeos. That makes him double tough.

Before corrections officer Lee Harvey whistles an end to ‘rec,’ a new Navajo kneels upon a towel next to the court.

‘Sam’ Begay begins to sing, and it is fine. In fact, it is glorious.

I was raised up Catholic, and as an altar boy, I listened to numerous choirs.

My mother was a featured singer who also sang opera.

But Sam’s singing at the basketball court lifted my prison shroud.

When corrections officer Lee Harvey brings us back into the Bunker, prisoners break into a raucous round of birthday cheering for my cellie, Oliver Howard.

He is pleased and smiles in, yes, embarrassment.

Later, officer Harvey shows up at our cell.

He has decided — or been told — to enforce the five-book limit on my roommate.

Howard is speechless, almost.

What little he says only aggravates Harvey.

Howard, knowing Harvey is a minister, argues that his religious books should not count.

I cringe.

Harvey is insistent: Only keep five books. Everything else goes.

And so, Howard pulls out and turns over some 20 books to Harvey.

Some birthday.

The books are stacked upon a three-shelf public cart near to the door to the sally-port. Howard’s books are now everyone’s books.

A couple of hours after Harvey leaves the pod, a group of young inmates return all 20 books to a tearful Howard.

Some birthday indeed.

Michael Lacey is the former editor-in-chief of Village Voice Media, a 17-newspaper chain credited with winning more than 3,800 writing awards, including a Pulitzer.

Read more by Lacey, here. And please watch, “How the feds destroyed Backpage.com and its founders,” a 40-minute documentary on the Backpage case by Reason magazine.

Please also see:
Ninth Grants Lacey Bail Pending Appeal in Backpage Case, Denies It for Brunst, Spear
and
Within the Barred Bunker: Michael Lacey Writes from Prison