The Warden's Son

I guess the most important thing to say up front was that the summer of 1987 was a pivotal time in my life. I was 10. I made a new best friend. And, I became a murderer. Yep. You heard right.The summer of 1987 was the ninth stop for yours truly on the great prison tour of my childhood. Every year a new town and a new prison to explore.I wasn’t yet a murderer. Not at the beginning. Just the plain old son of a warden in jeans with permanent grass stains and threadbare sneakers that wore me more than I wore them.Life as the son of a federal prison warden never felt weird until I turned 10. I was still a naive little waif until that nasty summer when everything changed.Now I sit here in my suit, so far removed from the boy of 1987 Virginia that I feel like I’m perfectly qualified to judge him. But when the window’s open, all I have to do is get a breeze from which I can detect the gluey stink of split black locust, or hear the froggy grind of a woodcock’s call, and then I’m no longer qualified. There I am, back under the hot sun, at the edge of the creek stinking of heat and moss. I am that boy again. And I can make out the line of Redcoats marching in ramrod-straight formation along a pink-feathered sea of mountain laurel in the distance...What happens when a 10-year-old boy becomes friends with an inmate? Jimmy Allen's about to find out, and the crash of reality will stick with him for an eternity. The author of theUSA Todaybest-selling Corps Justice series pens a coming of age story about youth, strength, and the bravery of bonds between friends.Read more