Chapter 15 Section Fourteen

In late March or early April 1963, a terrible thing happened to Andy.I told you that Andy had a quality that most inmates (me included) lacked, an inner peace, even an unwavering belief that the long nightmare would one day end.You can describe it as you like, and Andy always looks confident. Most prisoners sentenced to life imprisonment will have a gloomy and hopeless look on their faces after a period of time in prison, but Andy never appears on his face. Passed, until the late winter of 1963. At that time we had a new warden named Sam Norton.If you have the opportunity to know Norton, you will feel very speculative. No one has ever seen a smile on Norton's face.He is a 30-year veteran of the Baptist Adventist Church and has a badge issued by the church.Since he became the patriarch of this happy little family, his biggest innovation is to let every new intruder get a copy of the "Bible New Testament".On his desk there is a small memorial plate, gold letters inlaid on teak wood read: "Christ is my Savior", and on the wall is an embroidery work by his wife, which reads: "The judgment of the Lord is about to Come.” Those words make most of us gasp, we all feel that Judgment Day has come, and we are all willing to testify that no rock will hide us, nor a dead tree provide us with shelter.He quotes the Bible every time he lectures.Every time you meet this kind of person, I suggest that you better keep a smile on your face and cover your lower body with your hands.

There were far fewer wounded patients in the infirmary than under Stammer, and there were no more moonlight burials, but that didn't mean Norton didn't believe in the efficacy of punishment.The business in the confinement room is always booming. Many people lost their teeth, not because they were beaten, but because the prison officials only allowed them to eat bread and water, resulting in malnutrition. Norton is the nastiest hypocrite I've ever met in high places.The illegal business in prison has always been a booming business, but Norton is full of tricks.Andy knew all about the inside story, and since we had gradually become good friends at this time, he revealed some information to me from time to time.Andy always spoke of these things with a half-amusement, half-disgust look on his face, as if he were talking about some ugly, predatory bugs whose ugliness and greed are more ridiculous than terrifying .

Norton established a system of "outside prison".You may have seen reports like this sixteen or seventeen years ago; even Newsweek wrote a feature about it, which sounds like a great innovation in prison reformation.Let the prisoners cut wood outside the prison, build bridges and embankments, and build potato cellars.Norton called him an "outsider," and was invited to speak at every Rotary and Kiwi club in New England, especially when his photo was featured in Newsweek.The inmates called it the "road gang," but none of the inmates was ever invited to the Kiwanis or the Rotary Club to express their views.

So, from logging, digging ditches to laying underground cable conduits, Norton can be seen fishing for oil and water to fill his own pockets.Whether it's people, materials, or any item you can imagine, there are a hundred ways to monetize it.But Norton took a different approach.Since prison inmates are cheap slave labor, you can't compete with them, so the construction industry is all terrified of Norton's foreign prison plan.Therefore, Norton, a pious Christian holding a Bible and wearing a 30-year commemorative badge, received many thick envelopes from under the table during his 16-year tenure as the warden of Shawshank.When he received the envelope, he would bid too much for the project, or not bid for the project at all, or declare that his "outside prison" program had been signed by someone else.I just wondered why Norton had never been found dead in the trunk of an abandoned Thunderbird on a highway in Massachusetts, with his hands tied behind his back and six bullets in his head.

In short, as the lyrics of the old song played in the bar: My God, the money is just rolling in!Norton must have very much agreed with the Puritan tradition of knowing who God's most favored people are by simply checking their bank accounts. During this period, Andy was Norton's right-hand man and silent partner, and the prison library became a hostage in Norton's hands.Norton knew it, and took full advantage of it.Andy said Norton's favorite adage was that one hand washes away the sins of the other.So Andy offered Norton all kinds of useful advice.I dare not say that he personally created Norton's "outside prison" plan, but I'm sure he handled all kinds of money and provided useful advice for the son of a bitch.The money is rolling in, and... boy!The library has also been stocked with new auto repair manuals, encyclopedias, and reference books for college entrance exams, as well as more Gardner and Larmore novels.

I believe that this happened because Norton didn't want to lose his left and right hands, and he was afraid that Andy would say something against him if he really got out of prison. My information was pieced together over seven years, a little here and a little there, some from Andy, but not all.He never wanted to talk about it, and I don't blame him, some of it I got from half a dozen different sources.I have said that prisoners are nothing but slaves, and like slaves they pretend to be stupid but actually prick up their ears.I've been telling the story back and forth, but I'll tell you the whole story from the beginning to the end, and then you may understand why Andy fell into a trance of depression and despair for ten months.I don't think he knew the truth about the murder until 1963, fifteen years after he'd been in this sweet hell cell.I guess he didn't know it was going to get that bad until he got to know Tommy Williams.

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