Chapter 14 – In The Big House

Big Thing was escorted into the jailhouse by a police officer. He was checked into the prison at the front desk, and then taken to another room. In that room, all different machines and tools were scattered everywhere, which made Big Thing nervous. Suddenly, the door to the room opened behind him and an old Ford came towards him.

“Hello there, Mr. Jonnaha. What a pleasure it is to have you in my prison. I am the warden here.” The warden paused. “Now, to tell you why you are here in this room. You see, in my prison, I get a lot of tuners like you. And when this prison first opened, I let them keep their paintjobs and accessories, but it all became too big of a mess for me. So I will ask you now to let these cars here strip you of your paint job and any tuning parts. You can keep the earrings already in your mirrors but you must take off the ones on your mouth and eyebrow.” As the warden was saying this, the cars around him began to remove his spoiler, pull off his earrings, and remove his flame paintjob. “Oh, and the bandana, you can keep that too,” the warden added. Big Thing whimpered as he saw all the cars remove his tuning that Ramone had put so much effort into.

As Big Thing saw them rip him of tuner ship, he saw one car drag over what seemed to be a roof rack. Confused, Big Thing yelled at the warden, asking why he was forced to wear a roof rack. While the roof rack was behind attached to his roof, the warden explained how every SUV had to wear one; it was kind of like their uniform for the prison. Big Thing snorted as he felt himself being tagged like an animal.

After Big Thing was stripped, he was lead into the heart of the prison where all the inmates were kept. As Big Thing passed by the cells, the cars within watched him from the darkness with their Cheshire cat like eyes. Finally, the guard stopped Big Thing and opened up his cell, threw him into it, and locked the door. He put his tires on the bars, trying to bring them down, but he could not. He sat helplessly in the cell, looking out between the bars.

“You’re not gonna get out that way. In fact, you can’t get out anyway, there is no way out,” Big Thing heard from the cell next to him.

“Yeah, and who’s to know?” Big Thing snorted.

“I’ve been here for two years, I should know enough. More than a newbie would,” the car in the next cell replied.

“Yeah…”Big Thing acknowledged.

“Well, what are you in for, newbie?” the car asked.

“Mass murder, and you?” Big Thing replied.

“Robbing a bank, and trying to escape prison three times. They sent me here cause they know I wouldn’t be able to get out. And besides, I’ve only got two years in here and I’m out. How long is your sentence?”

“Life.”

“Aw, sorry to hear that. Say, what’s your name, newbie?”

“Big Thing…”

“Big Thing? Big Thing! Is that really you, man?” Big Thing eyes widened.

“Who are you?” Big Thing asked, a little scared.

“It’s me, Rick, remember? You were at the same orphanage as me and I helped you get outta there.” Big Thing did remember. Rick was a blue 2004 Nissan Titan who was Big Thing’s only friend at the orphanage he lived in before he took life to the streets. Rick was the truck who helped him escape without him getting caught.

“Well, hey Rick. I guess were both in the big house together now,” Big Thing sighed.

“Yeah,” Rick said quietly.

When lunchtime came around, all the prisoners were escorted out of their cells and to the lunchroom, where they grabbed their lunches and parked. When Big Thing was parking, he noticed that even in prison the gas guzzlers and fuel efficients hated each other and were separate from each other. Once lunch was over and when Big Thing was dragged back to his cell, one guard told him he had a visitor and lead Big Thing towards the front of the prison.

When Big Thing parked himself at the visitor’s station, he noticed that his visitors were the tuners. They were all there, except Boost that was. Big Thing started to get nervous as he started talking to his friends. They just casually talked for a bit, and finally Wingo had to bring up the news. Boost was O.K, but had barely survived enough as it was. He was leaving the hospital in about three more weeks after being in intensive care. Big Thing apologized to his friends and they accepted his apology, knowing that they all had suffered that day.

A few more visitors came and visited Big Thing in the following weeks. Flo and Ramone came once every week, and some of the other Radiator Springs residents. Yet, one day, Big Thing got a new visitor.

“Johnnaha, you’ve got a visitor,” a guard called, coming over to him. “You’re staying in your cell, at least look presentable.” Big Thing was in the back of his cell, sitting in the darkness. He saw his visitor come to the front of cell, and he was surprised to see who it was.
It was Bill, the Toyota Tacoma from the SUV massacre and at the courthouse; the one who supported Big Thing during his time of crisis.

“Hey, what’s goin’ on?” Bill asked. Big Thing did not reply.  “I asked, what’s up?” he asked again, but Big Thing refused to answer. Instead, he got weird noises from the SUV. “What’s wrong with him?” Bill turned towards Rick.

“The guy in the next cell next to me for some reason has gotten his tire on some whiskey for the past couple of weeks. He offered Big Thing some, and he hasn’t gotten off it since,” Rick replied.

“Whiskey?! He’s only sixteen and you are letting him drink hard liquor?” Bill asked angrily.

“Hey, this is prison. Let him do what he wants,” Rick shot back. Bill frantically turned back to Big Thing’s cell.

“Come on, I want to talk to you!” Bill yelled into the cell, hoping to get Big Thing’s attention. The SUV finally came from out of the darkness of the cell towards Bill. Big Thing was completely drunk: he was wobbling on his tires, one of his pupils was dilated, and his breathing was very irregular.

“Wath isth ith?” Big Thing yelled out, his speak extremely slurred.

“Well…” Bill started. “ I was going to tell you that I want to help you get out of prison.”

“Get him out of prison?! He has a life sentence, you can’t get anyone out who has  a life sentence!” Rick snorted.

“I’ll find a way then!” Bill yelled back. “This guy saved my life, and I owe him one.” He paused. “ Anyway, Big Thing. I was going to…” Bill was quickly interrupted.

“Ith donth neth yahth helpth, bathstard,” Big Thing slurred while catching himself from falling over by leaning up against one of the bars in the cell. In one tire he was holding a bottle of whiskey. Bill started to get nervous when he looked at it.

“No…but…” Bill was quickly interrupted again.

“NOTH ITH DONTH NETH YOTH HELTH GETH THETH FUCTH AWATH! ITH DOTH NEETH SOMTH DAMTH TOYYOTAATHS HELTH!!!” In an outburst of rage, Big Thing took the whiskey bottle he had in his left tire and he threw it at Bill. Bill quickly ducked and avoided its coming, and it instead hit the wall. Bill was shocked and utterly terrified.

“God dammit!” yelled Bill. He looked at Big Thing, who was still barely standing in his cell. Yet, within an instant, the SUV collapsed to the ground and was out cold. In response Bill approached the cell.

Big Thing was sprawled out in the cell, his eyes closed and his mouth open with drool seeping from the sides. Bill saw a pile of whiskey bottles in the corner and in anger turned towards Rick.

“Are you trying to kill him?!” Bill yelled. “If you keep letting him drink like this he’s going to kill himself! Why is he doing this to himself?!”

“No, I’m not trying to kill him. He wants the liquor and I just hand it to him. He’s been very depressed lately and he drinks about four bottles a day…” Rick was interrupted.

“FOUR A DAY?? You gotta stop letting him drink, you gotta. I can get him out of here…” Bill caught his breath. “Please, just stop giving them to him, please. He’ll be better if he doesn’t have them,” Bill begged to Rick.

“Boy…” a guard from behind Bill called out. Bill turned towards him. “You’re visiting hour is up, let’s go,” he acknowledged. Bill drove over to the guard and looked at Big Thing and Rick’s cell before leaving. He gave Rick an evil glare and with an instant Bill was gone.