#39 - Get Out of Jail - The Illustrations

This is the first time I have ever done marijuana.  Let me rephrase that.  This is the first time I have ever drawn marijuana.  Unlike Bartholomew, I did not have a live sample to work from.  I Googled marijuana images thinking there had to be a botanical drawing of marijuana I could work from.  But, man, there were so many bad images, or at least worthless images.  Here are the best I could find.

Really, this is the best!  Sad.  Marijuana has such a place in the history of this country and this is the best Google Images cold come up with.  Below is what I came up with.  Much better as far as I am concerned.

Nice thick lines that don't blur.  Strong color.  It's kind of a banana yellow in the background.  Wow, dried banana chips would be great right now.  I wanted lines to represent prison bars, which they do, but they're a little wavy and bent and could seem like stripes on some fudge covered cookies.  Mmm....  Or maybe they are the stripes on top of a pastry.  Perhaps they are black licorice whips.  Mmm...  The green is very St. Patrick's Day green beer color.  Or, have you ever had those... what are they... they're like... OH! I can't think of it, man...  It's right on the tip of my tongue.  Ngnnhh.  (I'm sticking my tongue out) Giggle.  Ha, ha, man.  What is the word?  Phfttp.  Oh, man.  WTF.  Those green things.  What are they?  Hah.  PIMENTOS! NO! I mean OLIVES!  Oh, man. I could eat a hole jar of those right now.  Ha "HOLE", not "WHOLE".  Ha ha.  Shit, man.  I think I gotta... what?  Oh, man.  I think I'm gonna go take a nap.

#39 - Get Out of Jail - Mistakes and Regrets

Get Out of Jail is a rather obvious story, it is about Bartholomew getting out of jail.  He stayed in jail for three days because Aunt Josephine and Uncle Jeffrey were away at the cabin for a few days.  Sometimes life isn't fair.  Sometimes we get in trouble and the only reason is because we didn't know what to do.  Bartholomew had never had someone else growing marijuana in his garden.  He didn't know how to handle that situation... and now he's in jail.

We only get one life to live.  We don't have the luxury of going through it a second time having learned from past experience.  How do you get through without completely screwing up your life?  There are so many opportunities to make the wrong decision, to face a new situation and go the wrong way.  Oh boy.  And then once you have realized, too late, well, it can just make you sick.  I'm sure we all have our own stories of these types of situations. If you have one to share, go to The Book of Bartholomew Facebook Page and share it.

Here is an excerpt from Get Out of Jail, that will be published on Friday, March 23:

“We're so sorry we didn't get home sooner. We just feel awful that you stayed in here for three days. If we had known we would have rushed down here immediately,” apologized Aunt Josephine.

“Yes, we heard your message as we were heading home this morning. We're sorry,” said Uncle Jeffrey. “We turn off our phones when we get to the cabin. I guess we should leave one on or check one regularly. We're very sorry.”

Bartholomew didn't care about their reasons, he was just thankful that they were there at last and could help straighten everything out.

“Will you explain to them that I wasn't growing the marijuana?!” pleaded Bartholomew.

“We already have,” said Uncle Jeffrey. “We told them that Mr. McBarden was growing it and that the rest of us had no idea. They said that you had just discovered the ma... marijuana just before they got there.”

“It’s true!” confirmed Bartholomew, “I had just gathered one stem and was going to wait until you got home to figure out what to do. I didn't know how to handle something like that.”

“I would have just called the police,” interjected Aunt Josephine.

“But Mr. McBarden is my neighbor,” said Bartholomew. “Perhaps we should have talked to him and asked him to get rid of it. If he didn't, then we could have called the cops.”

“I have to agree with Aunt Josephine,” responded Uncle Jeffrey. “When it comes to breaking the law, you should just call the police and let them deal with it. After all, what has Mr. McBarden done? Nothing! He is home all the time and he must have seen what happened. Has he come down here to help you out? No. Now we know why he was so protective of his plot.”

Bartholomew squirmed a little. He liked to give people a chance. “So you don't think confronting Mr. McBarden would do any good?” he asked.

“Bartholomew,” Uncle Jeffrey said very sternly, “did Mr. McBarden ever check out the property lines and get the okay from the railroad?”

“He said he did. He said everything was fine.”

“That's what he said, but you don't know if he actually did it, do you?”

Suddenly, Bartholomew felt sick in his stomach. When they were starting the garden, Uncle Jeffrey had reminded Bartholomew several times to check on the property lines and utilities. Bartholomew wasn't sure how to go about doing this, and he put it off. Then Mr. McBarden assured him that everything was okay. It was Bartholomew's fault that the garden was built on railroad property without permission. He felt like throwing up.