This is the email that started it all, in my head anyway. Who are this Sarah and Clarence, how did he get this email contact request so wrong?

First things first, maybe you already know about the US prison system and the difference between State and Federal prison?, I didn’t despite many years of watching US cop shows. Federal prison is where you go for drug, or, maybe fraud offences, State is where you end up if you have done the bad stuff – murder, rape, etc. basically, if you have someone you know/care about in prison, you want them to be in Federal prison, better funded, less horrible crimes. So, there is an upside to this story, Clarence may be an OK dude. He just sounds like a serial Killer. His name that is, I haven’t actually spoken to him.

In our sliding doors scenario, how did I get to be this Sarah? This Sarah whose loved one is in prison. Am assuming it is a loved one, as I don’t think that when you are in prison you are spending time trolling or stalking someone on line, and well that person definitely wouldn’t accept what is effectively a friend request. That sounds odd doesn’t it, a prison friend request. Am having flash backs to The Shawshank Redemption – there are prison friends you definitely don’t want to have.

I digress, back to our Sarah. I spent time in the US, San Francisco, on a J1 student visa for 6 months, along with a friend from University, and briefly was seeing an Northern Irish fella *John (not his real name, not that it matters really!), who was definitely on the dodgy side. He was illegal, and had some interesting friends. If we had stayed together, and I stayed in the US, could I have moved in circles where my friends, and maybe future partner were caught up in drug dealing? I am going to say it is very unlikely as, well to be honest, he was a bit of a dick, he never returned my work uniform when we stopped seeing each other, he wasn’t a keeper. I had to buy a new one which was a pain as I new we were leaving San Fran soon. Not him then.

Before my friend and I returned to our real lives, we did a 30 day AmTrak tour of the US and Canada, and finished it up with a holiday in Hawaii – we had made a lot of money working two jobs all summer, waitresses in the evenings and weekends, and I was a receptionist in an office Monday – Friday. We had more money than we had ever seen in our lives till then. A lot of random things happened on our travels.

One of the weirdest was that a guy, who’s name I cannot remember, proposed to me. I met him in a bar, as you do, having just been out on a diving trip, I was 25, wet, bedraggled, and it has to be said, buxom. We met later for drinks – he offered us a free meal in the restaurant he was working in, of course we said yes. The proposal was, I think, partially, in jest. He was, however briefly, infatuated with me, and spent an evening trying to convince me to marry him, and stay in Lahaina, Maui. I am Irish, I went to University in Limerick. Maui, a tiny island in the Pacific, Ireland a small island in the Atlantic…same same, but different. Oh so very different.

I have been trying to imagine this version of me, the Sarah who said feck it and decided to stay in paradise; what she does, what she likes, what she wears, where she is living. All the things you use to identify yourself, or to describe someone. I feel like this Sarah is really far from me. I am the type of person who always trys to do the right thing, I don’t even cross the road unless there is a green man! it is hard to imagine here how she ends up being the contact of a federal prisoner.

This Sarah, hasn’t been home to Ireland in a number of years, however, she is one of those Irish people who make a point of being Irish, keeping their accent strong. Possibly has a couple of kids with Irish names that are regularly murdered by anyone not Irish trying to pronounce them (that episode of Catastrophe where they christen their baby girl Muireann kills me, it is one of the funniest things ever!). I feel like she has bleached blonde hair, wears jeans and tight tops (working that cleavage), works in the service industry, maybe a restaurant manager, using her Irish charm to placate customers and up-sell appetizers and premium spirits. Maybe that is how she met Clarence. A regular customer, became friends, maybe more? Decided to get into business together using the restaurant to move some illegal product, home brew? or stolen produce, or you know, food as we call it over here.

Ha, this could actually be a real me. Lets go with the illegal liquor, it would make sense, in my imaginary world!, that they had gotten involved in an illegal booze ring, as they could sell it via the restaurant and extra large boozy 16oz cocktails! Clarence got caught, as you always get caught, that is one thing I have learned from watching crime procedurals, that and always wait for your legal representative!, anyway, caught. And now doing 5-10 years in Federal Prison. Sarah is on probation, she gave evidence to reduce her time so that she could be there for her kids, Oisin and Aoife, Clarence is looking to keep in touch, though he doesn’t know her email address as they had only ever spoken in person or on their burner phones, he needs money for prison life, and, well, they were friends, does friendship end with prison? In this case, we will never know.

Turns out, it really wasn’t that hard to imagine.