The next morning, right about the timeRaquel was spilling her secret, a man nobody ever laid eyes on before strolledinto the Maine National Bank. Until that moment, he didn’t exist, except onpaper. He had all the proper ID, driver’s license, birth certificate, social securitycard, and the signature was a spot-on match. Mr. Stevenson visited nearly adozen banks in the Portland area that morning. All told, he blew town betterthan 370,000 dollars of Warden Norton’s money, severance pay for 19 years.

I wasn’t there to see it, but I hear ByronHadley started sobbing like a girl when they took him away. Norton had nointention of going that quietly. I like to think the last thing that wentthrough his head other than that bullet was to wonder how the hell AndyDufresne ever got the best of him.

Not long after the warden deprived us ofhis company, I got a postcard in the mail. It was blank, but the postmark said “FortHancock, Texas”. Fort Hancock, right on the border. That’s where Andy crossed.When I pictured him heading south in his own car with the top down, it alwaysmakes me laugh.