said, probably in his
sweetest let‘s-all-turn-to-the-23rd-psalm-and-read-in-unison voice. ‘That usually works
the best.‘
And so Andy did. He began by refreshing Norton of the details of the crime he had been
imprisoned for. Then he told the warden exactly what Tommy Williams had told him. He
also gave out Tommy‘s name, which you may think wasn‘t so wise in light of later
developments, but I‘d just ask you what else he could have done, if his story was to have
any credibility at all.
When he had finished, Norton was completely silent for some time. I can just see him,
probably tipped back in his office chair under the picture of Governor Reed hanging on
the wall, his fingers steepled, his liver lips pursed, his brow wrinkled into ladder rungs
halfway to the crown of his head, his thirty-year pin gleaming mellowly.
‘Yes,‘ he said finally. That‘s the damnedest story I ever heard. But I‘ll tell you what
surprises me most about it, Dufresne.‘
‘What‘s that, sir?‘
‘That you were taken in by it.‘
‘Sir? I don‘t understand what you mean.‘ And Chester said that Andy Dufresne, who had
faced down Byron Hadley on the plate-shop roof thirteen years before, was almost
floundering for words.
‘Well now,‘ Norton said. ‘It‘s pretty obvious to me that this young fellow Williams is
impressed with you. Quite taken with you, as a matter of fact He hears your tale of woe,
and it‘s quite natural of him to want to ... cheer you up, let‘s say. Quite natural. He‘s a
young man, not terribly bright Not surprising he didn‘t realize what a state it would put
you into. Now what I suggest is -‘
‘Don‘t you think I thought of that?‘ Andy asked. ‘But I‘d never told Tommy about the man
working down at the marina. I never told anyone that - it never even crossed my mind!
But Tommy‘s description of his cellmate and that man ... they‘re identical!‘
‘Well now, you may be indulging in a little selective perception there,‘ Norton said with a
chuckle. Phrases like that, selective perception, are required learning for people in the
penalogy and corrections business, and they use them all they can.
"That‘s not it at all. Sir.‘
"That‘s your slant on it,‘ Norton said, ‘but mine differs. And let‘s remember that I have
only your word that there was such a man working at the Falmouth Country Club back
then.‘
‘No, sir,‘ Andy broke in again. ‘No, that isn‘t true. Because-‘
‘Anyway,‘ Norton overrode him, expansive and loud, ‘let‘s just look at it from the other
end of the telescope, shall we? Suppose -just suppose, now - that there really was a fellow
named Elwood Blotch.‘
‘Blatch,‘ Andy said tightly.
‘Blatch, by all means. And let‘s say he was Thomas Williams‘s cellmate in Rhode Island.
The chances are excellent that he has been released by now. Excellent. Why, we don‘t
even know how much time he might have done there before he ended up with Williams,
do we? Only that he was doing a six-to-twelve.‘
‘No. We don‘t know how much time he‘d done. But Tommy said he was a bad actor, a
cut-up. I think there‘s a fair chance that he may still be in. Even if he‘s been released, the
prison will have a record of his last known address, the names of his relatives -‘
‘And both would almost certainly be dead ends.‘
Andy was silent for a moment, and then he burst out: ‘Well, it‘s a chance, isn‘t it?‘
‘Yes, of course it is. So just for a moment, Dufresne, let‘s assume that Blatch exists and
that he is still safely ensconced in the Rhode Island State Penitentiary. Now what is he
going to say if we bring this kettle of fish to him in a bucket? Is he going to fall down on
his knees, roil his eyes, and say "I did it! I did it! By all means add a life term onto my
burglary charge!"?‘

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