Prisoner Update...

Conan and Tricia had to go back to court this morning (Wednesday 11/9) to plead and get a court date set. Of course Tricia had them leaving an hour late and all we could think of was they would be charged with contempt of court for not appearing on time. So…off they went. Around 1pm my cell phone rang and I tried to get outside my trailer to answer it before it timed out bit didn’t make it. A few seconds later I got a voicemail chime and tried to call that. Of course the call wouldn’t go through.. While I was waiting I heard another phone ring and Mark answering it. Next thing I’m hearing is, “They did what? They got contempt of court? They’re going to be in jail for how long?” So I stood by while he took the call and listened to the one sided story. Well the story is that they were arrested for taking pictures in court and the caller said they got a week and 7 days in jail. What the heck is a week and 7 days? Is that 2 weeks or was it a mis-statement and they got 7 days. It turns out that it was Norman the baker calling and he was going to bring Conan’s van and their stuff to Kismet at around 3:30p. Mark told him he would cook him shark for dinner and hung up. We’ll Mark and I got upset about what we thought was another Trish fiasco that Conan was being penalized for because he was with her. By this time it was 1:20pm and I said I would take the 2pm bus to town, get Tricia’s ATM card and get money for her, a carton of cigarettes for Conan (Tricia paid out about US$30 for cigarettes for Conan and he only got some of them), snack foods, and I’d go to Uncle Harry’s Hardware and buy another bilge pump (the new one crapped out again during the night). Mark talked me out of it though by saying we’d use Conan’s van to do all of that tomorrow (Thursday). I said that rather than dropping all of that stuff off at the jail, figuring the cops would steal most of it anyway, we could hire Norman to make a visit every morning with their daily ration. So we sat in the kitchen and talked the situation over, getting more and more upset by the minute. I said I know that Tricia knows you can’t use answer a cell phone in court so why would she think they would let her take pictures. And even if she tried to hide it someone would see. Mark said, “The flash probably went off.” Good point because Tricia doesn’t know how to change the setting on her camera. More talk about what we should do took up another hour. “Do you think the American Embassy would contact the jail and tell them that Tricia and Conan were not married so that her actions didn’t affect Conan?”, said I? “No they won’t help.”, said Mark? I knew that but was hoping anyway because we all know the American Embassy isn’t in the business of actually helping U.S. citizens with any problem other than losing their passport of making arrangements to transport dead bodies back to the states. Oh well, it was a thought. We talked about guests arriving today and having to make meals for them, Matt and Angie coming to visit next week and how much of it would Conan miss because he was in jail? If it was a week he’d miss a couple of days but if it was a week and 7 days they wouldn’t see each other at all. High season is about to start and neither Mark nor I cherished running Kismet because we came to do retired stuff but agreeing we’d do what we had to do for friends. A little while later Conan’s van pulled into the lot and Mark yelled out, “You’re home!” I saw Conan in the driver’s seat but not Tricia so I thought maybe they kept her. No such luck because she soon climbed out. I know your wondering why I was hoping she was still in jail but for those of you that know Tricia you know she can cause a lot of trouble, and often does. We won’t let her go into Immigration or any other government office with us because she tend to cause trouble and we suffer the penalties. I mean she is a lovely woman but she goes off pretty regularly on any official. After 12 years in Belize she still thinks and acts too much like an American in America and not in the 3rd world country that Belize is. They are backward in a lot of things and you have to accept that and go on. Anyway, I yelled down to Conan, “Don’t pass go and collect $200 at your room get your ass up here!” We wanted the straight scoop since we only heard it 3rd person though Norman. They came up laughing and Tricia looked right at me and said, “GOTCHYA!!!. Since I’m normally the practical joker (Who me??? Not me!!!) they figured that it was my turn to be the subject. Mark isn’t one that goes in for practical joke though and while he laughed about it he wasn’t pleased at all. Me, I was ecstatic. I loved it and told them so! “Damn you guys got me!” and “Man that was good!” I even shook Conan’s hand and gave Tricia a hug I told then that it was blog worthy so here I am telling you the tale.

Anyhow their next court date is January 9, 2012 and that is just for discovery. I had told Conan they wouldn’t get a date this year because of the coming holidays. So the story continues next year, unless something else happens. And you know that anything is possible here in Belize!