<i>Chattanooga, Tennessee</i>was filed away in Calvin’s mind. He smiled, nodded. He wouldn’t pretend to have the depth of knowledge to have accurately pinpointed the state of her origin, but naturally he’d placed her<i>some</i>where in the south. There was perhaps the<i>hint</i>of a blush on her cheeks. Maybe, or maybe that was just his imagination trying to find a way to flatter him. How long’d he been locked up now? Not nearly long enough to be delusional - not yet.<br/><br/>She mentioned that she was yet to receive his file - he laughed. “Oh, I believe it. These last few weeks I’ve become<i>very</i>familiar with the<i>slow</i>pace with which the Department of Corrections gets anything done.” He rolled his neck to one side, then the other, but didn’t crack it. Figuring the woman’s explanation was an invitation to provide some details of his personal life, he said: “I’m from all over.”<br/><br/>Then, realizing that was the sort of obnoxious and abstruse thing a self-important inmate might say so as to avoid<i>actually<i>, meaningfully </i></i>answering a question, he elaborated: “I was born in Virginia. Moved when I was about two, two-and-a-half. Then we moved every year or two until I was sixteen or seventeen,” he said. “Florida for a while. Ohio. Pennsylvania. California, twice. Maine,” he said, and the tiniest flicking in the corners of his mouth (plus that renewed brightness in his eyes) suggested he’d landed on his favorite. “Then Georgia. We were living in North Carolina by the time I moved out.” Calvin had ripped through the list of states easily in a quick monotone, it was obvious this was a summary he was used to giving early in awkward introductory conversations. He had untucked the one leg from beneath the other now and settled both feet squarely on he ground in front of him.<br/><br/>The laundry-list of states perhaps explained why he had no perceptible accent beyond the so-called “Standard American.” Presuming he knew what the follow-up question was going to be, he said: “My mother was… a free-spirit, I guess you’d say.” He moved his mouth to the side after he spoke, as if the words tasted poor on his lips. “She cleaned up nice, interviewed well, easy for her to get work. So when the mood struck her she’d pack me and my sister up and we’d head off for greener pastures.” His fingertips formed a semi-circle at the edge of the armrest and then all fanned out at once in pantomime.