Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption (1982), a Novella by Stephen King, Different Seasons: Summary

Different Seasons is a collection of four novellas, published together in 1982. The 498-page book was published by Signet, New York. Opened with Hope Springs Eternal: Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption, Summer of Corruption: Apt Pupil, Fall from Innocence: the Body, and closed with a Winter’s Tale. the Breathing Method.

The film adaption the Shawshank (1994) is one of the best prison films that I’ve ever seen. Although I’ve read this novella twice, the shadow of the film is too strong. The main character is optimistic, so alive, smart, hard worker, and full of hope. The story follows a guy named Andy Dufresne, an ex-banker, has wrongful convicted in Shawshank State Prison, Maine in 1948-1975. A wonderful memory in Ube, Japan, remains with this book.

Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption (1982) (Hope Springs Eternal), Different Seasons, a Collection of four novellas by Stephen King: summary

Narrator is Red, a prisoner who knew how to get things, he committed murder, and a man who proud to be an Irish.

When Andy came to Shawshank, the federal prison in Maine, in 1948, he was thirty years old. He was short, neat little man with sandy hair and small, clever hands. He wore gold-rimmed spectacles. Andy was in a murdering his wife and her lover. He had a wife, Linda Collins Dufresne- she had interest in learning the game of golf. Her instructor was a golf pro, Glenn Quentin, in the late August of 1947 Andy learned that Quentin and his wife had become lovers. She told Andy that she planned to obtain a divorce. She went off to spend the night with Quentin in Quentin’s rented bungalow not far from the golf course. The next morning his cleaning woman found them dead in bed. Each hand had been shot four times.

A clerk from a pawnshop in Lewiston testified that he had sold a gun to Andrew Dufresne just two days before the double murder. A bartender from the country club that Andy had came around seven o’clock in evening a day earlier, had tossed of three straight whiskeys- when he told bartender he was going up to  Glen Quentin’s house.

Andy took the stand in his own defense and told the story calmly. Andy followed her wife and Quentin seventeen days before the double murder. He was the type of man who, if he had decided to commit suicide. He bought a revolver for committing suicide but he threw the revolver to into the river. The jury found him guilty.

The prison administration knew about the black market, but they just lived with it. They knew that a prison was like a big pressure-cooker, and there had to be vents somewhere to let off some steams. All the care- packages from friends and relatives were opened and content s inventoried. Since Rita Hayworth’s poster was harmless, they passed it. When he came to Red, the smuggler, Andy bought a rock hammer. He told Red he like rocks. Days passed he asked Rita Hayworth’s poster, a top actress in the 1940s. Andy was quite different, and was going on with his life, while thousands who couldn’t.

The sisters, they are to prison society what the rapist is to the society outside the wall. They are usually long-timers, doing hard bullets for brutal crimes. They prey is the young, the weak, and the inexperienced. Their hunting grounds are the showers, the cramped, tunnel-like area way behind the industrial washers in the laundry. Andy was the weak-looking. Because of his small size, and fair good looks, the sisters were after Andy from the day he walked in. Andy decided to fight, he fought the good fight until he left him alone. He brought the money when he came in, he was banker in the straight world- a man who better than other the ways in which money can become power. After the beating the sisters left him alone and he turned them into a weak sisters. They stopped almost completely in 1950.

In Shawshank State Prison, there have been less than ten men who told they were innocent, Andy was one of them. Shawshank has never been as overcrowded as most prisons, and back in 1948 it was only filled two-thirds capacity, but any given time there might be eighty to a hundred and twenty cons on the yard- playing toss with a football or baseball, shooting raps, jawing each other, and making deals.

Andy had no cellmate, it was just he wanted, although people were already saying he thought his shit smelled sweeter than the ordinary. It came as no surprise to most those days that there were a lot of buggery going inside the walls.

Andy worked in library to replace the librarian who has out of the prison, and he was librarian for twenty-three years. He wrote to major clubs in New York to send editions of all their major selection to prisoners at a special rate. He discovered a hunger information on such hobbies as soap-carving, woodworking, sleight in hand, and card solitaire. He began to write to Senate, Andy requested for library funds were routinely turned down until 1960. Two years later, he got four hundred dollars, by 1971 that had risen to even an thousand.

In the late spring and the summer 1950, Andy set up two trust funds for guards who wanted to assure a college education for their kids, he advised a couple of others the common stock. Andy was doing the tax-returns for half the screws at Shawshank, he was paid. By the late sixties there was also a booming trade in the pills, the same administrative crowd was involved in turning a buck on that. So there was a need for Andy’s services. They took him out of the laundry and installed him in the library. They just set him to work washing dirty money instead of dirty sheets. He funneled it into stock, bonds, and tax-free municipals.

The prison population had risen slowly all through the fifties, an it near exploded in the sixties, what with every college kid in America wanting to try dope and the perfectly ridiculous penalties for the use of little reefer. But in all the time Andy had never had a cellmate, except for one a big, silent Indian who was called Chief, and Chief didn’t last long. A lot of other long-timers thought Andy was crazy. Rita Hayworth hung in Andy’s cell until 1955, then there were other posters. They meant to him, the posters meant freedom to him.

Tommy Williams joined happy little Shawshank family in November 1962. He was a professional thief, a married man, and his wife came to visit each and every week. She had an idea- if he got his high school degree for consequently better with their three-year-old son and herself. For this he started visiting the library for a regular basis. For Andy, this was old routine. Tommy got a series of high school equivalency tests. Quite normal, Tommy asked someone else, when he finally got the story about Andy. The person he asked was his partner on laundry’s steam ironer and folder. His partner was Charlie Lathrop, who had been in for about twelve years on a charge murder. Tommy heard Glenn Quentin’s name, a golf pro, from Charlie.

Tommy Williams had been arrested in Rhode Island, driving a stolen car that was full of stolen merchandise. In prison he had cellmate named Elwood Blatch. Blatch had been busted for burglary with a weapon and was serving six to twelve. He admitted killed two people in burglary. The woman’s name sounded Defresne or Lavesque and the guy was Glenn Quentin. He was a golf pro and a big rich prick. He thought Quentin might has cash in the house. Blatch said Quentin was sack with some hotshot lawyer’s wife and they sent the lawyer up to Shawshank State Prison.

He told Blatch’s story to Andy, but there were inconsistencies in Tommy’s story. First, Blatch told Tommy the man who sent up was a hotshot lawyer, and Andy was a banker, but those were two professions that people weren’t very educated could easily get mixed up. Second, anyone could say Blatch wasn’t lying part of it. Maybe he didn’t want to admit killing of two people for nothing.  Third, police said Andy’s trial had no sign of burglary. It was hardly to prove the man who took the cash from dead man, how to know anything was stolen, unless someone else could tell and prove it from the start. Cops could be too stupid to overlook the sign of burglary or deliberately covered it up so they wouldn’t screw the DA’s case.

Andy beyond a shadow of doubt, twelve years had gone by between the time Blatch was reading clipping about the trial. But Tommy convinced Andy, he had known a few Elwood Blatch. He hadn’t hit Quentin at random, Blatch knew Quentin as a rich prick and a golf pro.

A warden named Samuel Norton had a thirty year pin from the Baptist Advent Church, and had felt like home in Shawshank. His major innovation as the head of happy family was to make sure each incoming prisoner had a New Testament. Norton was not a believer in punishment but he was the foulest hypocrite in a high position. Solitary was always well populated. The Solitary was in a baseman, after eight it was dark, a bunk bolted to the wall, a can with no toilet seat. It was just three ways to spend time: sitting, shitting, and sleeping. Men lost their teeth not from beatings but from bread and waters diets. He called himself as ‘the Sam Norton grain and drain train.’

It was Warden Norton who instituted the Inside-Out program, it was even written up in Newsweek magazine. There were prisoners out cutting pulpwood, repairing bridges and causeways, constructing and potato cellars. The construction business in the area were deathly afraid of Norton’s Inside-Out program, because labor was slave labor. Andy Dufresne was his right hand in all of this, his silent partner.

So Andy went to see Warden Norton and told the warden exactly what Tommy Williams had told him. When he finished his story, Norton was completely silent. They argued, the warden dragged Andy away. Twenty days on the grain and drain train for him down in solitary. Tommy had no longer an inmate in Shawshank, he was transferred to a smaller prison. Norton had checked Rhode Island prison, Elwood Blatch was out. Andy wanted to hire a lawyer, but Norton threatened him to going back to solitary for thirty days. He had grown harder, he went doing on Warden Norton’s dirty work and he held onto library.

In 1967, Red got him a new rock-hammer, fresh rock-polishing cloths time to time. He continued to shape and to polish the rocks he found in exercise area. He told Red when he got out the prison he was going to warm place Zihuatanejo, a little place in Mexico. In a warm place that has no memory. He planned to have a little hotel there.

Andy and his wife had big money. It was still safe. In 1950 his friend Jim was set up false identity, Peter Stevens has got a Social Security card, a birth certificate, and a Maine driver’s license. Jim paid all the taxes and invested it for Peter Stevens. It probably was worth seven or eight million bucks by 1975. Andy couldn’t hire a lawyer or private detective to look for Blatch, he would lose his money. Jim had arranged it, but he was dead. Peter Stevens was locked in a safe deposit box at the Casco Bank in Portland, Andy Dufresne was lock safe deposit box at Shawshank.

A guy named Henley Backus, the washroom foreman in laundry. He came to Shawshank in 1922 and died in prison infirmary thirty–one years later. Escape and escape attempts were a hobby of his. There were four hundred escape attempts that he knew of. That came out 12.9 every year Henley Backus in Shwashank and keeping track of them. Escape attempt’s tale turned to be a joke for the inmates.

In 1975, Andy escaped from Shawshank. Warden Norton found rocks and crumbled hole behind Linda Ronstadt poster. The entire wall was ten feet thick. The prison blueprints and the rock-hammer were around. Andy had gone into the pipe and broke the sewer line. The sewer-pipe running of his cell was the last on Shawshank not hooked into the new waste treatment plant. He crawled five hundred yards, the length of five football fields. The story broke the papers, but no one within a fifteen-mile radius of prison stepped forward a report a stolen car, stolen clothes, or a naked man in the moonlight.

The wall of cellblock was solid enough. He was a man who graduated from the University of Maine’s school of business, but also a man who took two or three geology courses along the way. He had plenty of times to study those walls. Very late in the summer Red received a postcard which been mailed from the tiny town in Texas, the town was on the American side of the border, directly across from El Porvenir. The message side was totally blank.

In 1977 Red got his freedom. The Parole Committee got him a job as a stock-room assistant at the big Food market in a mall in Portland, but Red broke his parole. It’s only two months, he left his job. He was to hitchhike ride down to little town of Buxton. Andy had said there was a big hayfield in Buxton, and at the end of that hayfield there’s a rock wall, right out of Robert Frost poem. And somewhere along the base of that wall was a rock that had no earthly business in a Maine hayfield.

It sounded fool’s errand. There were fifty or hundred hayfields in Buxton, but Red had hope on looking for Andy’s rock. It seemed foolish, but Andy had chipped at a blank wall for twenty-seven years for his life. Red walked the roads to find the hope rock, three quarters of the way of the end, he saw the rock.

It’s an envelope, carefully wrapped in a plastic bag to keep away the damp. His name was written across the front in Andy’s clear script. With the letter there were twenty new fifty-dollar bills. Red headed to Zihuatanejo. He was so excited in hope to see his friend. It’s the excitement that only a free man could feel.

Sekapur Sirih

Nama novelis Stephen King melekat sebagai penulis horor besar dan handal, telah banyak pula karyanya difilmkan dan tidak sedikit di antaranya sukses di pasar. Kali ini sangat berbeda, bukan cerita horor. Kisah keras kehidupan di dalam penjara, kekerasan yang dilakukan sesama napi maupun tindakan brutal dari para sipir penjaga. Tokoh utama Andy, seorang berpendidikan dan mantan bankir, tidak bersalah, tapi harus menjalani hukuman seumur hidup untuk pembunuhan dobel. Namun ada setangkup semangat, harapan, kasih, persahabatan, kerja keras, ketekunan, kecerdasan yang melahirkan kebebasan. Berlatarbelakang penjara pada akhir tahun 1940’an di Maine, Amerika.

Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption, sebuah novela dari empat novela yang tergabung dalam koleksi novel berjudul Different Season, karya Stephen King, yang diterbitkan pada tahun 1982 lalu. Diterbitkan oleh Signet Book, sebuah divisi dari Penguin Group Amerika, novel setebal 498 halaman, sangat laris terjual. Dibeli dan dibaca beberapa tahun silam serta menyimpan berlapis kenangan indah ketika bermukim di kota Ube, Jepang.

Terjemahan (Ringkasan) dalam Bahasa Indonesia: Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption (1982), Karya Stephen King

Dituturkan oleh Red, seorang teman napi yang dihukum seumur hidup karena membunuh. Dia dikenal sebagai penyeludup, pedagang gelap, orang yang paling tahu akan barang apapun. Berikut penuturannya tentang kawannya narapidana (napi) bernama Andy Dufresne.

Maine tidak mengenal hukuman mati, hukuman maksimum bagi kejahatan luar biasa dikenai penjara seumur hidup. Ia tiba di penjara negara Shawshank, Maine, tahun 1948, Andy dihukum seumur hidup atas pembunuhan ganda. Tidak mudah bagi seorang napi baru di Shawshank melewati hari-hari, semua jenis penjahat ada di sana dari pembunuh sangat sadis, hingga pencuri biasa digabung dalam satu atap. Awalnya Andy dipekerjakan di tempat pencucian kain, sebagai napi baru, ia kerap mendapat intimidasi dari napi lain.

Kelompok the sister, sekelompok napi yang selalu memangsa napi baru, bila tahanan terlihat lemah, apalagi berwajah imut. Pemerkosaan dilakukan secara beramai-ramai atau sendiri di kamar mandi, di tempat pencucian, dan di sudut lorong terselubung lainnya. Banyak orang yang tidak mampu mengendalikan kehidupan seksualnya, mereka pun berubah, ada yang berperan kewanita-wanitaan, ada yang berubah menjadi homo, dan ada pula yang memang sudah gay dari luar. Andy adalah mangsa yang tepat bagi mereka, lelaki berkaca-mata, bertubuh pendek, wajah bersih ala kantoran, lemah, tetapi menarik. Andy tidak tinggal diam, ia petarung tangguh, melawan dan mempertahankan dirinya. Mereka dilumpuhkan hingga suatu saat, ketua the sister tidak berani dan berhenti mendekatinya.

Red pertama kali mengenalnya, ketika Andy memintanya mencarikan sebuah palu batu. Pria berkaca-mata itu menyukai kerajinan batu; membentuk batu, menghaluskannya menjadi kerajinan indah. Red mengira, mungkin palu itu dipakai saat menghajar penggangu the sister. Beberapa bulan kemudian Red bergabung dengan keluarga bahagia kelompok Red. Kedua kalinya Andy meminta poster Rita Hayworth (artis top tahun 1940an), Red juga tidak begitu mempertanyakan, baginya lelaki sangat wajar memajang poster wanita seksi di dinding. Ia pun memenuhi permintaan Andy.

Red menyukai Andy, lelaki itu memiliki semangat hidup, memberi pengharapan, ia sangat berbeda dengan tahanan lainnya. Ia pernah bercerita kalau ia bebas akan tinggal Meksiko. Sebuah tempat hangat bernama Zihuatanejo. Tempat hangat akan cepat melupakan masalah. Ia dan istrinya Linda sempat memiliki tabungan dan menginvestasikannya.

Temannya bernama Jim telah mengatur semua harta Andy dan membuat identitas palsu bernama Peter Stevens. Jim membayarkan pajaknya, membuat SIM, dan membuat kartu IRS-nya. Ia menghitung, tahun 1970-an simpanannya akan menjadi jutaan. Ia berniat menikmati akhir hidup di sana dan menjalankan sebuah hotel kecil. Faktanya, Andy Dufresne terjebak di Shawshank, Peter Stevens terjebak di dalam kotak deposit di sebuah bank yang ditaruh Jim. Namun sayang Jim telah meninggal dunia.

Ada puluhan orang yang mengaku tidak bersalah dalam penjara, dan salah seorang di antaranya adalah Andy Dufresne. Ia tidak suka minum, bahkan lebih tepat sebagai orang bunuh diri daripada menyakiti orang lain. Lelaki tidak banyak bicara itu. Pembunuhan ganda yang dibuktikan oleh penuntut dengan berbagai kesaksian yang menyudutkannya. Pelayan bar menuding, melihat secarik kertas bertuliskan nama dan alamat Glenn Quentin. Andy minum di bar bak orang stres berat, hanya beberapa hari sebelum Linda terbunuh. Orang dari toko pegadaian membenarkan menjual senjata padanya. Sebuah pistol ditemukan di sungai.

Linda Defresne, istri bankir mapan, ingin sekali mahir bermain golf. Wanita itu mengambil kursus dari seorang pegolf profesional, Glenn Quentin. Beberapa minggu terakhir, Andy mencurigai istrinya tidak setia. Linda pun mengakui dan meminta bercerai. Ia sangat mencintai istrinya dan putus asa. Beberapa hari sebelum terbunuhnya istrinya, Andy mengadakan penyelidikan dan mengintai aktifitas istrinya. Ia mampir minum di sebuah bar dan menanyakan pelayan akan sebuah alamat. Ia pun mengikuti dan memantau tempat tinggal Quentin dari jauh. Hatinya pun hancur dan tidak siap dengan perceraian yang dilontarkan istrinya. Andy pun membeli pistol dan berniat bunuh diri, tetapi niat itu diurungkan dan membuang senjata itu ke sungai. Tidak satu juri pun percaya dengan renacana bunuh diri Andy, dia ditetapkan pelaku tunggal atas pembunuhan ganda.

Para napi sering dipekerjakan. Tanpa sengaja Andy mendengar percakapan sipir penjaga tentang masalah hak waris. Karena Andy seorang mantan bankir, ia pun memberi solusi tentang perencanaan keuangan sipir tersebut. Sejak itu pula ia sering memberi konsultasi keuangan, asuransi pendidikan anak-anak mereka, kalkulasi aplikasi kredit, dan berinvestasi. Ia pun menjadi bintang dan bekerja di perpustakaan, menggantikan petugas perpustakaan yang sudah bebas. 

Selama Andy bekerja di perpustakaan penjara, ia kerap menulis surat ke berbagai majalah dan bahkan penjara berlangganan dua majalah dengan harga miring. Sejumlah majalah berisi keterampilan yang memajukan napi. Andy kerap berkirim surat pada Senator dan berhasil mendapatkan dana untuk perpustakaan penjara. Dari tahun ke tahun Andy juga mengajari napi yang putus sekolah mendapatkan penyetaraan. Dana besar diterima perpustakaan pada tahun 1971.

Waktu berjalan, Shawshank mendapat kepala penjara baru. Samuel Norton dikenal seorang yang religius, ia adalah jemaat Gereja Baptis taat. Penjara sudah seperti pencapaian hidupnya, ia sangat senang. Ia membagi-bagikan Alkitab Perjanjian Baru pada semua napi. Kantornya pun bertuliskan banner ayat-ayat Alkitab. Ia seorang Kristen taat, tapi dalam penjara ia jauh dari itu. Ia senang menghukum para napi karena baginya napi hanya pendosa yang tak bernilai apa-apa, mereka diperlakukan bak babu. Ia membuat terobosan program Inside-Out (Masuk-Keluar), sebuah program yang mempekerjakan napi di luar penjara sebagai penebang kayu, pembuat jalan, pembuat jembatan, dan pembuat mesin kentang. Program Norton pun masuk dalam majalah Newsweek, namun program ini ancaman bagi para pebisnis kayu di sekitar.

Ruang isolasi (solitarium) sering dihuni selama kepimpinan Samuel, ia kerap menghukum yang melawan atau yang hendak melarikan diri di ruang isolasi. Ruangan yang terdapat di basemen gelap, lampu remang hanya didapat hingga jam delapan malam, tidak ada toilet, dan kegiatan di sana hanya; duduk, diam, tidur, buang kotoran pada ember. Biasanya orang di penjara kehilangan gigi karena berkelahi , namun  isolasi Norton membuat napi kehilangan gigi. Napi tidak diberi makan dan minum. Dalam kekejaman nya, tetapi Andy menjadi teman bagi Norton. Ia membuat pembukuan  pencucian uang Norton.

Seorang pencuri profesional yang pernah dikurung di penjara  Rhode Island beberapa tahun sebelumnya, kembali masuk penjara namun kali ini di penjara Shawshank. Dia bekerja di bagian pencucian kain penjara. Setiap minggu, Tommy Wiliams rutin dikunjungi oleh istrinya. Sang istri memintanya untuk menyelesaikan sekolahnya, demi masa depan anak mereka yang berusia tiga tahun dan juga dirinya. Bagi Andy mengajar penyetaraan sebuah pekerjaan berulang. Bukanlah murid cerdas, akhirnya Tommy menyelesaikan kelas penyetaraan. Ia sangat mengagumi lelaki pendiam itu, namun tidak berani menanyakan langsung kasus Andy hingga berakhir di penjara.

Lewat teman-temannya di laundry, ia mendapati nama pegolf Glenn Quentin. Selama menjalani  hukuman di penjara Rhode Island, Tommy satu sel dengan perampok bernama Elwood Blatch. Elwood mengaku padanya bahwa ia pernah merampok rumah pegolf profesional Glenn Quentin. Ia menembak seorang wanita dan Glenn di rumahnya. Wanita yang diingatnya bernama Dufresne atau Lavesque, suami wanita itu seorang pengacara dikirim ke Shwashank untuk menebusnya. Elwood menduga pegolf kaya itu menyimpan uang tunai di rumah. Ia tertangkap basah saat mengambil uang ribuan dolar, ia pun menembak keduanya.

Segera Tommy memberitahu cerita Blatch pada Andy. Ada sejumlah inkonsistensi menjadi titik keraguan dalam cerita Tommy. Pertama, suami wanita itu pengacara, sementara Andy adalah bankir. Profesi pengacara dan bankir bagi orang tidak berpendidikan seperti Elwood bisa saja samar.

Kedua, Elmond telah mempelajari kasus Andy dari klipping koran dan mengarang cerita. Tapi untuk apa Elwood mengarang menembak dua orang, satu atau dua orang kan tidak berarti apa-apa.

Ketiga, polisi mengatakan tidak ada tanda perampokan. Bagaimana mungkin seseorang yang mati bisa mengklaim uangnya dirampok, kecuali ada orang lain yang mengetahui keberadaan jumlah uang tunai korban. Bisa saja polisinya memang sangat bodoh membaca tanda-tanda perampokan, atau memang polisi sengaja menutupi bukti perampokan dan bekerja sama dengan penuntut umum dalam merekayasa Andy sebagai pelakunya.

Tommy sudah lama satu satu sel dengan Elwood, telah mengenal perampok itu dengan baik. Tommy meyakinkan Andy jika cerita itu benar. Ia menambahkan analisanya, Elwood telah menarget pegolf itu, bahkan ia menjuluki Glenn Quentin sebagai pegolf kaya aneh.

Andy pun menjelaskan semua cerita Tommy pada sipir Samuel Norton, lelaki itu hanya terdiam dan tidak senang. Perdebatan pun terjadi, Norton menghukum Andy selama dua puluh tiga hari di tahanan isolasi. Tommy telah dipindahkan ke penjara lebih kecil di kota lain. Norton mengaku telah mengirim orang ke Rhode Island, Elwood Blatch telah dibebaskan dalam sebuah program aneh.

Sempat terpikir hendak menyewa pengacara untuk mencari Elwood Blatch, namun Andy tidak bisa melakukannya. Semua uangnya sudah atas nama Peter Stevens, identitas yang mengambang di luar penjara. Sekembali dari isolasi Andy menjadi lebih pendiam, rambutnya memutih, dan kembali bekerja di perpustakaan. Melakukan pekerjaan kotor untuk berbagai pencucian uang termasuk uang narkoba milik Norton dan sipir lainnya.

Upaya pelarian dari penjara terbilang sering, sejak tahun 1938 sudah empat ratus upaya pelarian. Berbagai cara dilakukan, bahkan ada satu kelompok yang isinya membahas tentang pelarian. Salah seorang di antara mereka sudah merasa jika perlarian dari penjara itu seperti hobi. Cerita upaya pelarian, lama-kelamaan sudah seperti lelucon, karena selalu tertangkap basah dengan berbagai kondisi menggelikan. Tembok Shawshank memang telah dirancang kokoh dan beberapa kali direkonstruksi untuk mempersempit upaya pelarian.

Andy melarikan diri tahun 1975, sungguh tidak ada yang menyangka, karena malamnya ia masih bersama napi lainnya. Andy selalu menempati sel sendirian, ia memang selalu ingin sendiri. Sejak tahun 1948 penjara Shawshank tidaklah terlalu padat, hingga pada tahun 1960an ketika narkoba melanda mahasiswa Amerika, penjara agak padat. Seorang Indian bertubuh tinggi sempat satu sel dengannya, tapi dia tidak betah. Ia menyebut Andy sebagai orang gila, ia tidak diperbolehkan menyentuh barang-barangnya. Walau pengakuan sejumlah napi lainnya mengatakan kotoran Andy saja lebih wangi dari keringat manusia pada umumnya, tapi tak satu pun dari mereka mau satu sel dengannya.

Ketika apel penghitungan, sel Andy didapati kosong. Norton mendapati lubang di balik sebuah poster. Lubang yang terhubung dengan pipa ke saluran pembuangan kotoran. Berita pelarian Andy pun heboh hingga media, tapi tak satu pun mengaku melihat pelarian, atau kehilangan pakaian di jemuran, kehilangan mobil di radius sekitar pelariannya. Andy merayap sepanjang kanal pembuangan kotoran yang bau dan dipenuhi tikus, melewatinya sejauh tiga kali panjang lapangan sepak bola. Pelarian gila.

Red pun menyadari, pelarian telah direncanakan sejak awal; palu batu, kain untuk peredam, berbagai poster artis seksi.  Ia memukul tembok ketika ada suara ribut-ribut, panggilan atau musik di mikrofon. Poster dipajang untuk menutupi lobang, ia rutin mengganti poster, setelah sembilan belas tahun ia membeli palu baru. Dari berkas surat menyurat, ia memesan blueprints bangunan penjara dari Universitas Maine. Andy adalah sarjana Ekonomi dari Universitas Maine, selama kuliah ia juga  mengambil kursus Geologi, mempelajari konkret. Ia banyak waktu mempelajari tembok penjara.

Setelah setahun pelariannya, Red menerima sebuah kartu pos dari kota kecil di Texas, tanpa ada pesan. Ia yakin Peter Stevens telah menjalankan hotel kecil di Zihuatanejo. Red pun bebas dari penjara. Komite Parole memberinya pekerjaan pada persediaan barang, di sebuah bagian makanan di sebuah mall, juga bertugas membantu mengangkat barang pembelanja terutama ibu-ibu ke mobil. Red tidak bertahan dengan pekerjaannya, ditambah lagi ia tidak suka dengan bos yang masih muda. Ia sempat terpikir untuk mencuri, tapi mengingat Andy, ia mengurungkan niatnya.

Andy pernah berpesan padanya untuk mencari sebuah ladang dengan tumpukan banyak jerami, tidak jauh dari situ ada tumpukan batu. Ada sesuatu tersimpan di balik  salah satu batu. Batu unik, batu yang tidak ada di Maine. Seperti melakukan pekerjaan bodoh, Red pergi ke kota kecil bernama Buxton, mencari ladang yang dipenuhi tumpukan jerami, ada ratusan ladang seperti itu tentunya. Namun ia berpikir kembali, Andy saja dalam dalam puluh tujuh tahun sanggup melobangi tembok  untuk pelariannya.

Harapan dan semangat hidup meyakinkannya, akhirnya ia menemukan ladang dan tumpukan batu yang dimaksud. Di sana, ia mendapati sebuah amplop berbungkuskan plastik, berisikan surat dari Peter Stevens disertai sejumlah uang di dalamnya. Ia sangat gembira dan masih mengingat nama tempat dan segera menuju Zihuatanejo, dengan harapan bertemu kawannya. Sebuah kegembiraan yang tidak terlukiskan, kegembiraan yang hanya bisa dirasakan orang yang bebas dari penjara.