BLUE in Adventures From Prison

The other afternoon, upon returning to my cube from work, I was met by the amused grin of my friend, James.
“Have you seen him?” He asked me excitedly.
“Seen who?”
“The blue man.”
“You mean the weird guys who play the drums? They arrested one?”
“No, I mean the BLUE man. There is a guy on my side of the dorm who’s skin is blue…actually I guess it’s more of a gun-metal gray.”
“Seriously?” I said.
“Go look!”
I declined, not wanting to gawk at a stranger’s misfortune. “I’m sure I’ll see him eventually.”
Surprisingly, this condition is not unknown to me. In fact James and I had discussed it a few months ago after finding a mineral supplement guide had been donated to the library which included a photograph of a U.S. Senator with a similar condition. In the 80’s a supplement for Colonial Silver went on the market. As most supplements don’t require FDA approval or testing, the side effect of permanent blue skin was not discovered until too late, resulting in some state having Papa Smurf as a Senator.
Later that day as I returned from dinner I crossed paths with the Blue Man. Even expecting it, it is extremely hard not to stop and stare – especially since this guy looks a lot like Lou Ferrigno in his Hulk makeup, only after being applied by a color blind cosmetician.
The next morning, I was walking a few yards behind the Blue Man as we returned to our unit from breakfast. A single CO stood out front watching the throng of inmates. I could tell instantly when he noticed that one of these things was not like the others. His body stiffened and a look of confusion came over his face. I saw him mumble something to the Blue Man who then disappeared inside. As I drew even with the CO he called me over.
“Did you just see…”
“Yeah, he’s Blue,” I said calmly.
“But…when did the government start locking up aliens?” he asked me, half sincerely.
“Since Roswell, I assume,” I smirked.
“He just said hello to me like I wasn’t supposed to notice he’s Blue!”
“We’ll get used to it eventually,” I observed.
“I suppose,” the CO said skeptically. “But I’m giving you fair warning, if weird alien worm-babies start crawling out of his mouth I am locking you guys in and going home.”
“Good to know you’ve got our backs.”
“Hey man, when the aliens start coming out of the woodwork it’s every man for himself!”