"'Ere Ju, 'ave a look at this!" The two Julies were cleaning Pat Kerrigan's cell, as a sort of owed favour.
"What is it?" Julie Johnston joined her friend who was standing beside Pat's bed, with a piece of paper in her Marigold-gloved hand.
The two women exchanged an excited glance, silently agreeing that they should open the letter.
"Oh we can't, Ju. It might be something private, you know. I don't wanna fall out with Pat, she's our best mate." The smaller woman, Julie Saunders, had second thoughts.
"Yeah, I suppose you're right Ju."
The prisoners stood in a mutual silence, still holding the letter, before Julie Johnston snatched it from her friend's hand.
"Ju! What are you doing?" Julie Saunders shrieked.
"I'm sorry, I couldn't resist any longer. Pat won't mind." Julie Johnston began to unfold the sheet of paper.
Julie Saunders took the letter back from her pal, hiding it behind her back so her partner in crime wouldn't snatch it again.
"Oh, Ju! Just a sneak peek. Pat'll never know. And what she don't know can't hurt her, right?"
Julie Saunders paused for a moment, before giving a slight nod.
"Right so, you gonna give me it back or what?" A mischievous grin lit up Julie Johnston's face, causing her friend to quickly look around her to make sure no one was listening in. Once satisfied that they were alone on the third floor of G Wing, Julie Saunders removed the gloves she was still wearing and unfolded the slightly creased sheet, holding it so both of them could read what it said.
The two Julies examined the contents of the letter in absolute silence. Finishing the final sentence at the same time, they turned to each other with a look of sadness evident on their faces, slightly regretting invading Pat's privacy in such a way and feeling disappointed in themselves for not realising how their close friend felt.
Julie Saunders folded the sheet of paper into quarters in the same way she had found it before putting it back into its place under Pat Kerrigan's pillow.
The silence between the two women was broken when Julie Johnston quietly spoke.
"I had no idea Pat felt like that about Sheena. I thought she was over her by now." She said, almost in a whisper.
"I know, Ju. I was teasing her about hitting on that new bird, Jayne this morning as well. I feel terrible now."
"You weren't to know, Ju. This is Pat we're talking about; she likes to keep herself to herself don't she?" Julie Johnston put her arm around her smaller friend's shoulders.
"Yeah, I suppose you're right. What are we gonna do?" Julie Saunders moved slightly to face her pal.
"What do ya mean? Tell Pat we read it? She'll go mad!"
"No, not that. I mean, it's obvious Pat's not gonna send this letter to Sheena isn't it? Otherwise it would be on its way, not creased up under her pillow, right?"
"Right...go on." Julie Johnston could sense her friend was up to something, but she wasn't quite sure what.
"So...we post it for her. Sheena should know all this. She probably thinks that Pat don't care about her anymore but she does. Pat's never gonna have the guts to send this herself so all we're doing is helping her out, yeah?"
"Yeah but...there's one problem, Ju."
"What?"
"We don't know where Sheena lives do we? We can't just write Sheena Williams on it and hope it finds its way..." Julie Johnston was cut off by her cell mate removing the letter from under the pillow again, unfolding it and turning it over to reveal Sheena's address jotted on the back.
"Oh Ju, you're a star!" The two women hugged briefly.
Julie Saunders placed the letter in her apron pocket before putting her Marigold's back on and picking up the cleaning materials.
"Come on, Bodybag's gonna wonder where we've got to. And we've got some letters to post!"