"It's only 25 years," Jasmine murmured to herself. "You'll be out of here in no time..."
Well, okay, it wasn't exactly "no time." After doing some careful multiplication in her head, she came to the grave conclusion that her sentence would last for 9,130 days (she had added the appropriate number of days for the number of leap years she would be spending here). It was enough to make her want to throw up, but her punishment wasn't exactly a total surprise to her when the judge announced it before the courtroom.
She had agreed to the plea bargain, after all. And it had at least seemed like a good idea at the time. The thought of her beloved husband rotting away behind bars for years and years because of her misdeeds was unfathomable to her, but perhaps more importantly, the evidence against her and Aladdin was so damning that there was virtually no way a jury wouldn't have convicted them of their crimes. Not even with the high profile lawyers that her father would've no doubt attempted to recruit for her.
She wondered what her father would have to say if he could see her right now. A cold prison cell was certainly a far cry from the ending he had planned out for her. She almost felt guilty about the fact that this displeasure that her father must be feeling towards her right now gave her some form of small satisfaction. Yes, she was going to be locked up for the next 25 years. But she had still defied her old man's wishes.
Her train of thought was briefly brought to a halt by the sounds of her roommate dozing. She was a bald porker of a woman who was currently settled in on the cell's floor with her back rested against one of the concrete walls. Her hands were snugly placed on her stomach which her shirt wasn't quite big enough to fully cover, and Jasmine watched as her belly slowly rose and fell, with each of her loud snores concluding with a thick, low whistle.
Jasmine had no idea what her name was or what she had done to land her fat ass here. She only knew that the two of them would spending a lot of "quality time" together for many long months to come, and it was in her best interests to not annoy her on their first day as cellies. So far, their only conversation had consisted of them saying "hello" to each other.
Yet even now, Jasmine was nevertheless feeling some twisted form of triumph against her father. Her current company was the complete and total opposite of the people that her papa had plotted to surround her with. All her father had wanted was for her to have a rich husband who would provide for her and keep her from ever having to do anything unpleasant like getting a job of her own. Now instead of that, she was almost certainly going to end up becoming some inmate's prison wife.
She stared down at her feet, which were bare and filthy. She imagined that if she had done things differently, she would be wearing elegant high heels or some other kind of uncomfortably decorative footwear. Now, the only accessory she had was locked around her right ankle, a heavy ball and chain, just like the ones she had seen convicts drag around in several older movies and cartoons. She was shocked to find out that modern prisons still used them, but was told upon her arrival that the warden was a big fan of "old school" methods.
The warden's love for the "old school" would probably help explain her new outfit, which was a black and white striped shirt and pants, along with a striped prisoner hat. Her father would probably have a heart attack and die if he ever saw her wearing it! Even though her wardrobe was very humiliating to wear, the mental image of her old man's potential reaction to it made her smile.
She supposed those thoughts would be one of the few comforts she could give herself during the many long and lonely years ahead of her, along with the knowledge that her beloved Aladdin was safe and not locked up. She wondered what kind of questions he would ask her whenever he came by to visit. She wasn't sure how she would answer them. "Oh, I'm doing great, Al! My cell has a barred door, so everyone is able to see me when I'm using the toilet." She hated to think of how upset this news might make him. Aladdin had tried to take responsibility for their crimes, of course, but everything really had been Jasmine's fault. He had just tagged along for the ride.
Her melancholy mood returned as she looked around her new home a little more. The toilet was made of stainless steel (with a sink attached to it), and she could already tell it would feel very cold whenever she used it. It was located between the cell's two beds, which meant that she would always be able to smell it. And the beds themselves looked extremely unpleasant, with lumpy mattresses and itchy blankets which made Jasmine scratch herself just from glancing at them. She turned around and drug her ball over to the bars, gripping onto them tightly and fully taking in her loss of freedom. Her "whole new world" was going to be a very gloomy place indeed.