In Gayle Hollamby's busy social life, Sunday morning was the best time to squeeze in a visit to her mother's, which miraculously coincided with that ridiculous shift pattern. Her dutiful parental visit was made on the way to more fun and games at a friend's house. She exchanged the usual family chitchat over a nice cup of tea, before she finally looked at her watch and started hunting around for her missing car keys. She was sure she had slipped them back into her handbag but they refused to appear despite turning her bag out on the dining room table.
"Where did you put my car keys, mother?" she demanded.
"If only you would settle down and make your mother a happy grandmother like our Constance has. You can't have your fun forever, you know. Bodybag said in answer to her own previous line of conversation.
"Never mind all that, I've got to find my car keys. It's important," insisted Gayle to finally gain her mother's undivided attention.
"They're here on the dining room table where you put them down in the first place. I don't know, you young ones. You'd forget where your head was if it wasn't screwed on. It takes the older generation, especially one who's worked many years in the prison service to know that everything has its proper place in the world. A little organization is all it takes."
Gayle sighed in redoubled exasperation, none too pleased at her mother's smug expression and patronizing tone of voice even though she acknowledged how hard working her mother was. It was her assumption of perfection that irked her.
"Have you never made a mistake in your life?" she asked incredulously." I mean you were demoted for a short while once."
"Nonsense Gayle. If I've told you once, I've told you a hundred times. It was all down to that Miss Betts. She'd had it in for me," scoffed Bodybag from her conveniently edited version for family consumption.
"And now, she's Governor now, isn't she."
"Never you mind, I'll survive them all." Came her hasty response." Now, you'd better get off to your friend's. You can't keep her waiting."
After their brief kiss, Bodybag turned towards the sitting room and redoubled her concentration on that puzzle. She knew she wasn't getting any younger but the thought haunted her how she had come to mislay her keys the other day. One moment, everything had been was fine and the next minute Blood and McKenzie had started some stupid fight over nothing. To make it worse, those two troublemakers had interrupted her right in the middle of her favourite soap. She had huffed and puffed her way to sort them out while Julie Saunders was playing the fool. It was only a little while later that she had slipped her hand into her pocket and had found them missing. The only prison officer on duty had been Gina and she knew she could expect no mercy from her. Eventually, she had decided that the best solution was to head for the PO's mess and have a cup of tea. It was only that she had finally come back on the wing when they miraculously appeared on the pool table. Furtively, she had picked them up trusting that nobody was looking.
She had reverted so quickly to her normal overbearing self that she had shouted at Al McKenzie for just looking at her in a disrespectful fashion. It had made her feel so much better even if the slow witted Al had just looked incredulously at Bodybag and had shaken her head in wonder, as puzzled as Bodybag came to feel the following day.
By some strange process, both prisoners and prison officers alike got used to living in an enclosed world, shut in by drably painted walls, lit by the glare of artificial lighting, flavoured by the ever present cigarette smoke and the indescribable atmosphere of communal living. On weekends, both Nikki and Karen were normally excused the hard grind of shift-working that prison officers had to maintain. Both women were sustained by the blissful knowledge that Larkhall Prison would run satisfactorily while their backs were turned. The possibility of Connie Beauchamp's unofficial bit of surgical operation was of course furthest from their minds, as they lay on their recliners in their back garden, enjoying the warm sunshine and sipping a cooling drink.
Any institution runs by familiar habits and routines, which all inhabitants become initiated to fairly quickly. This Sunday morning made all the prisoners cheer up, especially when the morning sunshine shone in through the narrow windows of each prison cell. It was finally on the allotted hour that the prison bars were thrown wide open and the prisoners were allowed to run down the concrete flight of steps. The blinding sunshine and the smell of the fresh air went to their heads like some intoxicating spirit. Dominic had been around long enough to allow for the prisoners' natural giggling high spirits as they scurried down the steep stone staircase.
Dominic and Gina couldn't take quite the same rosy outlook on association as they took up their positions. Both knew from past experience how it was the ideal opportunity for a fight to be faked, enabling drugs to be thrown over the prison walls. They both knew that they needed eyes in the back of their heads and to know the prisoners. It took only a matter of seconds before a fight started for real. Right now, only Natalie Buxton needed watching, as she was as sneaky as any hard case prisoner they'd ever known and she was the prime source of any trouble kicking off.
Buki was more subdued and thoughtful, wearing a loose long sleeved top. After some hesitation, she finally came out into the fresh air and walked down the steps in the last of the line along with Julie Saunders. Already, the friendly shouts of the more boisterous prisoners filled the air as they cavorted on the well-trimmed grass.
"You'll feel great to get some fresh air in your lungs, darlin'. You did the right thing coming with us."
"I feel so bad. I messed everyone around, especially Connie."
"Don't worry, Buki. Take it from me, her bark's worse than her bite, well, she can bite but she'll pick the right one," Julie Saunders said, wondering if she made sense. She knew what her mind felt but she wasn't sure if the words came out right.
"When she was talking it was, like, she knew all the shit I've been through, you know, with my pimp and everything," Buki said in halting tones much to Julie Johnson's relief.
"She's dead posh but she's an understanding woman," Julie Johnson pronounced confidently.
Buki said nothing. She was highly conscious of the wound on her arm and hoped that no one could see through the thin protective material. She knew what her public reputation was, and was scared that her guilty actions would be written all over her face for all to see.
Connie's spirits were lifted as much as any other prisoner as the warm breeze ruffled through her hair. The fact that she demonstrably still possessed her hard earned skills made her stride proudly out onto the grass. Her silhouette was sharply noticed by one Kristen Yates whose soaring spirits took a romantic turn after she had gone through the period of depression and withdrawal that all prisoners went through from time to time. The way she carried herself, the curve of her upturned nose, the way her dark hair curled round her ears all roused her libido. She stood stock still while the sunlight gleamed over the wall and illuminated her
Denny could still remember the ironical look in Nikki's eye as she had called her into her office and, dressed in her favourite black suit, she had told her in official phraseology that, having reviewed her sentence plan, the gardening job was hers for the asking. Both Denny and Nikki knew very well that, behind the lightly phrased tone of voice, Nikki had sincerely offered her the job in sincere recognition that Denny could be relied upon. Denny had grinned openly at the twinkle in her eye had told her that Nikki knew very well what the job entailed. 'Just don't leave the shed a tip, Denny. I still have fond memories of it.' Denny reassured her in her inimitable way that she'd do her best, man.
Consequently, Connie strolled forward along with the Julies and Tina. Somehow or other, word had got round what Connie had done for Buki and respect for her caused her friends to gravitate to her. While she was gently strolling along, she suddenly faced the bright sunlight, which momentarily dazzled her. She automatically carried on in a straight line while her friends had wandered off to the right. Suddenly, she felt herself bump into another woman and automatically apologized. She wasn't sure if she accidentally banged into another woman or the other way round.
"You should watch where you're walking. You never know what you're getting into," the voice said to her with an obvious undertone of meaning
"Natalie Buxton, I see," came Connie's unfazed answer.
"Well well, quite the hero of the hour, aren't you, or so I hear," Natalie said in a vicious tone of voice.
"Sorry, I don't know what you mean. Now if you excuse me, I want to catch up with my friends," Connie replied politely, yet neatly cutting the other woman dead at the same time.
"Bitch," aggressively muttered a voice from a blond-haired woman wearing combat trousers and a scowl on her face. She had been walking behind Natalie and had seen the incident being deliberately manufactured.
"Oi, Buxton, you watch it or you'll be up on a charge," came Dominic's voice from a little bit further away. He had strolled around the grassy area, looking casual but the pattern of his footsteps had taken him to chat in his friendly way to the women under his charge and to also to keep half an eye on Buxton.
"Sorry, Mr. McAllister, we must have banged into each other by accident," came the sweetly yet falsely smiling reply, as Natalie Buxton strove to extricate herself from trouble.
Connie turned away and caught up with Denny who was enthusiastically digging up the earth round a flowerbed with a hoe with strong deliberate movements.
"You're working while everyone else's taking it easy, Denny?"
"Well, just for a bit, man. This garden takes a lot of looking after even this time of the year."
"I heard about the diversion you and Al did for us," Connie said in respectful tones.
"Piss easy man," Denny eagerly answered, grinning all over her face. "I've done it on and off for years. You get the timing right and a mate who knows what she's doing and, oh yes, Bodybag on duty and you're well away. Even after all these years, she falls for it every time. She don't ever learn."
"It got us all the time we needed to treat Buki," Connie confided.
"We were dead lucky you was around. If you weren't around, Buki could have died on us. If you want any help, just tell me, man," Denny said earnestly.
Connie graciously thanked this dependable woman whose allegiance wasn't won lightly. The two women continued to chat awhile and laughed easily amongst themselves. Finally, Connie sensed that Denny couldn't wait to resume her work so she strolled along comfortably back to the security of the crowds. Finally Kris caught up with Connie and eagerly engaged her in conversation
"Do you know, I've never been in an all woman institution?" Connie said reflectively for no conscious purpose at all.
"There's good and bad," came the laconic reply." You get bitches like Buxton but you can get away with things here that on the outside, would get the local Nosy Parkers down on your back. There are opportunities here, if you see what you mean."
Connie's reaction to the little smirk on Kris's lips was cool, making her more desirable in the other woman's eyes.
"That's one way of looking at prison."
"You need someone to protect you, Connie." Kris said, looking into the other woman's eyes with an intensity that she couldn't hold back any longer. "I could be so good for you if you'd only let me."
For the first time for a long time, Connie coloured delicately, not least for being a little slow in picking up on the other woman's line of conversation. She ruefully conceded that had the other person been a man, she would have spotted it a mile away.
"Thank you, Kris, but no. I've got a lot to get my head around and changing these habits of a lifetime isn't at the top of my list. I'm happy to be friends with you as I like you but, no further."
Kris blushed furiously to find that her desires were blocked in this way but she had to hand it to this woman in the classy way she put it. Other woman had simply slagged her off to her face.
"I'm not going to force you, Connie. You might not believe me but I'm not like that," Kris said, her voice choked with emotion.
"I believe you, Kris," Connie said softly to the other woman in a way that slightly sweetened the bitter pill she'd been forced to swallow.