Rapunzel was so forlorn the following morning that she refused to leave the cell, leaving Anna to fend for herself during "boot camp" with Cinder, which turned out to be a predictably tedious ordeal. She had been so distracted with her visit to Dr. Felix and everything else that it had completely slipped her mind that she was finally set to be given a work assignment, and instead of receiving a "thrilling" task like laundry duty, her first official job in Frozen Heart was to be sweeping up around the prison.
"Believe it or not, it's not as easy as it sounds." Cinder sounded like she could put herself to sleep with her own words. "I use a mop, which carries the risk of making surfaces slippery. The broom is different. It is primarily used for brushing away dirt into a dustpan, which must then be placed in a waste basket accordingly. Of course, given that the prisoners here are forced to walk around barefoot, the floors can sometimes become excessively filthy. Two sweepings might be required in such cases."
Cinder yawned. Anna might've imagined it, but she thought she saw a fly off himself by flying into her open mouth and not coming out.
"This completes your training. Do you have any questions?"
"No, that was all riveting. Thank you." She loathed the broom in her hands as she began brushing it about, not paying any mind to how effective she was technically being with it. "But...from what I've gathered, you're a girl who seems to know what's going on around here, right?"
"I mop a lot. Women love talking. Especially when they have nothing better to do. So yes, I hear things."
"What can you tell me about Goldie?"
"She loves talking more than most."
Anna allowed herself a rare laugh. That was at least one thing she could agree with Cinder on.
"But what do you know about her marriage? I mean, her husband's also in prison. Are they on...good terms?"
She hesitated, wondering if it was appropriate for her to be trying to get this information out of someone about Rapunzel's personal life. The truth of the matter was she didn't even like her very much, yet she still felt some moral obligation to find out if there was anything she could do to help.
"She loves her husband. Terrible business what happened to him."
"Yeah, it is. I mean...wait, what? How did you know about...?"
Cinder shrugged, spitting into the rusty water bucket next to her feet before placing her mop into it.
"I was mopping the post office yesterday. There's this woman named Porter there. Fancies herself a sketch artist, but she's also a nosy bitch who opens the mail before she delivers it. And she loves reading it to others, whether they ask her to do so or not."
"Oh." Anna wasn't sure if she trusted Cinder or not, but didn't want to test her patience by expressing disbelief. "So...if that's the case, you will know it was Crazy Frog's husband who hurt him. I wasn't even aware she was married, much less to someone was imprisoned."
"He was involved in her crimes. White collar stuff, as I'm sure you've heard. She insisted they don't spend any money on lawyers so she could afford to reopen their restaurant when they got it. It backfired and they got lousy public attorneys who couldn't have given fewer craps about them. Got overly harsh sentences as a result. Even by the standards of this kingdom's laws, three decades is a long time for being naughty with your bank account."
"Oh, so he's not like some...violent tough guy who's locked up for mugging or assault or anything like that?"
Anna waved her fists around to mock box an invisible opponent, before immediately feeling like a moron for doing so (especially since it made her drop her broom, which she quickly snatched back up).
"No. And from what I've heard, up until now, he was a model prisoner. A real charmer and quite handsome, they say. Hope for his sake he's bisexual."
Cinder mopped up some dead roaches from the floor before bending down to grab one.
"You know, she was Goldie's cellie before you arrived here." She stared at the insect in her palm, as though she were trying to find some sort of expression on its deceased, tiny face. "They got along very well. Goldie felt bad for Frog. Felt she didn't deserve to be among armed robbers like her. Then Frog insisted on taking multiple jobs and got moved to another cell for the sake of convenience. But I know Goldie considered her to be a close friend."
Without warning, she popped the bug into her mouth and swallowed it. Anna placed her hand on her throat to prevent any unwanted vomit from coming out.
"Of course the thing about Goldie is she considers half of the inmates here to be her best friend. You too, I would expect, even though I hear tell you're her 'bitch' officially speaking. Incarceration takes its toll on people for obvious reasons, and soon we find ourselves doing things we never would've imagined ourselves doing, like eating dead insects off the floor or, in the case of Crazy Frog's hubby, crushing the foot of a prisoner for whatever motives he might've had."
Anna clutched onto the end of her broom, squeezing the top of it so tightly that her fingers began to turn red.
"What 'motives' could he possibly have for something horrible like that?"
Cinder turned away from her mop and looked her in the eye.
"Anna, Goldie and Crazy Frog spent nearly a year of their lives together. And then not even a full month after you 'move in' with her, suddenly her beloved Eugene gets mauled by the husband of her old cellmate? I ain't no conspiracy nut by any stretch of the imagination, but a nut is a nut, and that nut has so much salt on it it burns your tongue."
Anna was going to try to figure out whatever kind of metaphor Cinder had been aiming for there, but decided it would be best not to bother.
"Are you trying to imply this was done to send a message to her? Like a threat?"
"Yes, Anna. The question is...who is being threatened. Her? You?"
"I'm not sure I follow."
Cinder dunked her mop back into the bucket and then using it to snatch up some bread crumbs left over from breakfast in the mess hall.
"Look, as I said, I just hear things. But a lot of the girls here are awfully interested in you. God knows why. Might be because you ended two lives. I'd say it's probably because Bloody Mary wants to make you into her latest chew toy. But who knows?"
She wrung the mop's bristles with her fingers before drying them off on her shirt.
"What I do know is Elsa's leaving the prison for the first time in ages tonight. Some kind of date with Lord Fergus. She kept trying to push it back, but Fergus finally insisted that they go out tonight. And Fergus is not a generous man."
Anna had to cup her mouth to prevent herself from blurting out that her sister never went on "dates"...
"What does that have to do with anything?"
"It means that when the cat's away, the mice will play. And even though I have an arguably unhealthy fondness for actual mice, what I'm saying in this context is that with Elsa out of range, Bloody Mary is likely to want to pay you a little visit."
"You're trying to scare me." Anna giggled nervously, still not really doing much of anything productive with her broom. "We'll all be locked in our cells for the evening by then. Even she can't harm me there."
"You underestimate the power she has within these walls. Or maybe the fact that her incredibly rich and influential father is making sure the warden is gone tonight didn't quite sink in there."
Naturally, Anna was becoming quite fearful by the direction this day seemed to be going for her, but resisted the urge to let Cinder see that.
"Should I start writing my last will and testament? I'll leave my toilet paper to you if you want it."
"Don't be so dramatic. I don't think Merida wants you dead." She grabbed her mop and bucket, which spilled its contents badly enough for Anna's toes to get wet. "No, I'm afraid she wants something much worse from you."
And without elaborating at all on this ominous declaration, Cinder turned and drug her ball off to clean up elsewhere.
"This is why prefer mice to people," she muttered as she left.