Part Thirty
A bright shaft of sunlight gleamed through the curtains and into the cell which the Julie's shared. Julie Johnson was curled up like a ball in the top bunk sound asleep but her left eye flickered half open and she thought she saw the ample shape of Tina O'Kane hovering on the floor below her. This can't be real so she dismissed it from her mind. "You're dreaming, Ju," Her mumble to herself was taken the wrong way.
"No you're not, Julie. It's me, Tina. I came here in the middle of the night, remember?" "Go back to sleep, Teen, it's ages till the screws come knocking," Her voice slurred an answer, engaging a quarter of her waking mind at the most.
Peace and quiet settled down on the cell in common with the other sleeping bodies. When there was no choice but being woken at someone else's request, every prisoner bar none was not eager to face the morning before its time.
"Just how come you was allowed to kip down here for the night?" "Buki cut up bad last night. It was horrible, Julies. There was blood everywhere, worse than she's ever been. It's always the same with Buki, I never saw it coming, she doesn't look, like sad and miserable like anyone else until it happens. I didn't know what to do till Miss Betts come in and bundled me out of the cell. After Buki was looked after, it was too bad for me to sleep in so I come here. There wasn't anywhere else to put me except share a cell with Natalie Buxton. Urrgh. I'd sooner sleep on the floor with me mates than a luxury bed with her." "What's happened to Buki? God, it sound's terrible." "I don't know. I think she's got taken to the hospital wing. I was out of the way in the PO's room scoffing Bodybag's chocolate fingers and chatting to George." "George?" chorused the Julies. Had their prayers been answered and a good looking fella been parachuted into Larkhall sometime in the night. "How come there's a fella on the wing and we never spotted him?" "Naah. She's a woman. She's dead beautiful and friendly, more beautiful than Virginia. Makes a lovely cup of tea." "Who is this George?" Julie Johnson asked suspiciously.
"She's a top barrister. She's the one what defended Snowball Merriman." "Oh yeah. And is that supposed to make us like her?" Gina was in first thing and job number one was to look in on the Julies. There was no telling how Tina would be feeling after the trauma of the night before. She was a nice simple kid who seemed younger than her years and this wasn't the first time that she was in a cell when Buki had cut up. The Julies were great at giving the sort of mothering some of the girls needed but it wasn't fair to take them for granted. She knocked on the door and carefully opened it. One glance told her that the three women were fine and that Tina was comfortably snuggled up in the improvised bed and was smiling up at the Julies. "You've not got a sore arse from sleeping on the floor, Tina. That's the best we could come up with last night." "It's been like old times with the Julies. They've been dead good to me. I've been fine but never knew the floor could be so hard. I started counting sheep but that only made me more awake." "We'll get your cell cleaned up and you'll be back in your own bed." "Have you heard how Buki's going on. Truth is, that's one reason I didn't sleep so well what with worrying about her and I woke up dead early too." Gina could tell that there were bags under Tina's eyes though she seemed superficially cheerful. "I'm going to the hospital wing soon as. I know that you'll all be worried about her so right after breakfast, I'll tell all the women on the wing so you'll all hear. You all deserve it." "Thanks, Gina," They smiled. They all liked this woman who was straight up, no nonsense so you knew where you were with her. You didn't want to cross her as she had a right temper but she got it out of her system straight away. She had a lot of common sense and a good heart. The Julies were very forgiving of her for that last quality alone. Everything was straight up and there wasn't that weird sense of something not quite right which had gone ever since……. Instead, when Gina breezed onto the wing, they felt cheered up straight away.
Lauren moved onto the wing with stiff limbs like an automaton, looking drained and feeling like death warmed up. The tablets Dr Waugh had given her last night had knocked her into oblivion, out so that she couldn't remember her head hitting the pillow. When she had got out from her bunk the next day, she stumbled around, feeling as if lead weights were attached to her and her normally sharp, alert mind felt foggy and vague, as if it were wrapped in cotton wool. She felt disconnected from time, from the day before and wanted to stay that way for safety's sake. By contrast, Denny's feelings bubbled to the surface in the same way as an underground spring and were easy to put into words.
"Bodybag not here? She'll catch it when she gets back." Julie Johnson grinned all over her face, having given the wing a ridiculously cursory once over.
"Aye? You're talking a load of pish." Al's puzzled Glaswegian accent was dismissive only because she couldn't understand what Julie was banging on about. The evidence before her eyes was only that the screw she hated most wasn't there to open her cell door and she couldn't see her around. Right from when she was little, smarter, quicker witted women came out with all kinds of stuff. It made her brain hurt to work out where they got it from and after a while she gave up. It was easier to follow someone else who knew what she was doing. She felt safer when she met up with a woman who told her what to do, even if she was as straight as a plank like Maxi. It scared her to be on her own and growing up in Peckham round some lousy, flea ridden estate like Peckham made her scared. When she was part of a gang, she could do over any bitch that got in her way. The mere look of her bulk, her scowling face and close-cropped hair scared the shit out of them. "We heard last night that she's skived off. I tell you, man, she'll be here next week trying to blag everyone that she's sick," Denny insisted in gleeful tones.
"Sick in the head, you mean," Al grunted. After Al's automatic reply, she started feeling out for thoughts, which drifted overhead, until she started putting words to them. How did Denny know in advance that Bodybag was skiving when everyone was locked up for the night? When everything kicked off last night, Lauren must have been out for the count by the way she looks this morning, doped up to the eyeballs, and she wouldn't have noticed a thing. So how come Denny's reading the Larkhall Prison nine o clock news?
"How come you all know so much about Bodybag? We were all locked up together half an hour early by those bastard screws. They must have wanted an early tea break." "Ah, Miss Betts came to lock us up and she told us straight." The Julies told Al in chorus form while Denny folded her arms across her chest, smiling to herself that there was something she knew that no one did. "They're mental," Al shrugged her shoulders and moved off elsewhere. She had enough worries on her mind for herself after being hustled away by the screws for an unexpected drugs test. She knew what the results were going to be but something about today told her that the screws were holding back temporarily from the inevitable.
"That's not all that I got to know last night, Julies." Their curiosity was immediately aroused because they were naturally inquisitive, because the day to day life at Larkhall could be crushingly boring and because of the knowing smile on Denny's face.
"So what's the big secret?" "I know who Miss Betts' new bird is." "Get away, Denny. As if she'd tell you." "You'll never guess. Never in a million years." The Julies tried to narrow down the name of a woman who Denny could have come across or heard about that was around Larkhall. It couldn't be Yvonne surely or Denny would have said so. It was a real surprise to them when they first heard about her and Yvonne. They both screwed up their eyes and gave up in despair.
"Can I have your attention. Hey, that means you two in the corner, stop gabbing." Gina's foghorn voice cut through the wing all the way to the back and echoed its way up to the dizzy heights of the 3's and bounced off the curved perspex roof. She was standing half way up the first flight of stairs and she shut up the only two women who were gossiping away to each other.
"I don't keep back any secrets so everyone hears it from me straight. If you don't know, Buki Lester got taken into the hospital wing as she cut herself. She hurt herself worse than she's ever done but she was lucky, Miss Betts was on hand to see to her. I've just been over to the hospital wing and she's doing 'as well as can be expected.'" "What does that mean, Miss Rossi?" Julie Johnson called out. That's the lying phrase too many doctors tell the likes of her, treat her like a child and they don't know she knows that some poor cow is on the way out.
"They're the words the doctor told me, Julie," Gina softened her tone. "Look, you know how it goes and you know the doctor's dead decent and will get up off his arse and work his socks off for her. It's out of our hands. The main thing is that she's being looked after properly. Me, Miss Betts and Dr Waugh will find out what set her off. If there's anything new, either me or Miss Betts will tell you, OK." Right at the end, Gina softened the short sharp delivery of her words. The crowd nodded their understanding, She had only acted that way as she had seen the unconscious Buki attached to a drip feed and god knows what machinery and could only sense the huge cut on her wrist that nearly ended her life. She had to hand it to Karen for getting in there and saving Buki's life. Her old Wing Governor would have wrung his hands and done sod all and blamed her for letting that con die on her - and blamed her for it afterwards. She did admire Karen for her tasty piece of crumpet who was there on the wing last night and that she was prepared to muck in and help. That was her instant litmus test for anyone she came up against.
"You're also going to get a half an hour extra association today. Seeing that lock up was half an hour early last night, it's only fair to give it back to you." There were smiles and a few cheers that brightened up the wing. It was only a tiny thing to look forward to in strolling casually round the exercise yard and chatting with your friends and see something of the outside world. Even the sight of high walls was a little treat that none of them in the far off days of freedom would have thought twice about.
Right now, Gina had a phone call to make to her Wing Gov and, grinning to herself, she wondered how long it would take her to answer the phone. Bloody ages, she guessed, from what she was like after a night with her fella. Her grin faded when she decided on the timing of when Al McKenzie should be nicked for dealing. It would hold off for the present till the wing had a chance to quieten down.
Karen battled between duty and pleasure as she felt the pleasures of last night were slipping away as the day wore on and that it was only a matter of time when she had to go in to Larkhall to make sure that everything was fine. She knew Gina well enough that she would deal with anything that she felt she could do but wouldn't shy away from phoning her up if need be. It gave her a warm feeling of security to know that there was that solid rock of dependability that was backing her up. Gina had changed out of all proportion to the bolshy woman who had barged her way into her office when she had other business to deal with and tried to con her into believing that she had put in a transfer to her wing as she 'wanted a challenge.' How times change, both for Gina and herself as she looked around her.
"I know you, darling. You want to spend the rest of the day with me but you feel duty bound to go into Larkhall." "How did you guess?" That was her guarded way of asking how could she be that transparent, she reflected as George smiled and carried on brushing her hair upwards into a chignon which accentuated the angles of her face. The view of George from this angle, feeling totally at home with her was part of a sequence of mental images of George that enraptured her and which she would treasure. "Don't forget, I've got work to catch up with. There's a frightful amount of paperwork that I pushed into my briefcase that I really have to look at. After being up half the night with you one way and another, I feel guilty if I let my work slide too far." The mantra of the professional woman, Karen nodded sympathetically. The magazines will tell you that all women's rights are won, from equal pay to the way that women are storming the barricades of the long entrenched fortresses of traditionally male dominated Professions, herself in the prison service especially if she made Governing Governor and George, like Jo, in the legal profession. You were supposed to have the ideal figure, perfect skin, perfect clothes, raise a family, have the house that "Changing Rooms" would admire and hold down a top job to the point that men were starting to feel that they were the second class citizens. Just try telling that to area management with Alison Warner as the token high flyer. At the end of the day, it meant the right to the executive stomach ulcer and feel forever harried that you weren't on top of everything. Their mothers wouldn't understand as they didn't have to go through the same set of expectations that they either set themselves or somehow ended up with. She was settled in the path which she chose for herself but why did she feel so weird being stuck half way between the passionate night she had spent with George and what she was destined to do. The crumpled shape of the snow-white quilt marked the space where they had lain together and should not be straightened with a quick swish as she usually did first thing. Mechanically, she slipped into her Wing Governor clothes and the intrusive habits of thoughts that went with it. It took an exchange of glances for both to realise that they were thinking the same things. George smiled slightly as her bare feet diminished the space between the two of them and stood upon tiptoe as Karen was wearing medium high heels. She slipped her arms round Karen so easily and so naturally. Her soft lips searched out for the other woman's to draw them together for one last time before they went their separate ways. "I'll be waiting for you in the gallery on Monday. I won't be late, darling," she whispered as her finger delicately traced a pattern on Karen's cheek.
It sounded from the description that as if they were making a date with each other at a romantic rendezvous and not as onlookers in the Old Bailey where the court battle was to be fought to the bitter end.
As Karen drove through the city streets, a few hardier souls ventured forth for some fresh air, as it was a cold sunny winter's day. She stuck one of her favourite CDs on that she had carried round with her for weeks and the woman's voice kept the workaday thoughts that were crowding into her mind from invading too early. She owed last night as much as that. This was the same feeling as much as when she was a nurse or a prison officer. At least things on the home front were stable as she smiled fondly of the birthday card from Ross. At one point in his disturbed life, he had thought of her enough to choose the birthday card, to write the card and to post it. It was more than she thought she would get. And then there was George who was singing the love songs to her that she never thought were meant for her.
"All right, Julie, I'll let you have a clue. The woman was a gorgeous blond, very tasty, someone I might fancy if I thought she was in my league." "This is getting hopeless," Julie Johnson sighed at the way Denny teased her with this tortuous brain teaser. She's not getting any younger.
"That was George, that barrister I was talking about earlier on. It must be. Can't you remember?" Tina's voice chirped away to them from behind as they stood around, the wind whipping through their thin clothes. "Aaaaah," Came the two-part harmony answer and dawning smiles of recognition as they made the connections at last. They hated it if they couldn't work out these puzzles. "I'm off, Julies. I've got my shooter back." From out of nowhere, there jumped into the Julie's mind a horrifying mental image of a sinister black gun which had been the curse of the Atkins and had dragged Lauren down And threatened to take away her freedom. Surely not?
"No, it's my water pistol. I've got it back. I'll splat her right in the face. It's wicked." The Julies grinned, watching Denny run around the exercise yard like the kid she still was.
Karen entered the wing as normal and her finely tuned instincts told her that the atmosphere seemed more normal than she had dared to think. It must be partly down to the prisoners and partly the officers. Karen nodded to Gina who was chatting to a new prison officer who she had taken under her wing to get her to find her feet. "You needn't have dragged yourself in on a Saturday as you could have had a lie in. I wouldn't have done if I were in your shoes. Everything's under control." She greeted Karen with a broad smile and a knowing twinkle in her eyes which expressed real respect that Karen took a real interest in everyone who she felt responsible for. They weren't all like that, she knew that well. "I only thought I should see for myself. Everything looks fine to me. You fill me in on the latest, I'll pop in on a few of the prisoners later and catch up on my paperwork after being away for the trial." "I've given them an extra half hour association to make up for last night," Gina mentioned casually to which Karen nodded agreement.
"I've had Al McKenzie tested this morning but do you reckon we should hold off a day before we bang her up. I know she's been dealing." Even after all this time, Karen remained grateful that the wing could still run as smoothly as it did even after such a major trauma and she never forgot that she was enjoying the good fortune that Helen had never had when she was wing governor.
Tina seemed to make permanent occupation of her improvised bed on the floor while her own cell was being cleaned up. She knew it couldn't last but was torn between the comfort of her own cell which would be very quiet while Buki was away and the matey feeling of sharing with the Julies. One more night wouldn't do her back any good so she made the best of what time there was.
Just then, there was a polite tap at the door and Karen Betts poked her head round the corner. She smiled benevolently at them all as she had trusted that the Julies would calm down a possibly very distraught Tina. "Did you get a good night, Tina. I'm sorry it's been a bit basic. You'll have heard from Miss Rossi that Buki's condition is stable but she'll be on the hospital wing till her arm heals. Dr. Waugh and I will try and persuade her to get the help that she really needs." "Until she starts cutting up again, Miss Betts." "Look here, Julie, you ought to know as much as anyone that you can't help anyone who refuses to be helped. I've tried. This time, well, we're going to try a lot harder, that's all." Julie J felt immediately sorry for the woman who was making an effort to be controlled and patient in her reply. You could tell by the tiredness in her eyes. She was right. It was no one's fault.
"I'm sorry, Miss. That was bang out of order." Karen smiled briefly until Julie Johnson's curiosity finally got the better.
"Is it all right if I ask you a question. It's like a bit personal." "Go on." This was a run up to being questioned about the mysterious blond who was miraculously there last night. She would give facts but definitely not figures. If she didn't tell them the basics, all sort of wild rumours would start circulating.
"Just who was the woman who was here last night and helped us all out last night?" "Georgia Channing. You may remember her as the barrister who came round a while back to look round your cell." "Oh, so that's who she was, that barrister. Yeah, she is good looking. You're lucky Miss." Karen nodded and a slow foolish smile spread all over her face as she knew and felt how lucky she was.
A bright shaft of sunlight gleamed through the curtains and into the cell which the Julie's shared. Julie Johnson was curled up like a ball in the top bunk sound asleep but her left eye flickered half open and she thought she saw the ample shape of Tina O'Kane hovering on the floor below her. This can't be real so she dismissed it from her mind. "You're dreaming, Ju," Her mumble to herself was taken the wrong way.
"No you're not, Julie. It's me, Tina. I came here in the middle of the night, remember?" "Go back to sleep, Teen, it's ages till the screws come knocking," Her voice slurred an answer, engaging a quarter of her waking mind at the most.
Peace and quiet settled down on the cell in common with the other sleeping bodies. When there was no choice but being woken at someone else's request, every prisoner bar none was not eager to face the morning before its time.
"Just how come you was allowed to kip down here for the night?" "Buki cut up bad last night. It was horrible, Julies. There was blood everywhere, worse than she's ever been. It's always the same with Buki, I never saw it coming, she doesn't look, like sad and miserable like anyone else until it happens. I didn't know what to do till Miss Betts come in and bundled me out of the cell. After Buki was looked after, it was too bad for me to sleep in so I come here. There wasn't anywhere else to put me except share a cell with Natalie Buxton. Urrgh. I'd sooner sleep on the floor with me mates than a luxury bed with her." "What's happened to Buki? God, it sound's terrible." "I don't know. I think she's got taken to the hospital wing. I was out of the way in the PO's room scoffing Bodybag's chocolate fingers and chatting to George." "George?" chorused the Julies. Had their prayers been answered and a good looking fella been parachuted into Larkhall sometime in the night. "How come there's a fella on the wing and we never spotted him?" "Naah. She's a woman. She's dead beautiful and friendly, more beautiful than Virginia. Makes a lovely cup of tea." "Who is this George?" Julie Johnson asked suspiciously.
"She's a top barrister. She's the one what defended Snowball Merriman." "Oh yeah. And is that supposed to make us like her?" Gina was in first thing and job number one was to look in on the Julies. There was no telling how Tina would be feeling after the trauma of the night before. She was a nice simple kid who seemed younger than her years and this wasn't the first time that she was in a cell when Buki had cut up. The Julies were great at giving the sort of mothering some of the girls needed but it wasn't fair to take them for granted. She knocked on the door and carefully opened it. One glance told her that the three women were fine and that Tina was comfortably snuggled up in the improvised bed and was smiling up at the Julies. "You've not got a sore arse from sleeping on the floor, Tina. That's the best we could come up with last night." "It's been like old times with the Julies. They've been dead good to me. I've been fine but never knew the floor could be so hard. I started counting sheep but that only made me more awake." "We'll get your cell cleaned up and you'll be back in your own bed." "Have you heard how Buki's going on. Truth is, that's one reason I didn't sleep so well what with worrying about her and I woke up dead early too." Gina could tell that there were bags under Tina's eyes though she seemed superficially cheerful. "I'm going to the hospital wing soon as. I know that you'll all be worried about her so right after breakfast, I'll tell all the women on the wing so you'll all hear. You all deserve it." "Thanks, Gina," They smiled. They all liked this woman who was straight up, no nonsense so you knew where you were with her. You didn't want to cross her as she had a right temper but she got it out of her system straight away. She had a lot of common sense and a good heart. The Julies were very forgiving of her for that last quality alone. Everything was straight up and there wasn't that weird sense of something not quite right which had gone ever since……. Instead, when Gina breezed onto the wing, they felt cheered up straight away.
Lauren moved onto the wing with stiff limbs like an automaton, looking drained and feeling like death warmed up. The tablets Dr Waugh had given her last night had knocked her into oblivion, out so that she couldn't remember her head hitting the pillow. When she had got out from her bunk the next day, she stumbled around, feeling as if lead weights were attached to her and her normally sharp, alert mind felt foggy and vague, as if it were wrapped in cotton wool. She felt disconnected from time, from the day before and wanted to stay that way for safety's sake. By contrast, Denny's feelings bubbled to the surface in the same way as an underground spring and were easy to put into words.
"Bodybag not here? She'll catch it when she gets back." Julie Johnson grinned all over her face, having given the wing a ridiculously cursory once over.
"Aye? You're talking a load of pish." Al's puzzled Glaswegian accent was dismissive only because she couldn't understand what Julie was banging on about. The evidence before her eyes was only that the screw she hated most wasn't there to open her cell door and she couldn't see her around. Right from when she was little, smarter, quicker witted women came out with all kinds of stuff. It made her brain hurt to work out where they got it from and after a while she gave up. It was easier to follow someone else who knew what she was doing. She felt safer when she met up with a woman who told her what to do, even if she was as straight as a plank like Maxi. It scared her to be on her own and growing up in Peckham round some lousy, flea ridden estate like Peckham made her scared. When she was part of a gang, she could do over any bitch that got in her way. The mere look of her bulk, her scowling face and close-cropped hair scared the shit out of them. "We heard last night that she's skived off. I tell you, man, she'll be here next week trying to blag everyone that she's sick," Denny insisted in gleeful tones.
"Sick in the head, you mean," Al grunted. After Al's automatic reply, she started feeling out for thoughts, which drifted overhead, until she started putting words to them. How did Denny know in advance that Bodybag was skiving when everyone was locked up for the night? When everything kicked off last night, Lauren must have been out for the count by the way she looks this morning, doped up to the eyeballs, and she wouldn't have noticed a thing. So how come Denny's reading the Larkhall Prison nine o clock news?
"How come you all know so much about Bodybag? We were all locked up together half an hour early by those bastard screws. They must have wanted an early tea break." "Ah, Miss Betts came to lock us up and she told us straight." The Julies told Al in chorus form while Denny folded her arms across her chest, smiling to herself that there was something she knew that no one did. "They're mental," Al shrugged her shoulders and moved off elsewhere. She had enough worries on her mind for herself after being hustled away by the screws for an unexpected drugs test. She knew what the results were going to be but something about today told her that the screws were holding back temporarily from the inevitable.
"That's not all that I got to know last night, Julies." Their curiosity was immediately aroused because they were naturally inquisitive, because the day to day life at Larkhall could be crushingly boring and because of the knowing smile on Denny's face.
"So what's the big secret?" "I know who Miss Betts' new bird is." "Get away, Denny. As if she'd tell you." "You'll never guess. Never in a million years." The Julies tried to narrow down the name of a woman who Denny could have come across or heard about that was around Larkhall. It couldn't be Yvonne surely or Denny would have said so. It was a real surprise to them when they first heard about her and Yvonne. They both screwed up their eyes and gave up in despair.
"Can I have your attention. Hey, that means you two in the corner, stop gabbing." Gina's foghorn voice cut through the wing all the way to the back and echoed its way up to the dizzy heights of the 3's and bounced off the curved perspex roof. She was standing half way up the first flight of stairs and she shut up the only two women who were gossiping away to each other.
"I don't keep back any secrets so everyone hears it from me straight. If you don't know, Buki Lester got taken into the hospital wing as she cut herself. She hurt herself worse than she's ever done but she was lucky, Miss Betts was on hand to see to her. I've just been over to the hospital wing and she's doing 'as well as can be expected.'" "What does that mean, Miss Rossi?" Julie Johnson called out. That's the lying phrase too many doctors tell the likes of her, treat her like a child and they don't know she knows that some poor cow is on the way out.
"They're the words the doctor told me, Julie," Gina softened her tone. "Look, you know how it goes and you know the doctor's dead decent and will get up off his arse and work his socks off for her. It's out of our hands. The main thing is that she's being looked after properly. Me, Miss Betts and Dr Waugh will find out what set her off. If there's anything new, either me or Miss Betts will tell you, OK." Right at the end, Gina softened the short sharp delivery of her words. The crowd nodded their understanding, She had only acted that way as she had seen the unconscious Buki attached to a drip feed and god knows what machinery and could only sense the huge cut on her wrist that nearly ended her life. She had to hand it to Karen for getting in there and saving Buki's life. Her old Wing Governor would have wrung his hands and done sod all and blamed her for letting that con die on her - and blamed her for it afterwards. She did admire Karen for her tasty piece of crumpet who was there on the wing last night and that she was prepared to muck in and help. That was her instant litmus test for anyone she came up against.
"You're also going to get a half an hour extra association today. Seeing that lock up was half an hour early last night, it's only fair to give it back to you." There were smiles and a few cheers that brightened up the wing. It was only a tiny thing to look forward to in strolling casually round the exercise yard and chatting with your friends and see something of the outside world. Even the sight of high walls was a little treat that none of them in the far off days of freedom would have thought twice about.
Right now, Gina had a phone call to make to her Wing Gov and, grinning to herself, she wondered how long it would take her to answer the phone. Bloody ages, she guessed, from what she was like after a night with her fella. Her grin faded when she decided on the timing of when Al McKenzie should be nicked for dealing. It would hold off for the present till the wing had a chance to quieten down.
Karen battled between duty and pleasure as she felt the pleasures of last night were slipping away as the day wore on and that it was only a matter of time when she had to go in to Larkhall to make sure that everything was fine. She knew Gina well enough that she would deal with anything that she felt she could do but wouldn't shy away from phoning her up if need be. It gave her a warm feeling of security to know that there was that solid rock of dependability that was backing her up. Gina had changed out of all proportion to the bolshy woman who had barged her way into her office when she had other business to deal with and tried to con her into believing that she had put in a transfer to her wing as she 'wanted a challenge.' How times change, both for Gina and herself as she looked around her.
"I know you, darling. You want to spend the rest of the day with me but you feel duty bound to go into Larkhall." "How did you guess?" That was her guarded way of asking how could she be that transparent, she reflected as George smiled and carried on brushing her hair upwards into a chignon which accentuated the angles of her face. The view of George from this angle, feeling totally at home with her was part of a sequence of mental images of George that enraptured her and which she would treasure. "Don't forget, I've got work to catch up with. There's a frightful amount of paperwork that I pushed into my briefcase that I really have to look at. After being up half the night with you one way and another, I feel guilty if I let my work slide too far." The mantra of the professional woman, Karen nodded sympathetically. The magazines will tell you that all women's rights are won, from equal pay to the way that women are storming the barricades of the long entrenched fortresses of traditionally male dominated Professions, herself in the prison service especially if she made Governing Governor and George, like Jo, in the legal profession. You were supposed to have the ideal figure, perfect skin, perfect clothes, raise a family, have the house that "Changing Rooms" would admire and hold down a top job to the point that men were starting to feel that they were the second class citizens. Just try telling that to area management with Alison Warner as the token high flyer. At the end of the day, it meant the right to the executive stomach ulcer and feel forever harried that you weren't on top of everything. Their mothers wouldn't understand as they didn't have to go through the same set of expectations that they either set themselves or somehow ended up with. She was settled in the path which she chose for herself but why did she feel so weird being stuck half way between the passionate night she had spent with George and what she was destined to do. The crumpled shape of the snow-white quilt marked the space where they had lain together and should not be straightened with a quick swish as she usually did first thing. Mechanically, she slipped into her Wing Governor clothes and the intrusive habits of thoughts that went with it. It took an exchange of glances for both to realise that they were thinking the same things. George smiled slightly as her bare feet diminished the space between the two of them and stood upon tiptoe as Karen was wearing medium high heels. She slipped her arms round Karen so easily and so naturally. Her soft lips searched out for the other woman's to draw them together for one last time before they went their separate ways. "I'll be waiting for you in the gallery on Monday. I won't be late, darling," she whispered as her finger delicately traced a pattern on Karen's cheek.
It sounded from the description that as if they were making a date with each other at a romantic rendezvous and not as onlookers in the Old Bailey where the court battle was to be fought to the bitter end.
As Karen drove through the city streets, a few hardier souls ventured forth for some fresh air, as it was a cold sunny winter's day. She stuck one of her favourite CDs on that she had carried round with her for weeks and the woman's voice kept the workaday thoughts that were crowding into her mind from invading too early. She owed last night as much as that. This was the same feeling as much as when she was a nurse or a prison officer. At least things on the home front were stable as she smiled fondly of the birthday card from Ross. At one point in his disturbed life, he had thought of her enough to choose the birthday card, to write the card and to post it. It was more than she thought she would get. And then there was George who was singing the love songs to her that she never thought were meant for her.
"All right, Julie, I'll let you have a clue. The woman was a gorgeous blond, very tasty, someone I might fancy if I thought she was in my league." "This is getting hopeless," Julie Johnson sighed at the way Denny teased her with this tortuous brain teaser. She's not getting any younger.
"That was George, that barrister I was talking about earlier on. It must be. Can't you remember?" Tina's voice chirped away to them from behind as they stood around, the wind whipping through their thin clothes. "Aaaaah," Came the two-part harmony answer and dawning smiles of recognition as they made the connections at last. They hated it if they couldn't work out these puzzles. "I'm off, Julies. I've got my shooter back." From out of nowhere, there jumped into the Julie's mind a horrifying mental image of a sinister black gun which had been the curse of the Atkins and had dragged Lauren down And threatened to take away her freedom. Surely not?
"No, it's my water pistol. I've got it back. I'll splat her right in the face. It's wicked." The Julies grinned, watching Denny run around the exercise yard like the kid she still was.
Karen entered the wing as normal and her finely tuned instincts told her that the atmosphere seemed more normal than she had dared to think. It must be partly down to the prisoners and partly the officers. Karen nodded to Gina who was chatting to a new prison officer who she had taken under her wing to get her to find her feet. "You needn't have dragged yourself in on a Saturday as you could have had a lie in. I wouldn't have done if I were in your shoes. Everything's under control." She greeted Karen with a broad smile and a knowing twinkle in her eyes which expressed real respect that Karen took a real interest in everyone who she felt responsible for. They weren't all like that, she knew that well. "I only thought I should see for myself. Everything looks fine to me. You fill me in on the latest, I'll pop in on a few of the prisoners later and catch up on my paperwork after being away for the trial." "I've given them an extra half hour association to make up for last night," Gina mentioned casually to which Karen nodded agreement.
"I've had Al McKenzie tested this morning but do you reckon we should hold off a day before we bang her up. I know she's been dealing." Even after all this time, Karen remained grateful that the wing could still run as smoothly as it did even after such a major trauma and she never forgot that she was enjoying the good fortune that Helen had never had when she was wing governor.
Tina seemed to make permanent occupation of her improvised bed on the floor while her own cell was being cleaned up. She knew it couldn't last but was torn between the comfort of her own cell which would be very quiet while Buki was away and the matey feeling of sharing with the Julies. One more night wouldn't do her back any good so she made the best of what time there was.
Just then, there was a polite tap at the door and Karen Betts poked her head round the corner. She smiled benevolently at them all as she had trusted that the Julies would calm down a possibly very distraught Tina. "Did you get a good night, Tina. I'm sorry it's been a bit basic. You'll have heard from Miss Rossi that Buki's condition is stable but she'll be on the hospital wing till her arm heals. Dr. Waugh and I will try and persuade her to get the help that she really needs." "Until she starts cutting up again, Miss Betts." "Look here, Julie, you ought to know as much as anyone that you can't help anyone who refuses to be helped. I've tried. This time, well, we're going to try a lot harder, that's all." Julie J felt immediately sorry for the woman who was making an effort to be controlled and patient in her reply. You could tell by the tiredness in her eyes. She was right. It was no one's fault.
"I'm sorry, Miss. That was bang out of order." Karen smiled briefly until Julie Johnson's curiosity finally got the better.
"Is it all right if I ask you a question. It's like a bit personal." "Go on." This was a run up to being questioned about the mysterious blond who was miraculously there last night. She would give facts but definitely not figures. If she didn't tell them the basics, all sort of wild rumours would start circulating.
"Just who was the woman who was here last night and helped us all out last night?" "Georgia Channing. You may remember her as the barrister who came round a while back to look round your cell." "Oh, so that's who she was, that barrister. Yeah, she is good looking. You're lucky Miss." Karen nodded and a slow foolish smile spread all over her face as she knew and felt how lucky she was.