Gina had come in on Sunday for a special reason without advising the other prison Officers who were usually accustomed to work without supervision by whoever was most senior. She saw Bodybag's surprised glance but smiled and hurried on to her office, which from tomorrow would cease to be hers. She looked round at it, glancing at every nook and cranny with which she had become familiar over the three months that she had occupied it. She had grown to like her surroundings but only because she knew from the start that it would be a short-term commitment. On Monday, all her personal effects would be back in her locker as she took a grateful step down the prison officer hierarchy. She knew she had grown in that period of time she had been Wing Governor and would have greater understanding than before and she had her freedom back. It would suit her to be squarely back in the PO's room but she could handle the change, the same way she could handle most things in her rough and ready way. She'd made the place spick and span and all the papers in neat order for when Nikki took over. She could do no more than that. Only one more duty remained for her.
As she strolled across the wing, she caught Dominic's eye and duly avoided Bodybag's. She knew that she would be grumbling under her breath to herself as, very conveniently, Di wasn't around. She would be sure to recite the same litany of woes about being dragged in on a Sunday at her time of life even though she was likely to go off sick at any moment.
"Dominic, what say we get the Julies to give this wing a good spring clean ready for the new gov"
He said nothing but strolled away down the corridor, which led to where they would be likeliest to be.
"Do we tell them who it's for?" he grinned when they had slid off somewhere quieter.
"So long as they swear blind that they will keep their gobs shut for twenty four hours. I know that their tongues run away with them. Go on, we'll handle them together."
"Nikki Wade, you're joking Miss." Julie Saunders was the first of them to find her tongue after they had stood open mouthed at the bombshell that was so casually lobbed over at them.
"Do we look like a bloody standup comedy act?" Gina retorted, the grin on her face softening the bluntness of her speech.
"We did wonder if there is something you could do in return for what we've told you," Gina
Added in softer tones.
"Aye aye, we thought there would be a catch in this somewhere," Julie Saunders spoke in slightly sharp tones, the very body language of the way she stood expressing incipient mutiny.
"All we're asking for is that you keep schtum about who you're doing the spring cleaning for. We don't want anyone to know about Nikki till she's here. Twenty four hours, that's all we're asking"
Men, they're all the same, the Julies thought scornfully at first as they heard Dominic's oh so reasonable tones. They exchanged glances as the implications of what they were being asked sank home. It was as if they were asked at the drop of a hat to go cold turkey on cigarettes for a day. Their natural instinct was to hare round the wing telling and retelling the news and laughing in Bodybag's face.
"We want the wing prepared in advance to look good, like a courtesy gesture..." started Dominic.
"...but we don't want anyone else to know, not the other prisoners and not the other prison officers. Can't say fairer than that"
Julie Johnson caught the meaning look in Gina's eye. They meant Di Barker and Bodybag for sure.
"OK, Miss Rossi. Me and Ju will have the place spick and span so you could eat a three-course meal off the floor. Right"
"Right, Julies"
The two women made a beeline back to the servery where they looked sharply at the surroundings with fresh eyes. It could do with a bit of freshening up for sure. They got the mops and buckets and cleaning materials out and went at the job with a will. The corridors were next in line.
"Servery's the first place anyone would look, especially"
Julie Saunders dug her elbow into the other woman's ribs and the other woman blushed. It was so easy to talk about the matter and so hard to avoid putting her foot into it.
Dominic and Miss Rossi had got them down to a T, they both reflected. They set to work to clean round the hot plates and then to mop the floor very industriously.
Bodybag prowled round the wing looking at everything suspiciously. If she was miserable, she hoped against hope that the opportunity would come that someone else would be equally miserable. What set her off in a bad mood was the complete absence of information about the new wing governor. She had heard that he or she would be due to arrive on the Monday but that was what the combined snooping power of her and Di could find out. It gave her nothing to prepare herself for, what were the weaknesses, which could be exploited. The other prison officers like Selena and Colin were curiously fatalistic and wouldn't be drawn into any speculation. In the old days, they would have found out when their chief fount of information and ideas was around, but he had, as she still hated to say, passed away. As she thought those gloomiest of thoughts, she spied that Atkins woman who was laughing and joking. She was responsible for everything that had gone wrong in her life, she and Madam between them.
"You're being unusually industrious today?" she asked suspiciously of the Julies who were adding extra vim into their work and not that maddeningly lackadaisical manner whenever she was around.
"Well, it's a lovely day today and we feel good. You get those good days same as you get the bad days"
"Well, don't wear yourself out and leave the rest of the wing that doesn't show looking like a pigsty," she said grumpily.
"Can't blame us if we feel happy today, Miss," Julie Johnson said in her most winning manner.
"It's Sunday and I'm here instead of at home. What's there to be happy about"
"Oh no, miss. You've got to be more positive. After all as Miss Barker says, every cloud has a silver lining."
It was only the next day that Bodybag recalled those words with total fury and indignation and wondered if it was all a put up job. She remembered those words for a long, long time.