Nikki presented herself outside the gates of Larkhall Prison for the first time in god knows how many years. She stared up at the huge grey walls, which enclosed her future place of work and wondered what in hell she was doing here. Then she suddenly remembered, she was G wing's newest wing governor presenting herself on her first day that she could now come and go within the limits of her contract. The problem was that she only half believed herself now she was confronted with its reality.
She just stood and stared around at the panorama view until, with a sigh of relief, she spotted Karen's green MG sports car and her friendly reassuring smile as she approached her. She wasn't here to bang her up this time, she realized, now that she glanced at her similar smart suit.
"Ready for your first day."
"As ready as I'll ever be."
"Do you want me to show you the ropes till you find your feet? It's your decision."
Nikki was speechless and nodded her head. All her senses were heightened with a mixture of anticipation, nervousness and adrenaline rush. She was happy for this friendly soul to guide her destiny.
"Ken, allow me to introduce you to G wing's new wing governor, Nikki Wade. You will be seeing a lot of her in future."
"Yes, ma'am," Ken responded to her dry tones and a hint of a smile at the corner of her lips.
"I do want to make it clear to resist the temptation to get on the phone and broadcast the news in advance of the official announcement to everyone. You keep this under your hat. Is that quite clear?"
"Oh, yes, I understand."
Ken knew Karen well enough to realize that she was deadly serious about this in her dry manner and deliberate phrasing.
"Morning, Ken," Nikki weighed in brightly and cheerfully, reaching for the role she would assume as she had done with her suit earlier that morning.
"Morning, Nikki," Ken stammered automatically. That first exchange was the first tiny stamp to establish her legitimacy and they strolled ahead across the courtyard after Nikki picked up her keys and signed in.
"What plans have you got, Nikki? Personally, I would recommend I come to your new office as your guest and have a chat."
"Suits me fine. You lead the way."
The corridors were quiet while the prisoners were locked up and the morning shift was only just arriving. Karen pushed at the door that was very familiar to both of them.
"This will be your home from home," Karen said. "Gina and the Julies between them have made it nice for you."
Nikki walked forward and a total kaleidoscope of visual impressions overwhelmed her and stopped her in her tracks. So much had happened in this room, mostly when she was in that position of power disadvantage.
"It's your office now. You can set it out how you like you know."
Karen's kind voice gradually dissolved the layered feelings of shock. She shook her head and walked up to the bureau behind that desk and she slowly ran her hands over the stacked up files while lessons from her training course played back to her as to what they represented. She turned around slowly and stood with her hands gripping the back of her high chair. There her desk was, laid out before her, neatly arranged, not that dissimilar one to the desk she had gladly handed over along with the bitterness of her lost battle for command of the club. This perspective of the room, her room, altered everything, as this was brand new to her. She shook her head while Karen smiled sympathetically and encouragingly. She could feel the other woman's presence in her intuitive fashion.
"Jesus, the numbers of times I've been in here, being shouted at and the bastard before her……..can I change the pictures, Karen. They're not my style."
Her soft reflective voice reached back to the past a slight incongruous thought about her present.
"You can change them to what you want. It goes with the job."
Nikki exhaled what felt like an entire lungful of air along with so much of the tension in her. She fumbled automatically towards the packet of cigarettes in her handbag, offering one to Karen.
"Let's take a seat over there." Nikki decided.
"Okay, you tell me what you think I ought to know for starters. I'm all ears."
"I thought I'd start off talking about the prisoners who you need to know about. Of course you may form your own different impressions. You remember Al McKenzie for a start."
"Yeah, I remember."
"She's not the hard nut she used to be. Maxi Purvis's suicide seemed to have knocked some of the stuffing out of her but she's still the resident drug dealer and she and Denny Blood once came to blows over that. Al's keeping her head down for now."
"And Denny?"
"In my well meaning way but mistaken way, I gave way to Denny's repeated requests to see Shell Dockley at Ashmore. One visit undid all the progress over the last four years and she reverted to the aggressive and paranoid prisoner she used to be, you remember? Lucky that Lauren Atkins shares a cell with her, and is having a good effect on her. You know all about Lauren."
"New to you will be Natalie Buxton. A plausible, scheming woman who was sent down for aiding and abetting her boyfriend in smuggling in underage girls for the sex trade. She conned everyone into believing that she was Miss Innocent whose language school had run foul of income tax laws. Guilty of sexual abuse of underage woman herself into the bargain, she's your chief problem."
Karen's deliberately casual voice gradually built up towards a level of suppressed intensity of loathing that struck Nikki like a glassful of water thrown in her face.
"Sounds like Dockley," She involuntarily murmured.
"Even Shell Dockley had genuine feelings for her daughters," Karen shot back, nettled at Nikki's ironic thrust before she thought twice about her words. "I'm sorry….anyway Shell isn't here so she doesn't count any more."
The pause was audible and Nikki put her smoldering cigarette to her lips and inhaled to give Karen a little time and space. To her way of thinking, the two words could mean the same.
"Who else should I watch out for, Karen?" Nikki asked softly and politely. She reached out to steady Karen by reverting to emotionally neutral matters as a loyal subordinate. The tension seemed to evaporate out of Karen's body as she relaxed in her chair.
"You'll remember Buki Lester, if my memory serves me right. She was the hard crack addict and pusher who's gone through her share of changes. In good times, she's compliant enough but in bad times, she'll reach out to herself to blame for everything and self harm. If you've come across that sort of thing in your life, you'll realize that there is no real cure any more than there is for any other addiction. I have vivid memories of reverting to my former occupation as nurse at a particularly dangerous instance of this with only George around to help out."
"I might be putting my big foot in it in stating the blindingly obvious but isn't she a prime candidate for psychotherapy?"
"That all depends on how willing she is. You can lead a horse to water but you can't make her drink it," Karen retorted grimly.
The silence that the two women fell into was more companionable, more reflective before Karen resumed her guided tour at her leisurely pace.
"Then there's Kris Yates. She can be bolshy and uncooperative and keeps a hard façade. She's no real trouble if you're straight upfront with her……"
"….. Sounds like I used to be," Put in Nikki with a hint of a smile.
Karen grinned at Nikki's little jest. It showed to her that Nikki was beginning to relax into her role and one that she tailored to her personality.
"And finally, .for a bit of old fashioned style, we have the Costa Cons. Two well to do, middle ages expatriates who made a fortune out of swindling gullible people out of their life savings with the most plausible smooth talking yarns you ever heard. Buried deep, they have a ruthless streak but they can be managed if you appeal to their self-interest. They also are known for laying hold of a supply of their favourite tipple, of gin and tonic, oh yes with a slice of lemon."
"Sounds quite a circus," Nikki summed up as her head assimilated everything Karen was telling her though her head was starting to whirl. "And what about the prison officers."
"Most of them are pretty reasonable. Somehow the more progressive ideas that Helen exemplified has paid off somewhere in the training. If you give them the right lead, they'll follow. There are two notable exceptions. You will need no introduction to Sylvia Hollamby who has not changed in the slightest. You've seen Di Barker in action at Lauren Atkins trial and she is as sly and devious on the wing as she was in court. She's the most dangerous of the lot. Don't trust her an inch."
The grim expression on Karen's face and the gradual way that her feelings bubbled to the surface showed that Karen was righteously incapable of letting her feelings of anger and sheer detestation fade. She knew that she wasn't acting out of turn in blackening her reputation before Nikki. It was simply telling the truth.
"What do we do now? Do I get introduced to the prison officers and set out my stall and talk to the prisoners? I'm not sure what I should do next." "You turn your questions into statements," Karen grinned reassuringly as Nikki stretched out for tentative ideas that would become certainties. "Follow me."
Now for the moment of truth, Nikki thought. This felt as if she was going up on stage. She imagined the crowd in the PO's room, which she had entered from time to time. Karen grasped the round brass handle firmly and confidently, swung it open and Nikki slid in behind her.
Nikki blinked at the crowd that had been made ready and caught a flavour of the different reactions. To some of the new prison officers, this smart personable well-dressed woman with a short neat haircut smiled in a friendly enough fashion. To Di Barker and Bodybag, it was a case of the welcoming mat to their worst nightmare and another outrageous act by the powers that be in letting an ex-con into Larkhall without security as a visitor but their eyes refused to believe them when they started thinking what they were seeing..
"I am now in a position to clear the speculation about who is to be G wing's permanent wing governor. Nikki Wade who is here before you was successful in an interview in fair and open competition by Area against other candidates for the job. She is a direct entrant into the service having had experience over a number of years as an independent businesswoman running her own club with her former partner. Some of you will know her before when she was an inmate from which she has gained experience of the realities of the prison system. If those of you who don't know, a second court case has left her with a record which is as spotless as any of us amongst us. Needless to say, If I understand her background rightly, she has qualities in abundance of what it takes to work in the prison system."
Karen paused while she collected her thoughts, her eyes missing nothing of the mixture of reactions ranging from surprise to glowering anger.
"I want to publicly thank Gina Rossi for working so hard and conscientiously in holding down what she knew was going to be a temporary appointment and I can testify that she had handed on a wing which has been well looked after...I was wondering if you wanted to say a few words to us, Nikki. After all, as from today, it is your wing."
Nikki stepped forward a pace from under Karen's shelter and could do no more than utter the words which most went through her mind.
"Thank you, Karen and everyone here," she smiled, flushing slightly at the sincere words of praise. Jesus, I hope I live up to everything I've said and has been said about me.
"Why should I abandon a good living and the so called glamorous life as a club owner for the supposedly humdrum life of working for the prison service? I can hear you think these words. The truth is, I've fought a long and losing battle with my one time partner and with the customers to stop the infiltration of drugs bigtime into the club that I helped build up from nothing and have sacked my sharer of barmaids who abused my trust. This is part of my belief system, which I won't go soft on. I want to repay the debt of kindness that I received when I was last here and to give hope to human beings in a situation, no disrespect to anyone, where it is far too easy to abandon hope..."
"Another do gooder like Stewart," muttered Bodybag to Di who were in the background but not unnoticed by Nikki for all that. They had been gossiping away through both Karen's and Nikki's speeches, fondly believing that they would never be spotted.
"Excuse me, Di and Sylvia, there's one meeting, not two, if you please."
All the other prison officers turned round and just looked at them. Both of them squirmed with embarrassment at being so publicly outed. First blood to me, Nikki thought, as she
prepared to talk over the heads of that terrible twosome and appeal to the others. If she
handled her cards right, gut instinct told her, she could win them over.
"...as I was going to say, I will need your help and you may be sure that you'll get mine in return. I repay loyalty that is shown to me. If anyone of you have a problem with anything I do or say, I would sooner you say it to my face and if I have a problem, I'll do likewise." Karen smiled warmly to herself when she heard Nikki lay open so nakedly, what she stood for. John would be proud to hear Nikki if he were here to listen to her.
"Let's face it, I know that I don't have the conventionally acquired background you might look for in a wing governor but I believe that what I know will work for all that. Let's face it, I'm a realist and if I didn't think that I was up to do the job, I would never have applied for it."
There was a pause and Gina and Dominic led the others into a brief round of applause, which the others soon joined in, Di and Bodybag merely tapping their fingers together in a token gesture that was utterly false. Di glanced vengefully at Gina and Dominic who were near Karen and Nikki, obviously pleased as punch. They looked happy with themselves from the word go. This was a put up job if ever they saw one. Everyone should have known of this in advance, like in the old days. Good for you, Nikki, Karen thought delightedly behind her suitably composed expression, you've put them thoroughly in their place.
"I've only got a couple of bits of business. I intend to call a wing meeting and set my stall out, that I'll be just and fair but not soft. I also want to get to know you individually so I'll set up a round of meetings at a time to suit all of us. Other than that, I haven't anything to say. I don't want to hold you up from your duties but this seems a good time to chat amongst ourselves."
In her quiet undemonstrative way, Nikki had slid out from Karen's shadow and softly but firmly asserted her presence. To the newer prison officers, there were allusions to the new boss's past, which didn't make sense, but they liked what they saw and heard. To Di and Bodybag, a con was a con and the world had gone mad. The meeting broke up into a general chitchat and Nikki seized the chance to engage them in conversation. Her sharp mind and memory for faces and names had been developed in all her years of running a club in night after night of the darkly lit more ambiguous party atmosphere. She kept a sharp eye on the time and Karen whispered in her ear that she would volunteer to get the meeting set up. Nikki nodded to her and carried on chatting to Colin awhile.
"It's time for unlock, if I've got it right. Wing meeting in fifteen minutes. Let's get going." Gina led the way confidently out onto the wing with a broad grin on her face.
The rest of the officers went about their duties, including systematic unlock starting from the 3s working downwards. "Can't make out the new boss. She's different from anything I've seen before," Collin confided to Selena. "Maybe that's an advantage." "We'll all get the chance to talk to Nikki. Let's get the prisoners unlocked," Dominic cut in quietly.
The Julies knew that Nikki would make some sort of personal statement. It wasn't her style to creep in silently. They were prepared for anything and everything and were keyed up. To their delight, they heard the key turning in the lock. "Morning Mr. McAllister. Breakfast as normal?" "There's a wing meeting before your servery duties." Bodybag scowled at the brief exchanges as she stomped along behind him. Nikki made her way onto the wing, and climbed the metal staircase to the top of the 2s. It was as good a spot as any and gave her a clear view down the wing. Above her, the prisoners from the 3s, came filing down the staircase, soon followed by the 2s. Some of the younger prisoners had only just come to Larkhall. They stared briefly at this tall, elegant woman, dressed in a suit, and wondered who she was and what she was doing here. Nikki politely gave them space and eventually looked down at the expectant crowd who were staring up at her.
This wasn't the first time she had emotionally been here. Her mind wandered out onto an extremity of its orbit and the angry woman, dressed in a T-shirt and blue jeans demanded that "They should all be sacked." She glanced down at her suit and in a moment of panic, wondered what the hell she was doing here, and who she was.
But I'm still Nikki Wade, I'm here for everyone now. I live with the woman into whose shoes I am now stepping. Miss Betts, the wing Governor, is Karen, my friend, my boss. Somehow, everything will make sense when I speak. The Julies are smiling up at me, ready to be carried away by me, as are Dominic and Gina. Somehow, I have to bridge the gap.
Karen saw Nikki's eyes glaze over for just a second before she cleared her throat and was the first to speak. "I want to introduce you, to Nikki Wade, your new wing governor. Before the rumour mill gets to work, yes, she was once an inmate here. But she managed to get this job against the odds. She cleared her name with two court cases and convinced the prison service that she is the best woman for the job, as indeed we all think she is. I have the utmost confidence in her to deal fairly with prisoners and prison officers alike." Karen's short, sharp intro moved Nikki immensely and set her up perfectly to follow on. "I'm not going to talk too long, and keep you from your breakfasts. I want to let you know, that I will have great difficulty in following the high standards set by Gina Rossi, Karen Betts, and Helen Stewart. I want to make it clear to you, that everything I do, will be for a good reason. I hope I use my position wisely and sensitively. It is an enormous responsibility. I also think that I know how prisoners feel about things..."
"Will you tuck us up in bed at night, Miss?" "You're Natalie Buxton, aren't you." "So what if I am?" "Well, it's hardly likely you're not. I've had a long chat with Miss Betts about you, very interesting. As for your question, you work it out for yourself." A general laugh rose up from all concerned, as the authentic Nikki Wade lightening fast retort struck home. "And for my next trick, I just want to say that I'll back up any prison officer if they are as caring and professional as I hope that I will be. As I was once the other side of the wire, that doesn't mean that I am going to be a soft touch. Oh, and one last thing, if you're thinking of brewing up any alcohol, don't stash it in the compost heap, as I'll know where to find it." Karen's heart leapt inside her with delight as Nikki had walked that tightrope with such aplomb, and had realised before her very eyes every dream she had ever had of Nikki as wing Governor.