Prompt #6 Hating you
Nedry's Serenade
Loving you is easy 'cause you're beautiful,
And making love with you is all I wanna do.
Loving you is more than just a dream come true,
And everything that I do is out of loving you.
Minnie Riperton's soprano voice blared throughout the cellblock. Dennis Nedry had no idea where it came from, and neither did the other inmates. They had already been locked up for the night when the song started playing. Maybe one of the inmates was pulling a prank, or a correction officer wanted to get on their nerves. It was both funny and irksome. Not only was Minnie Riperton's voice floating through the cellblock with the sounds of tweeting birds in the background as part of the music track, but some inmates had started trying to out-sing her in a mocking way. Then the music was abruptly cut off. There was movement outside on the cellblock and then Nedry heard Officer Johnson bark the order:
"Stand for count!"
Nedry groaned as he forced himself to get out of his bed and stand beside it. He knew what the order meant since he had been following it for the past year throughout his confinement. The order meant that the night shift had started, and the correction officers were doing their official count to ensure that every inmate was accounted for, for safety reasons. The main rule was that every inmate had to stand in silence while staff completed the count. Nedry heard them start at the far end of the cell block; his cell was in the middle.
This was going to take forever…
While Nedry waited for the correction officers to reach his cell, he thought about how his day went. He didn't usually go out of his way to befriend other inmates, but today he had hung out in the yard with some of the guys who resided on the same cellblock as him. They had cracked jokes on each other before disclosing what led to their incarceration at Green Hills FCI. Nick Van Owen had trespassed at an animal rights agency that housed several animals considered to be endangered species. He released them, which led to the deaths of two of the organization's workers. Dieter Stark was the opposite: instead of freeing animals, he abused them by hosting fights for money. Eddie Carr claimed to be innocent and didn't get into what he had been charged with. He only said that he had been driving the getaway car and was trying to help his friends. Three other inmates from his cellblock, Marty Gutirrez, Richard Levine, and Ed Regis had hung around them for a brief time before wandering off, not wanting to join the discussion. Nedry figured they didn't want to reveal the reasons they were incarcerated.
Nedry told the truth: he got involved in industrial espionage with a rival company after his boss blackmailed him by forcing him to do extra work for free. That same boss made every attempt to obliterate his career. Two of his co-workers had ratted him out. He had spoken about the situation in a blasé manner as though he was apathetic. Nedry tried not to think about that day at the east dock when Arnold and Muldoon caught him just as he delivered another batch of embryos for Lewis Dodgson.
Who was he kidding?
He thought about that incident every day. That day forever changed the trajectory of his life. Instead of getting to enjoy and spend the millions of dollars he had received in exchange for his theft, now he was forced to serve a lengthy prison term, and cope with the fact that he was a convicted felon. His life was no longer his, and he wouldn't be released from prison for many years. He dreamed of freedom and escape…and of getting revenge. Revenge against Hammond for trying to ruin him. Revenge against Arnold for catching him in the act and for testifying against him. And revenge against Muldoon for being so sanctimonious for confronting him at the east dock and being more than eager to ensure Nedry got put away for his crimes against InGen.
Nedry thought of the song by Minnie Riperton now and decided to change the lyrics to reflect his hatred of Muldoon. Maybe it would make the time go by faster. At least he would be entertained while the staff completed their task. He knew he wasn't supposed to utter a peep during the count, but he had nothing to lose.
"Hating you is easy 'cause you're self-righteous. And pushing you into the lizard pen is all I wanna do…"
Right away, his fellow inmates shared what they thought of his non-existent singing talents.
"Shut the hell up, Nerdy!" Nick Van Owen yelled from several cells down.
"Throw him in the hole!" Dieter Stark pointed at him from inside his cell. Stark's cell was directly across Nedry's.
Nedry belted out the song louder. "Hating you is more than just a dream come true. And everything that I do is out of hating you."
"Make him stop!" Eddie Carr banged on the bars of his cell. His cell was adjacent to Nedry's.
"La la la la la, la la la la la. La la la la la, la la la la la!"
Now all the inmates up and down the cellblock were clamoring and hitting the bars and walls of their cells to get him to stop singing. Levine, Regis, and Gutierrez were louder than the rest as they cursed at him and demanded that he shut his big mouth. Nedry didn't care. He knew he was being obnoxious, but there was something about singing his revenge against Muldoon that made him feel completely free and removed from prison. No one could stop him from singing off tune. The absurdity of the situation made him feel free and alive for the first time since the start of his sentence. Officer Johnson arrived outside of his cell. Nedry shrugged and kept singing.
"You're getting a ticket for being disruptive."
Nedry stopped singing and became serious. "What did I do? Disturb the peace?"
"You know the rules. No talking during count."
Nedry shook his head. "I'm not talking; I'm singing, and there's no rules about that."
Officer Johnson's eyebrows shot upward. Nedry's insolent behavior wasn't surprising, but it was still annoying. He weighed his options and decided it would be best to remove Nedry from the cellblock. All the other inmates had followed directions during the count, and then Nedry had to go and mess it up for them with his ridiculous singing that sounded more like a wolf's howling. Officer Johnson believed in being fair and consistent: instead of disciplining the rest of the inmates for Nedry's behavior that had provoked a reaction out of them, only Nedry would face the consequences for bucking against the system. He was the catalyst in the situation, and it made sense to remove him from the area, even if it was temporary.
"I'm moving you to the isolation cell for the night so that you can sing as loud as you want down there."
"Why can't I sing here?" Nedry asked, pointing down at the cell floor.
"You know why," Officer Johnson snapped.
He was ready to deal with Nedry now that Officer Carter had joined him. Good, now they could both address the situation. Officer Johnson pointed at the cell door.
"Face away from the door and put your hands through the slot."
"Nope, and I'll tell you why…" A broad grin lit up Nedry's face, and he wagged his finger at both correction officers. "You didn't say the magic word! Ah-ah-ah!"
Author's Notes: Ed Regis and Marty Gutierrez are characters from the Jurassic Park novel. Nick Van Owen, Dieter Stark, Eddie Carr, and Richard Levine are characters from The Lost World. When writing JP fanfiction, I had them as prison inmates in the Reign of Chaos trilogy. I wanted to use the characters as they appeared in canon, but there was no spot for them, so instead, I decided to feature them in a different light as an effort to include them. For this fic, I decided to revisit that idea, and give each of them a reason for being incarcerated that resembles their actual movie counterpart: Van Owen lets animals loose, Stark abuses animals, and Carr was in the car trying to save everyone. Regis, Gutierrez, and Levine are left as a mystery on purpose.
I wanted to have fun with this prompt. I've written tons of fic about how Nedry hates Muldoon, Arnold, and Hammond—but that he mainly targets Muldoon. I decided to go with "Lovin' You" to give this fic a humorous twist. "Lovin' You" by Minnie Riperton is a beautiful song; however, the first time I heard it, I thought it was hilarious—probably due to my own immaturity at the time. Funny trivia fact: Minnie Riperton and I have the same birthday! Thank you for your continued readership!
-Sassy Lil Scorpio