She wanted to go home and be pampered.
“There you are. How do you feel?” She told the criminal that she was sick to her belly. “Yes, I guess you might be. But it’s done now, and as soon as a guard comes to get you, you can go to your new room.”
“I have a new room? Oh, how wonderful.” She was so excited she nearly forgot about being chained up. “I do hope my family sent me some of my things. I think when I leave here, I’ll just leave them behind. Surely he wouldn’t have brought up my good things for this place.”
“Good things? You don’t have anything. You don’t pay attention well, do you? You’re getting a new place to live, not a new makeover. Speaking of which, you should have a look at my handiwork. Your lip is going to be scarred, I’m afraid, but nothing I can do about that.” She told her she’d be able to get her face done when she got home. “Yeah, you keep thinking that, and they’ll put you in a locked cell for your time here.”
When the guard came to get her, Tina was giddy with excitement. Of course, the man didn’t say a word to her, not answering any of her questions. Before they entered a set of doors she’d never seen before, he finally turned to her.
“You are no longer to get special treatment around here.” She asked him if he thought she was getting any in the first place. “You have been. All three of you have been. However, the moment your ex-husband told us that he wasn’t going to have anything to do with you, we figured he’d be all right with you being put in the general population. You and the other two will be with all the other inmates.”
“I don’t understand.” He nodded as if he’d expected her to say that, and the door was opened that they were by. Peeking in, she saw that there were three other people in the room she was standing by. “Where is my room? I mean, I haven’t had to share with anyone before this. I don’t want to now. Do you know that they’re criminals? I’m not.”
“You are as well, Inmate. You’re just like all the other women in here. A criminal. However, these two ladies will be leaving here in a few weeks. We thought we’d introduce you to prison life easily.” She started to back away from the room. “Don’t make this hard, Inmate. This is where you’re going to be spending the rest of your life. This will be your cell.”
“No. I don’t want to be in there. My family—” He said no one was coming to get her. “They will. They’re just upset with me because we killed that bitch Holly. But I’m a Wilkerson, and we have to keep the bloodline pure. She wasn’t anything but a slut.”
“You’re no longer anything but Inmate. If you have to be referred to, your number on your shirt there is what you’ll be going by. Remember that number. I’ve already been told that you’ll not get any mail from anyone. There isn’t a fund set up for you, so you’ll need to work for—”
“I’ve never worked a day in my life, and I have no intentions of doing so now. You’ll just have to bill my husband for this.” He shook his head and said that wasn’t how things were done. “Well, perhaps you should change your rules for special people like me.”
“Look, Ruth, she thinks she’s special.” The two women in the cell laughed. “Nobody is special around here, girl. You’re just going to have to get friendly with a couple of dykes, and you’ll be fine. Just make sure you get you a nice big girlfriend, or you’ll be beating them off. Get it? Beating them off.”
She didn’t get it. When Tina was shoved into the room, she fell over her chains. When told to come to the door, she thought for sure she was being played with, that they had no intentions of keeping her locked up like this. When the door slammed shut, the guard told her to put her hands in the opening, and he’d unchain her.
“This isn’t right. Someone is playing a joke on me.” The sound of the slamming door was still ringing in her ears as she put her hands into the opening. “I don’t think this is funny at all. You’re to let me out