Babes Behind Bars
by Halls
"I haven't seen you before," she says giving me the evil eye.
"I'm new." I mumble.
"So what did a little thing like you do to get in here?" she say's as she
steps back to get a better look at me.
"I....I...I stole something" I stammer.
"What are you in for?" I say trying to sound brave.
"I just don't play well with others," she laughs evilly.
"What's your name?" I hear her ask me.
Oh, I had hoped she had forgotten about me. "Elizabeth" I answer. I am unsure whether to ask for her name or not. I don't want to get her mad and yet I am just a little curious about her.
"Rachel," she says.
Well that solves that problem. I try and give her a nice smile. I'm still terrified so I'm not sure how it comes across.
She
slowly gives me a crooked grin and I can't help but smile even brighter.
"So what did ya steal?" Rachel asks.
"Umm its embarrassing" I say hoping she will just take
the hint I really don't want to talk about it.
"Yeah?" she wiggles her eyebrows at me. "So what was it?"
Ok, that didn't seem to work very well. "I'm not really comfortable saying."
She rolls her eyes at me and comes closer. "Just tell me already."
I'm thinking no is not the correct answer here. "Well," I slowly drawl. "It wasÖ."
She motions with her hand to speed me up. "Come on quit stalling."
"Umm... Umm a cookie" I finally say.
"A cookie???" she questions.
"Yes a cookie. I know it's embarrassing that I ended up here over one little cookie."
"I'll say," she laughs.
I still can't believe that I did it. I'm usually such a good girl, never any trouble really. I saw that cookie and I knew that I just had to have it. Probably didn't help that I was hungry, but I hadn't eaten in so long and I swear that cookie was calling my name. It was only one little cookie and I didn't think anyone would notice. I mean there had to be at least 100 of them. Who would miss one?
"Hey, little girl what have you got there?" the voice asked.
I turned slowly around, chewing as fast as I could to destroy the evidence. My hand closed tightly around the remaining cookie as I felt it crumble.
I learned later that my face was covered in chocolate, which gave away me away. Needless to say my protestations of innocence fell on deaf ears. I always had a weakness for chocolate but who knew it would end up putting you in lock up.
"So what did you do to end up here? I questioned deciding if I had to stay here I might as well see what I am up against.
"Are you sure you wanna know?" she asks as she arches her eyebrow at me.
"Umm I guess," I say doubting my reasoning.
"Let's just say, I wanted something that someone else had so I took it. He wasn't happy about it and tried to stop me, so I hit him hard a couple of times. Cried like a baby. What a wimp."She said shaking her head in disgust.
Thankfully, I doubted that I had anything she would want. At this point even if I did, I would gladly give it to her. I suddenly hope she doesn't want my clothes. Moot point they wouldn't fit. I start to wonder if that would matter to her. Oh, now I'm just starting to let my imagination run wild. This is stupid; there is really nothing to worry about.
Okay maybe there was one thing to worry about she was bigger than me. I pull my knees up to my chin and sit staring at the floor. I am not sure how much time went by but I knew one thing I was getting hungry and wished I had eaten that entire cookie. My stomach took that opportunity to show its displeasure.
"Hungry?" Rachel asked.
"Yes," I replied. "Do you have any idea when they feed us around here?"
"They usually provide us with some snacks a couple of times during the day and lunch. You missed the snack. From the smell I would say lunch will be here shortly."
Ah, that's what must have set my stomach off before. I can definitely smell something even if I can't tell exactly what it is.
"Is the food any good around here?" I ask.
"It's food. Don't expect much." Rachel says.
"Okay I won't," I say not really knowing why I say it.
"Good girl" she says with a grin. "You may just survive this."
Off in the distance I hear a door opening and assume lunch will be here soon. I hope it isn't as bad as Rachel leads me to think.
It sounds like the rest of the intimates have calmed down as well. There doesn't seem to be as much activity in the cell next to us as there was before. Maybe everyone is tired or just waiting to get fed. I have no concept of time.
"Hey Elizabeth" I hear as my shoulder is lightly shaken "Wake up or you may miss lunch."
I blink my eyes open and see Rachel sitting next to me with the blanket over both of us.
"I don't even remember falling asleep," I yawn.
"Yep it was kinda funny. One minute you were sitting here staring at the wall the next it was lights out for ya" she snickers.
"Thanks for waking me up." I mumble half asleep still.
"Not a problem."
It's strange but it actually feels nice sitting next to Rachel. She feels nice and warm and for some strange reason I feel safe. It's like I know that she won't hurt me although I don't understand why.
A woman stops by our cell and gives us some food. I'm relieved to see that it is peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. I don't think that you can mess those up. Rachel digs into her sandwich enthusiastically so I assume she likes it too. I take a bit and it tastes like heaven after being hungry for so long.
I mumble around mouthfuls, "What happens after lunch?"
"I don't know about anyone else but I like to take a nap," she says between bites.
"Oh but what if you can't sleep?" I question back.
"Well I guess you can take that up with the guard," she answers back.
"Umm maybe I should nap too."
"You're a quick learner," she smiles back at me with a peanut butter and jelly grin.
We finish off our lunch, which consists of some cookies, thankfully not the same type that got me into trouble, and milk.
We lay down on the floor this time, which is a good thing since I can feel my back starting to hurt. Rachel throws the blanket over both of us.
"You comfortable?" she asks.
I nod my head already starting to feel my self-drift asleep.
"Good." I hear her mumble.
I'm almost totally asleep when I feel Rachel's arm fall across my stomach.
The next thing I remember is being pulled closer before I fall totally asleep.
I slowly wake from my nap and the first thing I notice
is Rachel is not beside me anymore but underneath me. She appears to still
be asleep so I ease off and sit up. I am not even sure
how long I had napped but it sounds like I am the only one up. I decide I
might
as well lie back down and I quickly find my eyes closing
as I lay beside Rachel.
I awake to the sound of a lot of hustling and bustling going on. It sounds like everyone must be wide-awake again. Rachel is sitting on the floor staring out the bars. She turns when she hears me getting up.
"We'll be getting out shortly?" she mentions.
"What for?" I ask.
"Exercise time."
"Ah, " I answer knowingly even though I haven't got a clue.
Sure enough the cell door opens and we are ushered out to the yard.
The sun is warm against my skin and I enjoy the feel since I have been cooped up inside all day. As we enter the main yard I stop and look around.Over on one side is a large tree and a guard is sitting in a chair fanning herself with a magazine watching us. Rachel comes and stands beside me.
"Stick with me kid," she says as we start walking.
I follow behind her as we slowly make our way over to an unoccupied bench that is partially covered by the shade. I notice that from the bench you can see the whole yard and everything that is going on around you. Rachel motions for me to sit in the shade as she takes the part of the bench in the sun.
"Don't you want to sit in the shade?" I ask.
Rachel shakes her head no.
"There's a enough room for the both of us." I try again.
"I'm fine," she says.
Oh well, I tried. I watch a few of the others in the yard. There were a couple playing with some of the equipment in the corner. A few more had a ball and were kicking it around. Strangely enough, I was just happy to sit her with Rachel.
Out of the corner of my eye I watched Rachel scan the yard and watch the others as they did various activities. As I watched her I noticed her eyes would scan back towards the door we had just came out. Just as I was wondering what she was looking for I noticed her visibly stiffen. My eyes tracked to the door, as two others were lead out into the yard.
At first the sun was blocking my eyes and I couldn't really make out who they were. But suddenly I realized that I recognized one of them.
It was my Mother!!! I got up and went running over to her. She picked me up and gave me a big hug and a kiss.
"Have you been a good girl Elizabeth?" she asked.
I nodded my head. I wasn't going to tell her about the cookie.
"Mrs. Grant, Elizabeth has been very well behaved today. It's been a pleasure to have her at Tiny Tots today." Mrs. Murphy smiled at me. "I think she even made a friend today," she mentioned pointing over in Rachel's direction.
"That's a relief," my Mother says. "Elizabeth has never been in day-care and I've been worried all day."
"Ah Mrs. Banks, Rachel is over there in her usual corner." Mrs. Murphy says as she points over to Rachel.
I can see Rachel has a big smile on her face as she runs over to her Mother.
"Say goodbye to your friend Elizabeth," my Mother whispers to me.
I wave goodbye to Rachel and she smiles waving goodbye to me as we turn to leave.