Lady In The House Ch. 08

With only a peephole in the door for the guard to look through instead of the open bars of the workroom cells in E Block it was as private as one could get in prison. As my head hit the pillow my mind was spinning with what had happened to me, how drastically my life had changed in one day. The last thing I noticed through teary eyes before I fell into a deep sleep was the clock on the wall ticking over to 2:30am.

I awoke the next morning and looked straight at the clock; it was 9:30am. Eddie must have arranged it with the guard on my wing to let me sleep in. I was tired and sore from the events of the previous evening and the early hours of this morning, I just couldn't believe what had happened to me. I seemed normal enough (or as normal as one could be when you are a guest in Chelmsford prison); just Mike. Mike brushing his teeth, Mike combing his hair, Mike changing into clean fatigues. Mike drinking coffee alone in the deserted cafeteria. There was no sign of Michele or her feminine ways; Christ I wished it were all just a bad dream!

I looked down at my hands holding the coffee cup and noticed that there were little crescents of red nail polish under the cuticles of some of my fingernails. "Fuck!!!" I exclaimed. Then I heard the voice I feared most; Eddie had snuck up on me and whispered in my ear,

"Come on Secretary you've got a lot of work to do. Just because I've found you some after-hours employment, doesn't mean you can neglect your day job," he snickered.

I followed him and took up my usual post working on Eddie's books as I had done every day for the last few months. I couldn't bear to bring up with him the events of last night or even look him in the eye. What I did do though was to pay particular attention to those parts of Eddie's business that had now come to directly effect me. Because Mabel ran the books relating to the prostitution ring, I had never really paid them too much attention before, except to check the bottom line for profit against loss; today I paid them special attention.