The inmates dutifully got into a line for breakfast, slowly, as was their usual way, as the corrections officer in charge watched them carefully. There had been a few new arrivals when he was on his days off, so he knew that he would have to give them his speech about rules and regulations concerning going to the dining hall.
He waited until all forty-two were in line and quiet before he spoke. He glanced at his watch briefly and then addressed them.
"Before we go down to breakfast, there's a few things I want to go over with the new guys," he began. "From the time we leave here until we get to the dining hall, there will be silence. I want it to be so quiet that I can hear a mouse pissing on a cotton ball when we go through the hallways."
C/O Brothers began to pace up and down the line, reverting back to his army days, as he continued to speak.
"You will not look into the classrooms, nor will you look into the female dormitories going down or coming back." A few inmates began to snicker, but grew silent when Brothers shot them a glance.
"You will not talk to the inmates who are serving the line. If you need something, you may address me or Miss Marcia, who is in charge of the kitchen, or any person in charge of the line that day. You may talk in the dining room in normal tones, but if it gets too loud, you will not be permitted to talk at all. In addition, I do not want to hear any whistling or any other noises that will disturb the other classrooms."
Brothers looked up and down the line. "Does everyone understand?"
There were murmurs of 'Yes sir' from the inmates.
"Good, let's go."
C/O Brothers led the group of inmates down the stairs from the third floor of the Madison Correctional Facility. Madison was a drug and alcohol offender facility that housed one hundred and fifty men and seventy women. All of the inmates were sentenced by the court to go to Madison instead of going to prison and could be removed and sent to prison for various rules violations or other indiscretions. Because the rules and regulations were strict, Madison did very well in the rehabilitation aspect and there was a waiting list of inmates to come into the facility. It was a good facility and Brothers was proud to be an officer there.
He had been a corrections officer at Madison for thirteen years following a ten year hitch in the army. Brothers was in charge of the new inmates, ones who would stay in his care for the first month of their normal six month sentence. Although he was not big at 5'10" and 175 lbs., Ben Brothers was strongly built and skilled in hand- to-hand combat, as several inmates had found out during his tenure. Even though he hadn't been involved in a fight with an inmate in over three years, he still had a reputation as an officer not to mess with.
Brothers and the group came to the bottom of the stairwell and he keyed his radio, "Brothers to control, North- east 1 door, please." The control room operator saw Brothers and the inmates on camera at the door. There was a buzzing sound and Brothers pulled the door open and went through with the inmates following behind.
Before they got to the dining room, there would be three classrooms on the left side of the hall and the women's dormitory and laundry on the right. The women's actual sleeping area, bathrooms, and showers were upstairs; the lower level was for classes, projects, and other services. At that time of the morning, classes had yet to begin, but the females would be awake and milling around the lower level waiting for their individual treatment programs to start. Fraternization was strictly forbidden between males and females, although females sometimes worked in the kitchen with the males, but they were watched closely at all times, plus cameras were everywhere to catch what officers didn't see.
As they passed the last classroom, Brothers saw a light on, but didn't look in. He unlocked the dining room door and let the inmates, one by one, pass by him and and take a seat inside. Brothers took his eye off of the inmates momentarily when he glanced into the lit room to see who might be there. He knew that the previous G.E.D. instructor had resigned a few weeks prior, but he hadn't heard about her replacement.
An attractive brunette was sitting at the desk in the far corner pouring over paperwork. She was very pretty, at least Brothers thought so, maybe 29 or 30 years old, with long brown hair that spilled over the shoulders of her blue blouse.
The last of the inmates passed Brothers into the dining room and he followed, shutting the door behind him. After the inmates were served, Brothers sat down to his own breakfast. The meals at Madison were quite good for prison food, and for a dollar, you couldn't beat the price, but Brothers found his mind wondering to the woman in the classroom. He had been divorced for over fifteen years, his wife tired of the army life, and at forty-one, he was getting tired of being single. He dated often, but hadn't been in a serious relationship in almost three years. Even if she was single, he thought, the younger officers would be all over her and he didn't think he stood a chance with someone that much younger.
As he tried to push her out of his mind, Brothers ate quickly, an old army habit that he couldn't quite stop. When they were finished, the inmates cleaned their plates and trays and set them on a metal conveyor belt that led to the dish room. After they cleaned off their tables, they lined up once more for the return trip. Once he was satisfied with the cleanliness, Brothers led them back to their dormitory. As he passed the new instructor's door, he looked her way. She looked up as she heard the inmates go by and saw Brothers looking at her. He smiled and nodded to her when he saw her blue eyes meet his. She looked at him blankly and then went back to her work.
That certainly went well, he thought to himself sarcastically, as he continued with his group.
This continued for several days as Brothers would walk his inmates to breakfast or lunch. Although she looked up when he walked by, she still didn't acknowledge him. Whenever she wasn't in the classroom, Brothers would be disappointed. After the first week, he resigned himself to the fact that she wasn't interested in him, but nonetheless, he continued to nod to her as he did with all of the female staff at Madison, just out of politeness. He found out her name, Elaine Linsenmeyer, from the sign on her door, but he knew little else about her.
A week or so later, Brothers was eating lunch with the inmates, when there was a knock at the door of the dining hall. Brothers looked up and he saw Elaine standing there. She opened the door slightly, just enough to poke her head through.
"May I speak to you for a minute, sir?" she asked softly. Brothers almost didn't hear her, but his heart sped up at the sound of her voice. He pressed his napkin to his lips, scooted out his chair, and walked towards her. Forty-two pairs of eyes followed him as he passed through the doorway and Elaine closed the door behind him.
She stood in front of him now and she was prettier close up. Her eyes were a light blue and they complimented her reddish-brown hair. She was almost as tall as Brothers and while she wasn't overwieght, she wasn't thin, either. Her weight fit her frame well. Her full bosom strained against the thin fabric of her red blouse, although Brothers tried not to stare. He was clearly smitten and waited eagerly to see what she wanted.
Elaine could tell that the officer in front of her was into physical fitness, although he was a bit on the thin side. His protruding jaw and developed chest and arms gave him a very solid appearance, as did his thin waist. His short, brown crew cut was sprinkled with gray, but his face and body told her that he was probably in his early thirties, possibly the same age as her thirty-three years. His warm, brown eyes were fixed on her, waiting for her to speak again.
Cute or not, she thought, I have to tell him off. Clearing her throat, she said in a low voice, "Do you have a staring problem?"
Brothers was taken aback and he didn't know what to say. Elaine's eyes narrowed and started to turn a frosty blue when Brothers hesitated. She wanted an answer and now!
"Well," she demanded with her hands on her hips, "do you?"
Brothers tried to think of what he did to offend her, but he couldn't think of anything. They had never talked before and he was pretty much on the defensive, something he wasn't used to.
"What do you mean?" he asked finally, still perplexed. This was not going the way that he thought or hoped it would.
"I mean," she replied, "every time you walk by my room, you stare at me. You do it every day and I'm getting tired of it. I could understand if you were an inmate, but you're an officer and you should set the example. I would expect more out of you!"
