Day Twenty: Exercise
We did not have to wait long for Mrs Tiggywinkle to put in an appearance: she turned up next morning with Raymond for shaving inspection. She'd done something different to her hair: the spiky little stooks had been squared-off, and now stood up in a sort of stubbly, checkerboard crew-cut. Her face looked more than ever like a squashed hamburger.
"This is very smooth," said Raymond, running the back of her forefinger appreciatively over my mound. "They should have a competition for shaving: this cell would win first prize."
It was the first time a Warden had paid me anything like a compliment.
When Raymond was done I said nervously:
"Please may I speak to you in private Officer Causer?"
"Mrs Tiggywinkle looked surprised; Raymond, too, looked from me to Rose questioningly - before quietly leaving the cell and shutting the door behind her.
"What's this about?" said Mrs Tiggywinkle.
Although I had rehearsed several times, my nerve almost failed me.
"Did you enjoy your holiday?" I asked.
"Yes," said Mrs Tiggywinkle: "though I don't see that's any of your business."
"Did Jenny enjoy it?" I asked.
"What do you want Littlehayes?" demanded Mrs Tiggywinkle sharply.
I quailed under the look she gave me. I thought of Cradock, and Prana, and all the other anonymous women who had dared to confront prison officers.
"It's like this," I said. "You gave me some ideas in the broom cupboard. About pinching being the best form of discipline. I thought I'd sound out Officer Dawes about them."
"They've got nothing to do with Officer Dawes," said Mrs Tiggywinkle: "If you go wasting Officer Dawes' time you'll live to regret it."
"I wouldn't waste her time," I said. "But if I told her how you pinched me, and how contrite I felt afterwards, and how determined I was to behave better - well, I'm sure she'd be pleased with both of us."
Mrs Tiggywinkle stared at me. I could see doubt in her face.
"I don't think that's a good idea Littlehayes," she said, but I could tell she was starting to feel unsure of her ground.
Then Rose spoke:
"My cellmate would like a flannel and some shampoo," she said.
Mrs Tiggywinkle turned to Rose sharply. She seemed about to speak, but held her peace. After a moment she nodded slowly.
"And a bar of chocolate," said Rose.
Mrs Tiggywinkle looked on the point of revolt: she glared at Rose. Then she nodded.
Please stop now, I willed Rose, please don't push it any further.
But Rose too could read the signs:
"Thank you Officer Causer," she said politely.
Mrs Tiggywinkle turned on the heels of her black uniform boots and left the cell.
"Rose," I beamed, though I was still shaking: "we did it!"
"Looks like it," said Rose.
"I thought she was going to rebel when you asked for the chocolate."
"She almost did - but she knows where her best interests lie."
And about an hour later the door opened, Mrs Tiggywinkle entered, and without a word placed on my bed a blue flannel, a small bottle of shampoo, and a whole bar of chocolate.
The moment she'd gone I broke the chocolate in half.
"This is for you Rose," I said.
"No," said Rose: "it was you Mrs Tiggywinkle abused: you deserve the chocolate."
"Rose, if you refuse we are going to fall out: I mean it."
"I'll take two squares off you," said Rose, "to cover the squares I gave Prana. But that's all. So no more arguments."
I handed Rose two squares of the chocolate.
"It isn't laxative again is it?" I asked, though I had an instinct it would not be."
"No," said Rose, examining the design: "though even if it was I'm not at all sure I wouldn't eat it." And so saying Rose put a square of chocolate into her mouth, and for the next five minutes was lost in blissful sucking and chewing. The other square she slid under her pillow.
"Oh Chloe: that was so good," she sighed. "You really should eat some."
I was very tempted. But I did not need a maths degree to know that six squares of chocolate equated to three sessions with Prana.
I spent much of the morning just marvelling at the shampoo, the flannel, and the chocolate. I held them up, I smelt them, I turned them round in my fingers and I touched them to my cheek. It was as though Christmas had come. Eventually I put them under my pillow. But after lunch, when both Rose and I had settled down for a nap, I pulled out the flannel, and hugged it to my breasts, like an orphanage girl hugging a solitary teddy bear.
It was with a glad heart that I joined the queue of prisoners filing out to Exercise. Passing the door of Prana's cell I tried once more to memorise the name of her fellow inmate, but all I could retain of the unfamiliar combinations of letters was the ending: SKI. I had developed a great curiosity about this enigmatic person who had access to Prana day and night, and was keen to get a look at her and to find out about her.
Outside it was another balmy spring day, with no hint of rain: nor, thankfully, was there any sign of the whipping horse. I was still basking in the afterglow of the tumultuous orgasms I had had in the shower, and I didn't plan to have sex with Prana - though I'd brought two squares of chocolate with me, just in case. Mindful of what had happened with Wilson, I had concealed them in my sock: but this time nobody accosted me.
Once inside the cage many of the prisoners resembled lambs, running and jumping and darting aimlessly about, not knowing quite what to do with their bodies other than exult in their freedom of movement. Without any prior thought I found myself running around the perimeter fence with a pack of other women, until one by one we dropped out of the race to nowhere, breathless.