Todd was waiting for me by the stairs when I got home at 8 pm. To say it's been long day is an understatement. I'd left for an early morning meeting at 7:30. I'd worked through both lunch and dinner, having to resign myself finishing my grading before leaving for the day. By the time I'd packed my computer into my bag I was exhausted. The only good thing about leaving work at 7:15 in the evening is that the West Town train is practically a ghost town.
"Hey lover, come give daddy some sugar," Todd says lewdly from the first step.
"Sweetheart you know that'd I love to hop in the sack with you the second I walk through the door after an eleven your day," I reply with dry sarcasm. "But, I'm tied and sore from being bent over my desk all evening looking at freaking papers, all I want right now is a hot bath and a soft bed. I have to be back at school at 7:30 tomorrow."
"Oh, I'll give you a grade baby," he continues, obviously not taking in a word I've said.
Honestly? What the heck had gotten into him tonight. He not normally peniscenteric. I push past him and start heading up the stairs to put myself in my much needed bath.
"Fine. Ignore my needs. Go take your precious bath so that you can be ready for your precious work in the morning," he snarks at my back.
I'm just finishing rinsing off when I hear the doorbell ring. Who the heck is ringing our doorbell at this time of night?
After drying off I pull on my robe and head down the stairs to find out what is going on. I'm stopped midway down by the sight of two police officers talking with Todd. What the hell?
"Margot Pacer?"an officer addresses me.
"Yes?"
"You are indeed Margot Pacer, wife of Todd Pacer?" he continues to question as I reach the three men.
"Yes? May I ask what this this about?"
The officer doesn't answer. Instead he grabs my shoulders from behind and shoves me up against the nearest wall.
As he rips my robe from me the second officer responds. "Margot Pacer you are being charged with breaking penal code 12.907.2. Anything you say will be used against you in a court of law."
"Todd," I cry. "What have you done?"
"You should have just bent yourself over my desk and gotten graded," he jeers.
"Mr. Pacer this will work out better for you if you let us handle her. This entire exchange is being recorded for documentation," says the second officer as the first officer cuffs my wrists to their opposite elbow.
"Oh, yeah," Todd says sheepishly.
The officer that is handeling me, roughly turns me around to face my accuser and I watch dumbly was the second officer hands him a card.
"If there is any more information you would like on record, this is the name and phone number of your assigned attorney. He'll be sure all your concerns are registered in the court documents."
Todd doesn't even look at me as my naked form is shoved past him and out into the chilly night air where all my nosey neighbors wait to see what is happening.
*****
The police bring me, not at the county jail, but to a special detention center. The place has a sterile feel to it. I am manhandled into a small brightly lit room with smooth, white walls, floors and ceiling. I feel like I'm inside a plastic light box. I have a urinal to do my business in, a sink with cold water, a plastic chair and table combo melded into the floor and a hard plastic slab that serves as my bed. On it is a sleeveless, sheer white Babydoll dress. Once the cell door is shut I pull on my tiny slip of cloth thankful for some covering. There is no toothbrush or paste so I settle for doing the best I can by simply rinsing out my mouth. I'm hoping I get my one phone call but I doubt it.
Penial code 12.907.2 is what everyone refers to as the Prud Law. It was enacted about a 6 years ago. It basically allows any man in a relationship with a woman to turn her in to the authorities if she refuses him "his right to take bodily pleasure from" his significant other. There are no official numbers available as to how many woman have been arrested for breaking the Prud Law. The government keeps strict controls on that sort of information but if I'd have to guess it's well into the tens of thousands by now. At 19 I was educated on the law while I was in college. Now every girl is taught her place in society from the time she is very little.
Even though it's been a painfully long day, the hard bed and bright light makes it difficult to fall asleep but I eventually do.
The following morning brings new horrors that are only a shadow of things to come. I am ripped from my slumber by a rather large guard pounding loudly on my door until I finally answer.