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A bird cries somewhere in the trees above me, and, squinting, I raise my face to the sky to spot it. Suddenly there is someone in front of me, standing there in the flash of sun, and my fear takes grip once more as I wait for the visitor to shank me.
“I’m Camilla.” The woman in front of me offers her hand, catching me off guard. For a moment I consider turning away, unwilling to even take the chance of somebody using something against me. But when I look at Camilla, I see kindness. Innocence. She doesn’t belong here.
Neither do I.
“Joey,” I say, and grasp her hand briefly in mine. Without asking, Camilla takes a seat next to me on the shaded steel bench, leaning back, relaxed. Camilla is a black woman, black and curvy and kind. I don’t feel threatened next to her. I feel like she is someone I might actually be able to trust.
“What are you in for?” she asks. Her accent is thick. She sounds Australian. She doesn’t look at me, and I don’t look at her.
“Nothing that will keep me here forever,” I say. “Six months is all, hopefully.” I don’t know if Camilla wants to accept that as an answer, but she doesn’t push it, and I appreciate that about her already. “You?”
“Same,” she says and turns to smile at me. Before I can say anything more, the slim dark-haired woman who had attacked me in my cell passes by. She’s flanked by two women, both of whom look as though they could smash me into the dirt with a single fist. I don’t say anything, but I must have tensed up because Camilla notices it.
“Don’t mind Ronnie.” Camilla folds her arms across her chest and shrugs. The woman, Veronica, I assume, looks briefly at me, and I swear I can see a smirk playing on her lips.
“She attacked me,” I say, and I immediately regret it. I still don’t know what goes on here, who is good and who is bad. For all I know, Camilla is one of Ronnie’s pets sent over to spy on me.
“Did she hurt you?” Camilla asks. There’s kindness in her eyes when she looks at me, and I swallow and shake my head.
“Not really, she just—”
“That’s how it works in here,” Camilla says, cutting me off. The compassion in her voice has weakened, just a little, and now she sounds like a stern mother lecturing her young child. “Ronnie is Boss.”
“What does that mean?”
“It means that the women follow her. They do what she says when she says it. She has to be tough, you know, to keep her status as the Boss.”
“Is she …” My voice cracks, but I push down the urge to cry. To show weakness. “Is she dangerous?”
Camilla is quiet for a moment, pondering this, and I dread any answer she has to give. “Just try not to get on her bad side, yeah? If you do what she asks, she’ll protect you.”
“From what?” Again, I fear the answer I’m about to get. Camilla sighs and stands up. I don’t want her to leave, but I know I can’t make her stay. “Protect me from what?” I say again. Camilla looks down at me and smiles sadly, but the tension in her expression is real. Dangerous. Warning.
“From here,” she says, looking around. “From this place.”
Chapter Three
Later,I finally meet the women who will be my new roommates in the cell block. I’m glad we have our own private cells, but we still have to live with other women. Including me, it’s five girls to a block.
Ronnie is in my block, and that terrifies me, but she doesn’t seem to be around much. Camilla is, too, and that puts me at ease a bit. Camilla is kind. I feel safe around her. Well,saferanyway. The other woman is named Lace. Lace is about my age, a slender blonde with a sassy smile. The fifth resident of our cell block is Sabine, a grandmotherly woman with long white hair that sits sloppily on top of her head. I can’t imagine what on earth any of these women did to get sent to prison, but there’s a reason they're here, so I keep my guard up, even with Camilla. We’re all here for something, and it’s not because we’re innocent.
Or so they say.
“Stick with us and you won’t have to worry,” Sabine tells me, poking her head into my cell with a smile. I have so few personal belongings with me, especially since they took most of my belongings away after the arrest. All I have now is a wilted photo, one that is fading around the edges. It’s my sister and me, standing together on the beach in the states, smiling. We were happy then. Life was good. It’s not so good now.
“Friend of yours?” Lace asks, shouldering gently past Sabine to make herself present. I don’t like how pushy she is, but I would do well not to make enemies on my first day here. These girls are supposed to be the ones I can trust, at least for now. So instead of hiding it away from prying eyes like I’m tempted to do, I take the photo and stick it on the wall with a piece of cheap tape.
“Sister.”
“She seems sweet,” Sabine says kindly.
“She seems hot,” Lace says, biting her lip like a hungry animal. “Is she single?”
“She’s interested in men,” I say, trying to hide my annoyance.
“I bet I could turn her.” Lace winks at me, and for some reason I want to bitch slap her for being so vulgar. I should expect nothing less. We’re in prison, after all.
“Leave her be, Lace.” Another head pokes its way into my cell, and Camilla flashes an apologetic smile my way. I force one back, but my heart’s not in it. I just want to leave. “Fancy a cuppa?” she asks, and for a moment I don’t know what she means.
