Chapter 7

“How are we today?” said Anna, in her most serious tone of voice. Lea Scott shrugged.

“Surviving. Oh hell, I’m doing bad,” she said. “How can I be doing when my hero’s in jail.” She didn’t cry but she was clearly sad, very sad for what was happening. Why did she shoot those two men? Why! And now the father of her baby was rotting in prison for what she did.

Kari, our Kari is going to be told the truth; she told herself. When she’s old enough, she is going to be told the truth, the whole truth. And her dad, her only dad, will be reintroduced to her at some point too. He’ll have to be. He was adamant about that. And she, Lea Scott, would be making damn sure of it. Oh yes, there could be no doubt about that! No damn doubt about it!

“Girl, he’ll get out. Sooner or later he’ll get out and that will be the time for you, us, all of us to take care of him,” said Anna. “I don’t know why he shot those men, but he had to have had a reason. Maybe he thought that they had guns. There were two of them. That had to be it. He was protecting you and really the baby too if you think about it. Those guys were threatening you. No man is going to put up with that kind of thing, no real man; and Andrew Brown is definitely a real man.”

“Oh my, yes he is,” said Lea. “You have no idea!”

“Okay, we got a customer. You take it,” said Anna. You need the distraction.” Anna smiled, so did Lea.

She’d sent three letters, lengthy letters, to her man, and she’d so far gotten two responses. He kept saying he was fine and looking forward to her first visit. She was certain he was lying about being fine, but maybe not. She could hope. There was still a month to go before he would be eligible for visitors.

“No Mom, it’ll be December 9th before I can go up there. And, no you can’t go with me. You and Anna have Kari duty,” said Lea.

“Okay, but let the man know that we understand and we are with him. Okay?” said Cecilia.

“Of course, Mom, of course,” she said. “And thank you for your support. It means a lot.”

A month to go for visitation. Oh, and didn’t I say? I got me a cellmate, Hank Gordon. We are resident in the Kaibab unit, cell 205. Gordon is in for life and no parole, not ever: killed his whole family and then tried to kill himself; he failed the last part. His reward for failing? Why I was his reward. I got to be his wife. Agreeing to be such, got me his protection—something every guy my size needed in the Kaibab. Oh, and the Kaibab is max security.

“So, your woman is coming next month you say,” said Mister Gordon.

“Yes,” I said, trying to say as little as possible to my wonderful friend and benefactor Hank Gordon; who, contrarily, qualified as the biggest asshole in the world.

“Well, if you’re going to be getting a little tender lovin’ from your woman as one might say. Maybe you wouldn’t mind helping me out a little, say now!” he said. I snarled, inwardly, but I didn’t dare let him see me doing so.

The man stood and walked toward the back of our ten by eight cell and crooked a finger at me. I went to him and got down on my knees. I opened his pants and pulled out his dick: the usual routine when he was “protecting” me. I just could not imagine hating anything or anyone as much as I hated Henry Gordon. The one upside, and it wasn’t much of an upside, was the fact that he did actually protect me, from other inmates, it was November 1984 and so far, no problems apart from my good buddy of a cellmate; well, since I’d been inside, that for more than a year now.