Chapter 3: Nude And In Solitary

Then Lisa followed Hatchet-Face to a small door in a corridor leading off from the main hall. The door was opened and she had the first sight of her cell, which was far tinier than she had imagined. She insinctively recoiled, but brought herself quickly under control and walked in, her head held high and her back straight. The guard had time for one last lustful look at that delectable puppy fat which she would only see on screen for the next two and a half years (Lisa was bound to earn herself many extra weeks, poor girl), and the door clanged to behind her. Lisa calculated that it was just after midday. Her meal would be in nine hours and she must stay on her feet all that time, despite having eaten very little for breakfast. Her stomach rumbled. She looked around. So this was to be home for two years - if not longer!

Her cell was certainly minute. She was frightened at the tiny space where she was to be trapped for so long and panic started to rise inside her, threatening to make her scream. As the horror of it began to sink in and her forced bravado in front of Hatchet-Face evaporated, she wanted nothing more than to howl and beat on the door, tearfully begging for mercy. But she knew this was useless. She was here for the next two years at least - probably quite a bit more - and must be brave and, above all, level headed through each and every day they kept her here. Only the strongest of people could survive this ordeal and that meant she must be strong. She looked around her cell again.

It was longer than it was wide, being a doubtful six feet by a little less than four. She would just about be able to lie full length at night without touching the door or the rear wall. The ceiling was high and out of her reach. The walls were smooth, as was the floor, which felt icy cold against her bare and rather tender soles. There was a light, set high up in the ceiling, not enough to read comfortably by, but sufficient to let her see every detail of her cell. In the corner was a hole, into which she supposed she must deposit her bodily wastes. She recalled the injunction to keep her cell tidy at all times. That could only mean not pissing and shitting on the floor! There was no furniture of any kind, just the marble floor, the white ceramic tiled walls and the door at one end. But at least it was clean and she had every intention of keeping it that way!

By the time her evening meal arrived she was faint from hunger and her legs were on fire with pain from being so long on her feet. She had spent a lot of the time pacing up and down the all too short length of her cell. Once, near the end of this first day, she stumbled and only saved herself by steadying herself against the wall. Somehow, she just knew they had spotted this! So she already had two extra weeks here and her first day was not yet over. The evening meal consisted of one pint of water and three thick slices of brown bread, together with a miserably tiny apple. She ate it it quickly and the grille soon opened and the remains of the meal were whisked away. Noting some crumbs on the floor she knelt down and licked them up greedily.

Realising that she must on no account let her body go to seed in the long and lonely months ahead, she did fifty press-ups, feeling herself perspire for the first time in the hours she had been confined. There was a slight draught of cold air coming down from vents in the ceiling and she realised that the primitive cells she had read about in these third world countries and which she had envisaged being confined in when sent down here, might not be as bad as this high tech contraption. This cell was modern and sophisticated, but designed only to torture its occupant, mentally by its tiny size and physically by its cold discomfort. All through the night she kept waking. The floor was hard and her body was still soft. The air was uncomfortably cool. She wondered how she would take the gradual reduction to fifty degrees fahrenheit! Finally extreme tiredness triumphed over physical discomfort and she slept.

It was fear that made her open her eyes and fear which made her leap to her feet. Had she overslept and got herself another penalty week to add to the two she had already earned? She squatted over the hole in the floor and performed her daily natural functions, noting with some relief, that she had not soiled the floor. Then she stood facing the door and waited for her morning meal, having absolutely no idea what the time was. The low lighting seemed to be quite constant and the only way of marking the passage of time would be the arrival of her two daily meals. In due course she hoped to build her daily routine around these two landmarks, but these were early days and she guessed, all too rightly as it turned out, that she would incur far more than the two extra penalty weeks already earned before she finally mastered the routine. But at least she would go home after three years, even if they were all spent in this tiny, cramped hole.

Luckily or unluckily for Lisa, she had woken up early, and it was three hours before her breakfast arrived. It consisted of two slices of bread, a pint of water and an orange. A single piece of toilet paper and a moist wipe accompanied the food. She wiped her bottom, put the soiled sheet in the hole and cleaned her fingers with the wipe. Then she ate very quickly. It was the orange which gave her most trouble. With only her recently clipped fingernails it took her a long time unpeeling it. She sucked out all the juice, ate all the flesh and put the peel in the steel receptacle. Sadly for her, she had missed one pip. She saw it later in the day, but it was not until evening that she was able to bend down and retrieve it. She put it in the hole in the floor. Had her carelessness been spotted, she asked herself. She was very sure that in these early days, she was being watched very closely. Only less than a day here and she had three weeks added on already! She repeated to herself time and time again that she could not afford any more mistakes. It was no fun up there in the main prison, but it was still vastly preferable to this. She clenched her fist, drew it back as far as she could and hit herself several hard blows in her naked stomach. She promised herself similar self punishment every time she caught herself slipping up. As the weeks went by it was to be the thought of Samantha to whom she had taken such an instant liking that kept her going and kept up her determination to get through this ordeal in time to spend at least some weeks and months with her before she was released and parted from her for ever.