Chapter 10

(In which Clementine enjoys Year Two)

Ten days later the women were called together and told that the fight between Alexia and Olga was on again. The venue was to be a place ten miles away and transport would be provided for all the cage women. Clemmy gave her word that she would not try to escape and it did not occur to anyone to doubt her.

Olga won easily and Clementine nursed her friend all the way back to camp. Alexia had put up a brave fight but Olga was a killer. Rashumba had been in the audience and she saw the pain in Clemmy's face as Alexia was knocked out - rather spectacularly.

Next day, a small metal cage was brought into the large communal cage and hung from the mesh ceiling. It was tiny and the girls all wondered what it was for. Would it hold a human being and, if so, whom?

It was there for weeks after that until in mid-November, Clemmy got on the wrong side of one of the more brutal guards. She got three hundred and was told she would never get less than that from now onwards and would get many more for a serious offence. Then they brought her back into the cage. Horror-struck, the other women were forced to the back of the cage and the small cage was lowered and the terrified Clemmy forced into it. It was then raised, too high for any one to touch and the inmates were left to their own devices. Rashumba had got the two lovers separated, without Alexia being released into the prison proper!