“Something happened with Stone, in the infirmary,” she began in a low tone.
“What was it?”
TORTURE
Emily closed her eyes for a moment, then opened them into Annie’s concerned face.“I saw a side of her that was uh…truly disturbing.Before, she was mean and dismissive.But this time she hurt me.Very deliberately.As though she were enjoying it,” Emily finished.Her legs pressed together and she began to tap her thigh.“I’ve never seen anything like that.”
She looked to her friend, wondering if Annie had.
“Dr.Stone is no one to trifle with,” Annie said seriously.“I’m afraid of her half the time, even when I think she might be trying to help me.There’s a darkness in her that’s just…” She swallowed, eyes wide.
“I know that now,” Emily began, “Really, I do.But I need to understand her.I think she infected me with something, too.I need to know why.”
“She’s a horrid woman.I don’t know if there is any explanation.”
“Well Ineedone,” Emily snapped as the pain from her warts surged.“I’m sorry,” she added, quieter.“I’m not feeling well and…”
Annie reached out, her hand warm on Emily’s arm.Emily looked into Annie’s eyes, and in that moment of true connection, she felt close to tears.
“Why do you care so much?”Annie asked.“She’s not worth understanding.Can’t you just wait out your sentence, then put her behind you?This is just how it is here, Emily.There’s no fixing it.”
Emily looked into Annie’s big blue eyes.She was sure they had once been soft, but had been hardened by all that was done to her by her husband, by this prison.Emily longed to explain who she really was, what she was trying to do.After all, Annie had entrusted Emily with her own deep secrets.Perhaps it was time.
Emily glanced around the room, making sure no one was watching them, but the inmates at the other tables were focused on their food and conversations, the matrons monitoring the room in a half-hearted way.Still, she shifted her chair a little closer to Annie, and leaned forward.
“We’re friends, right?”she asked.
Annie nodded, smiled.“Yes.”
“And I can trust you?”
Her smile faltered a little then, replaced with a shadow of concern.“Yes.Of course.”
Emily took a deep breath.“I’m a journalist,” she whispered.“For a magazine.I’m here to expose the story of how the inmates are treated.”
Annie’s mouth fell open.“What?”
“I know,” Emily said, keeping her voice quiet.“I know.But I’m still me.I’m still your friend.I just wasn’t sent here for the reason I told you before.”
“You’re herevoluntarily?”Annie breathed.“But this is so dangerous, Emily!”
Emily nodded.“Yes.But I’ll be out in December, and then I’ll write this story.I’ll tell people what happened to you, if you’ll let me.They need to know the truth of how women are treated here.”
“Who does?”Anne asked, confused.
“The public!The government that funds this place—barely,” she added.
Annie’s mouth opened and shut again as she tried to absorb the revelation.“But…no one cares about us.Not even our families,” she said, eyes watering.“We’re a bunch of lunatics and criminals and…prostitutes.”She whispered the last word, eyes darting around the room.They fell on June, then shifted back to Emily.
“I’m going to make them care,” Emily stressed.
“So…” Annie stuttered.“How does this work?”
Relief flooded Emily.Annie knew, and was on her side.She glanced at the clock above the door.They didn’t have long, but she might have enough time to enlist her help.
“I’m just here to observe, really.I’m taking note of what I see, what the women and girls tell me about how they ended up here, and what they’ve experienced.And I’m experiencing it myself, first-hand,” she added.“I need to talk to the other girls, try to get a bit more detail about their visits to Stone, how they ended up infected with whatever this is.And I want to know how and whyyou’restill here, Annie,” she said emphatically.“You seem perfectly sane to me.Can’t you try to get a clean bill of health from Stone, and get released?”
Annie’s eyes welled with tears, and Emily felt the keen sting of guilt in her chest.Her friend shook her head.
