So! You and Charles want to get married.
How long a honeymoon are you planning?
You shot me, you bitch! …
Your mother committed suicide …
I never really knew you …
The wedding picture of Charles smiling at his bride …
How many eons ago? How many planets away?
The morning bell clanged through the corridor like a shock wave. Tracy sat up on her bunk, wide awake. Ernestine was watching her. ‘How you feelin’, girl?’
‘Fine,’ Tracy lied. Her mouth was dry, and her heart was beating erratically.
‘Well, we’re both leavin’ here today.’
Tracy found it hard to swallow. ‘Uh-huh.’
‘You sure you kin get away from the warden’s house by one-thirty?’
‘No problem. Amy always takes a nap after lunch.’
Paulita said, ‘You can’t be late, or it won’t work.’
‘I’ll be there.’
Ernestine reached under her mattress and took out a roll of bills. ‘You’re gonna need some walkin’ around money. It’s only two hundred bucks, but it’ll get you on your way.’
‘Ernie, I don’t know what to –’
‘Oh, jest shut up, girl, and take it.’
Tracy forced herself to swallow some breakfast. Her head was pounding, and every muscle in her body ached. I’ll never make it through the day, she thought. I’ve got to make it through the day.
There was a strained, unnatural silence in the kitchen, and Tracy suddenly realized she was the cause of it. She was the object of knowing looks and nervous whispers. A breakout was about to happen, and she was the heroine of the drama. In a few hours she would be free. Or dead.
She rose from her unfinished breakfast and headed for Warden Brannigan’s house. As Tracy waited for a guard to unlock the corridor door, she came face-to-face with Big Bertha. The huge Swede was grinning at her.
She’s going to be in for a big surprise, Tracy thought.
She’s all mine now, Big Bertha thought.
The morning passed so slowly that Tracy felt she would go out of her mind. The minutes seemed to drag on interminably. She read to Amy and had no idea what she was reading. She was aware of Mrs Brannigan watching from the window.
‘Tracy, let’s play hide-and-seek.’
Tracy was too nervous to play games, but she dared not do anything to arouse Mrs Brannigan’s suspicions. She forced a smile. ‘Sure. Why don’t you hide first, Amy?’
They were in the front yard of the bungalow. In the far distance Tracy could see the building where the utility room was located. She had to be there at exactly 1:30. She would change into the street clothes that had been made for her, and by 1:45 she would be lying in the bottom of the large clothes hamper, covered over with uniforms and linens. At 2:00 the laundryman would come by for the hamper and wheel it out to his truck. By 2:15 the truck would drive through the gates on its way to the nearby town where the laundry plant was located.
The driver can’t see in the back of the truck from the front seat. When the truck gets to town and stops for a red light, just open the door, step out, real cool, and catch a bus to wherever you’re goin’.
‘Can you see me?’ Amy called. She was half-hidden behind the trunk of a magnolia tree. She held her hand over her mouth to stifle a giggle.
I’ll miss her, Tracy thought. When I leave here, the two people I’ll miss will be a black, bald-headed bull-dyke and a young girl. She wondered what Charles Stanhope would have made of that.
‘I’m coming to find you,’ Tracy said.
Sue Ellen watched the game from inside the house. It seemed to her that Tracy was acting strangely. All morning she had kept looking at her watch, as though expecting someone, and her mind was obviously not on Amy.
I must speak to George about it when he comes home for lunch, Sue Ellen decided. I’m going to insist that he replace her.
In the yard, Tracy and Amy played hopscotch for a while, then jacks, and Tracy read to Amy, and finally, blessedly, it was twelve-thirty, time for Amy’s lunch. Time for Tracy to make her move. She took Amy into the cottage.
‘I’ll be leaving now, Mrs Brannigan.’
‘What? Oh. Didn’t anyone tell you, Tracy? We’re having a delegation of VIP visitors today. They’ll be having lunch here at the house, so Amy won’t be having her nap. You may take her with you.’
Tracy stood there, willing herself not to scream. ‘I – I can’t do that, Mrs Brannigan.’
Sue Ellen Brannigan stiffened. ‘What do you mean you can’t do that?’
Tracy saw the anger in her face and thought, I mustn’t upset her. She’ll call the warden, and I’ll be sent back to my cell.
Tracy forced a smile. ‘I mean … Amy hasn’t had her lunch. She’ll be hungry.’
‘I’ve had the cook prepare a picnic lunch for both of you. You can go for a nice walk in the meadow and have it there. Amy enjoys picnics, don’t you darling?’
‘I love picnics.’ She looked at Tracy pleadingly. ‘Can we, Tracy? Can we?’
No! Yes. Careful. It could still work.
Be in the utility room by one-thirty. Don’t be late.
Tracy looked at Mrs Brannigan. ‘What – what time do you want me to bring Amy back?’
‘Oh, about three o’clock. They should be gone by then.’
So would the truck. The world was tumbling in on her. ‘I –’
‘Are you all right? You look pale.’
That was it. She would say she was ill. Go to the hospital. But then they would want to check her over and keep her there. She would never be able to get out in time. There had to be some other way.
Mrs Brannigan was staring at her.
‘I’m fine.’
There’s something wrong with her, Sue Ellen Brannigan decided. I’m definitely going to have George get someone else.
Amy’s eyes were alight with joy. ‘I’ll give you the biggest sandwiches, Tracy. We’ll have a good time, won’t we?’
Tracy had no answer.
The VIP tour was a surprise visit. Governor William Haber himself was escorting the prison reform committee through the penitentiary. It was something that Warden Brannigan had to live with once a year.
‘It goes with the territory, George,’ the governor had explained. ‘Just clean up the place, tell your ladies to smile pretty, and we’ll get our budget increased again.’
The word had gone out from the chief guard that morning: ‘Get rid of all the drugs, knives, and dildos.’
Governor Haber and his party were due to arrive at 10:00 A.M. They would inspect the interior of the penitentiary first, visit the farm, and then have lunch with the warden at his cottage.
Big Bertha was impatient. When she had put in a request to see the warden, she had been told, ‘The warden is very pressed for time this morning. Tomorrow would