Read Forsaken Page 9


  Chapter 9

  The next several days went in a similar manner, with Ronald visiting her for longer and longer periods. She looked forward to his arrival, even meticulously cleaning up her suite. They talked of the prison, the guards, the food and even the other doctors, once Elaine felt more comfortable with him. But more than anything, they sat in each other’s company, drinking tea and listening to soft music.

  One night Elaine even dared to fall asleep in his company. She was having a tough enough time anyway making it through the day on the reduced dosage Matthew suggested. When she woke, she started with fear as he wasn’t in sight.

  “Ronald?!” she said, almost in a scream. As quickly as she said his name, the flush of the toilet could be heard. Her shoulders sagged, as relief cooled her mind.

  He came out warily. “Yes Elaine?”

  “I’m sorry—I’m sorry, I just . . . I didn’t see you.”

  “No, don’t apologize – I know how you must feel.” He knelt beside her, and held her hand gently. “I never want to cause you pain, Elaine.” He kissed along her hand, and it was all she needed to succumb to temptation. She kissed him deeply, and in moments she felt his hands over her body. Her clothes came off, and he hungrily kissed her naked form, worshiping her in a way she had never known. He pleasured her with his hand, and she returned the favor, demurring from anything more. They lay for a few moments in bed, Elaine forgetting there were bars on his home.

  “I need to leave.”

  “I know,” she said, kissing him on his chest. “I’ll see you later today.”

  “Are you getting enough sleep? You seem a little distracted in group. I mean, I can always nap during the day, while yours is filled with work.”

  She had been feeling the effects of their late-night rendezvous.

  “Maybe since you are staying out later, we can go to every other day. That way I can get some good rest, and there will be less of a chance of you getting discovered.”

  He kissed her on her lips. “Sounds good to me.”

  The next day she spent in a daze, thoroughly exhausted. She was still anxious about sleeping with a prisoner, and though her adventurous side reveled in it, some other part of her knew better, and tormented her with doubt. When she got a message to meet with Todd, for a moment she was struck white with fear. Only after she calmed herself did she venture to his office.

  As she walked in, she passed Mark, who was leaving. Something about his expression caught her eye, and made her even more suspicious and wary.

  She had the presence of mind to enter the office calm, and focused. Her eyes scanned the room, and found Todd had been doing some housekeeping since her last visit. The stacks of books were now neatly arranged on new, white bookshelves. No longer did half-eaten meals litter the desk and floor, rather, a small silver gleaming wastebasket sat near his desk. Even Todd himself was neater and cleaner, clean-shaven, with a pressed, white button-down shirt on under an argyle knit vest. Classical music played faintly in the background, with the rise and fall of strings punctuated by the horn and drum, soothing her soul. For a moment she thought she was in a dean’s office at a college, not a warden’s office at a prison.

  “Ah, Lainey, how good to see you again. Please, sit down.”

  “Thanks, Todd.” She sat down carefully, and couldn’t help but inhale a delicate, sweet fragrance that lingered over the room.

  “Do you like it?”

  “What?”

  Todd brought out a small wooden box. “It’s my new air purifier! Not only does it clean the air, but it emits this delectable fragrance. I fell in love with it when I first smelled it.”

  I’m not here to be fired, she thought to herself. But it’s something serious, something he wants to be magnanimous about, to show his civility and humanity. I only hope I don’t give him too much.

  “I guess you’re wondering why I called you here?” He sat with a smug smile, seeming as a spider in the center of a web she unluckily landed in.

  “Yes, Todd, I am.”

  “Well, sometimes I am amazed at the things that go on in my little paradise.”

  She straightened her posture, and opened her senses up to him. She examined every wrinkle of his posture, every inflection of the words he used, waiting, searching for understanding.

  “I mean, we sit in a virtual Eden! Everyone plays by the rules, and are severely punished if they don’t. Order is paramount, and is evenly enforced. When I look down from my office on a hill, I see what the world should be—perfectly ordered, perfectly calm.”

  “This place is anything but calm, Todd.”

  “I know, I know! I’m just joshing with you, Lainey. We really need to get together more! Don’t you ever wish you had an equal to talk to, to speak of things?”

  “Yes, I guess I have.”

  “I mean, the other doctors are great and all, and I sure couldn’t get along without Sarah! But Michael is such a bitter prick, Simon a vengeful sort, and Oliver, well, not even you like Oliver.”

  And more and more I’m wondering why that is. Why don’t they want me to like Oliver?

  “You certainly do get around, though. I think you are seeing every aspect of our village, our collection of souls living in quiet harmony.”

  This is about where I’ve been, not whom I’ve slept with. “What do you mean?”

  Todd grinned, and switched on a wide, thin monitor. Almost three dozen camera feeds came up from around the prison.

  “You see, while I trust Isaac—I mean, no one loves his job more than he does—I do check up on things he might’ve missed. A shadow that seems to move, doors that open, if only for a fraction of a second. Shadows that seem to swell one moment then shrink the next. I have a very sophisticated algorithm that sorts through these feeds, cuing up every instance that falls outside the normal parameters. And you have been falling outside the normal parameters.”

  “Have I?” she said weakly, feeling cornered.

  “I know what you’re thinking—how much does he know?” Todd drummed his fingers together, and leaned back a little in his chair which creaked loudly from his weight. “What has he seen, what has he heard? Well, what do you think I know?”

  Elaine gritted her teeth, thinking back to her late-night excursions, her knowledge of where Colin would be, when he would turn his head. She emptied herself now, calmed her mind, and focused on Todd. She thought of nothing but him, and in moments, she decided.

  “I went into the cells, one night, just to check up on Ronald. Colin beat him down pretty good one day. I know it was stupid, but I risked losing his trust that day, and if word spread I was complicit with the actions of the guards, we wouldn’t get anything productive out of the groups. Don’t blame Philip—I did bribe him, with something of mine. He’s one of the only decent guards there are.”

  Todd nodded in silence, as he thought on her words.

  “I’m glad you have told me everything, Lainey!” he cried with a wide smile, letting out a sigh of relief. “I never actually saw you move through the cells, but I did see you enter and leave. I’m sorry to have done this to you, but I needed to know.” He leaned forward. “You have a kind heart—just don’t let it get you into trouble. I’m going to forgive this . . . trespass of my authority, of the boundaries of this place. But don’t let it happen again. If something were to happen to you, inside there, well, the guards would be merciless in their punishment. I know they seem cold and cruel to you, and you’re right to think that. But they would beat on the prisoners simply because they could, because your injury gave them license to do so. Do you understand?”

  She nodded her head contritely, folding her hands together in her lap. “Yes. Thank you, Todd.”

  “Oh, and I’ll be watching you tomorrow.”

  “Tomorrow?”

  Todd shook his head in disbelief. “Don’t tell me you’ve forgotten about the motivational speech?”

  She gritted her teeth, utterly chagrined. “I’m . . . I’m sorry,
seems like I’m always forgetting that.”

  “But it’s the cornerstone of my efforts to improve the morale of our permanent guests! To come together, in fellowship, and listen to the words of those who have made it in this sorry excuse of as world. I expect great things of you Lainey – don’t let me down.”

  “Yes Todd.”

  As she left the office, something about Mark’s presence bothered her.

  He doesn’t have time to look at all the monitors, all the time. Even with an algorithm that would weed out the superfluous, he’s too obsessed with his books and his food to be bothered, or Isaac and the other guards wouldn’t be dealing in drugs and fucking prisoners. No, he was tipped off. The only question now is why Mark would do this?

  The next day, as she worked out in the rec area, Matthew came to see her.

  “Did you cut back on your stims? Have you looked at yourself in the mirror?”

  While she hadn’t forgotten about his request, she didn’t take it seriously enough to follow through on it.

  “Yeah, I did.”

  “And?”

  “And what? I see who I am—this woman with tired eyes and hair that’s beginning to grey. What did you think I’d find?”

  He turned away, visibly wounded and frustrated. “Elaine, just do it. Honor your word to me. I did as you asked; you must do as I ask. I could’ve asked for a hundred different, vile things, but all I asked was that you examine yourself in your mirror for two weeks. You had faith in me – don’t make me regret having faith in you.”

  She saw the sincere, earnest look in his eyes, and nodded. “Alright Matt, I’ll do it.”

  “My name is Matthew. Just as your name isn’t Lainey, so my name isn’t Matt. “

  He started to move away, but she grabbed his arm.

  “Wait, Matthew, why would Mark be involved with Todd?”

  “What?”

  “He gave Todd information, about me. He left Todd’s office just before he confronted me about it.”

  Matthew was silent, his expression long and distracted. “Just as I have asked you to look in the mirror, so I asked him, as well as others to do the same. Mark found nothing, even after two weeks.” He opened his mouth, and was about to say more, but instead closed it, and shook his head. “No, you haven’t paid my first debt yet. When you have paid me, in full, then we can talk about other matters.”

  She nodded, rising to leave, but Matthew grabbed her hand. Ordinarily a guard would have been on him in an instant, but none of the guards seemed to notice.

  “I understand you have a speech to give tomorrow.”

  She looked at him, surprised.

  “I find out all sorts of things, Elaine. I even know you’re having trouble writing it.”

  She cautiously sat back down. “To be honest, I haven’t even started. I don’t know what to say – nothing I could say would influence these prisoners, one way or another.”

  “You’d be surprised. Just do what I ask, tonight, then sit down, and write your speech. Write it with your eyes half-open, almost asleep. Let your inner mind choose the words – don’t analyze or censor them. Trust me, you’ll know what to say, when the time comes. Just have faith.”

  “In you?”

  “No, in someone infinitely more important; you.”

  As she rose to leave, she thought on her choice of words.

  It’s almost as if I’ve stopped thinking of Matthew as a prisoner. I know it’s dangerous to think that way, that it goes against everything I’ve been taught, trained to do, but somehow, it just feels right, and I think it’s time I started trusting my instincts.

  Late that night, she had just finished brushing her teeth, and had washed out her mouth, and was about to turn away, when she remembered his words.

  Don’t make me regret having faith in you.

  Fine, she thought to herself. She stood before the mirror, and looked not at her hair, or her lips, but deep into her eyes. The steam had just faded from her shower but mist still filled the room, and it gently softened her features, making her appear years younger. She slowed down her breathing and focused on that image in the mirror, as she focused on Todd earlier in the day. She ignored the doubts which assaulted her, telling her this was too stupid and a waste of time. Instead she slowed her breath even more, and distanced her mind from her body.

  Then it happened.

  “What was that?!” she yelled out loud, as she backed away from the mirror. For a moment, her image shifted, and another image replaced it, of her, but dressed in different clothes, wearing a completely different expression. The woman I saw is me, yet not me, as if she were some other aspect of myself. Her mind felt on fire, and it was then she remembered about the speech she must write.

  Alright Matthew, I’ll try it your way.

  She sat down, with pen and paper, in the near-darkness, and began to write. Her hand moved furiously across the paper, writing sentence after sentence, not once stopping to correct spelling, punctuation, or phrasing. And after fifteen minutes of writing, she flopped on her bed, turned off the light, and went to sleep, as suddenly she was very, very tired.

  What felt like an hour later, her alarm sounded, and she fumbled around before finding the ‘off’ button.

  I sure wish I had a room with a window. At least then I could feel what time it is. She groggily made her toilet, ending up standing over the sink, reaching for her bottle of stims. I sure am going to need these today. She opened the bottle, shook out two pills, but hesitated before taking them. Glancing at her reflection, she didn’t think her complexion was getting any better, but her mind seemed clearer, and more focused. Maybe Matthew was right after all. She dropped them back in the bottle, and closed the lid tightly.

  She dressed quickly, choosing the most formal dress she had. Once finished she sat down at her small table and flipped through the sheets of paper she had written the night before. The writing was quick and sloppy, but legible. A good portion was written in shorthand that surprisingly she was able to read. A few phrases jumped out at her, shocking her mind, sending it into a sentimental fog. A loud knock at her door shook her back into the present.

  “You ready, Lainey?” yelled Michael.

  “Yeah, hold on.” She yanked up her briefcase, jammed in the papers, and opened the door. “What, you thought I might try to skip out?”

  Michael smirked in reply. “You’ve been known to do worse. It’s been your turn for far too long. Now come on—they should be filing in the last of ‘em. Did you take a stim or two?”

  Elaine glanced back at her bathroom, with the unopened bottle sitting on the sink. She nodded to Michael with a smile.

  “Yeah, sure did!”

  The Hub was turned into an auditorium, and in it was seated the entire prison population. Elaine strode through the seats filled with inmates, up to the podium in front. Every counselor had to give one motivational speech each quarter, and Elaine had been stalling with hers. She hated doing this, hated being in front of people—especially as one of the only two women in the entire facility. She could feel most of the inmates already undressing her with their eyes; their mouths hung open as drops of spittle dribbled down their shirts.

  Slowly she pulled out her papers, and arranged the on the podium. Todd sat nearby, just behind her, and she could feel his eyes trained on the figure that hid beneath her dress.

  She cleared her throat, and began.

  “So . . . today, we’re going to, or rather I’m going to, talk to you about . . . what it means to be positive.” She took a deep breath, as she could hear the chairs creak before her, and isolated chatter drift among the crowd. Colin banged his blackjack against a metal pole, and they soon went quiet again.

  “So . . . how can we be positive, in an environment that doesn’t reward positive behavior? Well, one must first take a look at why one is being positive.” She lost her place for a moment, and fumbled through the pages to find the correct one. “Sorry about that!” she said with a weak ch
uckle. “Anyway, as I was saying, why are, or should we, be positive?” She glanced out into the crowd, finding she had almost no one’s attention. Ronald gazed on her, but his eyes hung just below her neck. Matthew though was glued to her eyes, and his gaze was of iron and steel.

  “What does it mean to be selfless?” she asked, her voice gaining confidence. The change in her voice echoed the change in which the words were written on the paper. It was as if the handwriting changed, the farther down she wrote, and as it changed, so her whole demeanor changed as well. “What does it mean to do for others, to contribute to the welfare of a society, instead of its detriment?” Her hand instinctively clenched into a fist, her back straightened, her brow lowered as her mouth spread into an engaging yet serious grin. “To answer that, we must go to the mother of all questions: why do we live? What is our purpose? Is it a selfish one, to live for ourselves, or is it a generous one, to live for the community? And if one is isolated from the community, how can one still offer benefit?” She clenched the front of the podium, and leaned forward, her eyes summoning the attention of all before her. “I submit that one must be selfish, to benefit the community. One must bring happiness to oneself, and if one does this, without hurting another, then the community will reflect the sum of that joy.” She pushed the papers away, feeling, knowing what to say, as if she had said it hundreds of times before. “We live in difficult times! We know not what happens outside our doors, if our friends still live, if our enemies have consumed all we held dear. So we can do nothing but be selfish. We must exult in our own life! Some would say that the negation of activity, the malaise that makes men sulk in their cells and refuse to eat, would be a vital form of protest against the jailers. I say no! I say that one must prove to oneself, and to others, that no matter the circumstance, no matter the oppression, no matter the limits of freedom, that one still lives, and lives well! That one can find joy in the most depressed of circumstances, that one can find happiness even after a baton strike! For if one can do this, if one can remain positive and focused, joyful and alive, then there is no jail that can hold his self, no jailer that can break his soul! He will be of the eternal, of the divine, and shall transcend his meager situation, and be alive!”

  The crowd bolted to their feet in applause—each and every one. They were consumed in her words, in her thoughts, and could do nothing less. Even Colin and Isaac, who stood guard on the perimeter, were utterly shocked not only by the response of the inmates, but by the strength and conviction in Elaine’s words.

  But no one was more shocked than Elaine. She stepped down, and hurried back to her suite, flipping on the light in her bathroom, and gazing into her mirror, tears streaming down her face.

  Who am I? Who am I?!

  She banged on the mirror, again and again, until it shattered under the force of her blows. The pieces cascaded into the sink, taking some of her blood with them. One long, triangular shard still hung in the wooden frame, and in it, three aspects of Elaine could be seen.

  “You need to watch yourself!”

  She whirled around, hearing a woman’s voice speaking to her, but could find no source. She ran out into her living room, then threw open the door, and glanced down the hallway, seeing only a few euals going about their regular routine. She closed the door, and sat on her sofa.

  I do need to watch myself. I’m learning . . . something, about who I truly am, and it isn’t what they want me to do. She thought back on her speech, how right it felt to be behind the podium, rallying the faithful seated before her. I need to keep a journal. I need to write down the aspects of who I might be. She suddenly felt a weight on her mind, a pressure distracting her. She sat back into the cushions, closing her eyes, as the pressure grew more intense, and pain throbbed behind her eyes. She felt nauseous, as the pain came and went in terrible waves. A part of her wanted to run out of the room, and seemed to instinctively be drawn to the cafeteria. But it hurt even to breathe, much less think, and her entire consciousness shut down for a time. Eventually it passed, and she lay down, slipping into a deep sleep that seemed to erase all her concerns and worries.

  She sat in the cafeteria the next day for breakfast, surrounded by the other counselors. She was at peace again, blissfully ignorant of her distress the day before. Aside from fielding a few compliments for a couple of inmates, she had all but forgotten that she even gave a speech.

  They spoke about some new suicide protocols the government was issuing to the prisons.

  “Must’ve had the wrong person off himself,” quipped Michael, as he dug into his food. “All it takes is the wrong person’s relative to off himself while some dimwit guard is watching football, and we all hafta pay.”

  “Yeah,” chimed Sarah, “I’ll bet it was just when they scored, that the guy did it, too. I’ll even bet the guard saw him on the monitor and thought ‘hmmm . . . do I miss this score, or try to save some dick that killed a dozen people?’”

  “Yeah,” chuckled Michael in agreement. He and Sarah had reconciled with each other, and rumor had it that they now spent the nights with each other behind locked doors.

  “All I know is that it’s insulting,” said Simon. “I mean, we all have advanced degrees, and some idiot behind some damned desk is telling me I oughta look for signs of depression? I mean, number one, they’re fucking prisoners! Who wouldn’t be depressed? Number two, who gives a shit if they off themselves! I mean, think about how much we pay in taxes to fucking feed and clothe them? If it were me, I’d gas the whole lot.”

  “Yeah, we know Michael, we know,” said Sarah. She glanced over at Elaine. “What’s wrong Lainey? You haven’t touched your ham.”

  “I . . . I don’t know,” she replied, suddenly feeling groggy. “I’m just tired, and the damned Manipulator’s malfunctioning again.”

  “No it isn’t,” said Oliver cheerfully. “My ham’s never looked better!”

  “You always had problems with the Manipulator, didn’t you Lainey?” asked Todd, as he made a rare appearance in the cafeteria. The prisoners all stared at him as he plopped down in a special seat brought for him, to accommodate his bulk. “Maybe you have too strong a mind.”

  “Lainey—a strong mind?” jeered Isaac, as he sat next to Todd. “I just don’t think so.”

  Todd adjusted his bulk for comfort, as Colin brought him a drink of water. “That was quite an . . . interesting speech you gave, for the prisoners.”

  “Yeah, quite a surprise,” mumbled Michael.

  “Really?” asked Elaine. “I don’t really remember it. Still, I’m glad I wasn’t a total embarrassment.”

  Todd harrumphed, and took a sip of water. “Don’t remember it? Why, how could I forget some of your words! You became quite eloquent, near the end. How did it go? . . . ‘no jailer that can break his soul! He will be of the eternal, of the divine, and shall transcend his meager situation, and be alive.’ I must say, those are some powerful words.”

  “I . . . I said that?” She was suddenly confused, as her mind swooned under the weight of memory. “I think I remember.”

  “Well, at least you finally got your speech out of the way—I was getting worried about you!” Sarah patted Elaine’s hand, and gave a wide, fake smile. “So, what brings you two down here? Isn’t this a lot like putting all your eggs in one basket? Who would run the show if a riot would happen . . . Tannis?”

  “Tannis is a good man, but Blake would be better suited,” grumbled Isaac. “I always told you we should’ve promoted him instead of Tannis.”

  “I like balance in my village, and something like that would surely tip things a certain way,” said Todd, with a knowing glance at Isaac. “Now, as to why we’re here, well, I thought it might do us some good to have an informal meeting.”

  The counselors groaned.

  “Why do you need to ruin a perfectly awful morning with another dull meeting?” demanded Sarah. “What could we possibly need to talk about?”

  Isaac leaned forward. “Blake tells me tha
t word is out that a prisoner has a gun.”

  “A gun?” cried Colin in a loud whisper, glancing around fearfully at the prisoners. “How’d that happen? Who could possibly have smuggled it in, and how?”

  “Oh, there are ways,” said Todd, leaning back. “Maybe inside a can of protein paste, maybe stuck deep in laundry powder. How it got here is irrelevant compared to who has it and what will they do with it. I feel that the group session would be the perfect time for a prisoner to assert himself.”

  “We can’t get rid of the groups!” cried Sarah. “We’ll fall out of compliance with the government regs.”

  “And what would they do?” retorted Isaac. “Shut us down? Or maybe they’ll get rid of you docs—now that would really be a shame.”

  “Then who would you have to push around?” demanded Elaine, with hatred in her eyes. “None of us weak little women to act a big man in front of.”

  “Dammit Lainey, I oughta—”

  “Keep your mouth shut?” ventured Todd. “You’re absolutely right, Isaac, you should keep your mouth shut. Now, what I was going to suggest, is that we cut down on the number of prisoners in the groups. That way the guard can do a more thorough search. There will be no more bathroom breaks during sessions. Isaac will be heading up a systematic search of the cells. We will be rotating prisoners into solitary, so their cells can be searched. We will find the gun, and severely punish whomever is found to be keeping it.”

  Todd went on, speaking about the necessity of looking for clues in group sessions, and Elaine grew a little bored. She let her eyes wander around the cafeteria, and was amazed at how many of the prisoners’ eyes were focused on Todd. He’s authority, she thought to herself. No matter if he’s never hurt a prisoner, to them, he is the symbol of a system that caught them, tried them, and took away their lives. Her eyes wandered around the perimeter and she caught the gaze of Matthew. He motioned to her, picking up an empty bowl and gesturing to the line. She watched as he slowly stood and made his way over to the line. She stood up, and grabbed her bowl.

  “I thought you weren’t hungry?” asked Sarah, as she moved away.

  “Yeah, well, now I am. And that stuff tastes awful once it’s cold.”

  She moved quickly, and got in line behind Matthew.

  “Did you do it?” he asked eagerly.

  “Yes, I did.”

  “And?”

  “I . . . I can’t explain.”

  “Look down, into the glass.”

  She looked at her reflection in the spill-guard over the food, and was shocked into silence. For a brief moment, two different faces looked back at them. Then, as she blinked, her own reflection appeared.

  “Did you see that?”

  “Yes,” she said in a low voice. They neared the end of the line.

  “The Manipulator does more than make the food pretty. It, along with those pills you take, dull one’s mind and make it more malleable. When you look in the mirror, everyday, it trains your mind, and makes it stronger. The stims work to reinforce the Manipulator’s action, so when you stopped taking them, your mind was able to resist the control. You must know you are more than you are, especially after that speech.”

  “I felt . . . different, like I had always given speeches, like I had always rallied men into action. What’s going on?!”

  “I . . . I can’t say, I’m still finding things out myself. I’ll speak to you again in a week and a half. And maybe you will finally see your true reflection. But more than anything else; trust no one. It is very difficult to discern to whom allegiances lie, and one wrong move could spell the death of all our hope.”

  She got out of line, and sat back at the table. Todd had just finished.

  “Lainey, what’s wrong?” asked Michael. “You look utterly distracted.”

  “I was just thinking . . . why don’t we ever speak of the war?”

  The entire table sat back, their faces turning to stone.

  “See? The mere mention of the thing that happened shuts us down. Why is that?”

  “What’s there to talk about?” demanded Isaac. “What’s done is done. We’re in here, and all that, out there, doesn’t mean shit to us.”

  “What about all the people I knew that were killed?” bitterly demanded Simon. “My parents tried to stay out of it; after all, they were old! But no, the damned Union slaughtered every living soul in their whole province. I always wanted the Union to win, but not after that day. That day I decided to get away, to forget about it all, and this was just the place.” He sat back, surprised at his sudden recollection. “How’d I—”

  “That’s why we don’t speak of things like the war, or the world. Many of us have terrible things in our lives that are best left out of this place.”

  The others still sat in silence.

  “Why not? Why can’t we speak of it, if only among ourselves?” asked Elaine. “Is it we don’t know who squeals to the new government, is it we’re afraid we no longer have a democracy, but instead a dictatorship? We all think if we ignore it the problem will go away, but one day our service in here will be up, and we’ll need to go back to that world.”

  “Well,” began Todd, as he worked his way out of his chair, “all I know is that we have a prison to run. I can’t be concerned about which way the winds of politic blow, for no matter who wins, who is in charge, no one would want the vermin we steward to ever be let out.”

  “What if . . .” Elaine paused, feeling some deep connection. “What if this were turned into a prison for political prisoners?”

  She watched Todd’s face carefully as she said those words, and he didn’t disappoint. He let slip a brief stutter, a jerk of the eye that was barely distinguishable under his rolls of fat.

  “Oh Lainey, you do have a vivid imagination! I feel sure if the Union took any political prisoners, they would’ve executed them by now.”

  “Every government that has executed the leaders of its vanquished has only succeeded in making martyrs of them,” stated Oliver. “It is a basic fact every first-year history student learns.”

  “I didn’t know you were so well educated, Oliver!” cried Todd, as Isaac stood with him. “Someday, you and I will have to have a long conversation.”

  Isaac leaned over Oliver as Todd walked off, with malice and menace in his glare, echoing Todd’s words; “a long conversation indeed.”