Page 10 of Devin
Val settled in her bunk, thinking that someone, anyone, would come to give her more information, but the place was silent. Once she'd made the bed and placed her second set of day glow orange attire on the small shelf at the end, there was nothing left to do. She lay back and contemplated going to meet her neighbors, but considering women were placed here for everything from draft dodging to murder, she wasn't quite up to that yet.
They would eat her alive. Val closed her eyes.
"Is she crying yet?" she heard someone ask.
"Can't tell," another woman answered.
"I got me a wager, and she looks like a crier. Surely you can look a little harder. I only need one little tear," the first woman implored.
Val sat up. Two women peered into her cell from the bars. One of them was wearing the blue outfit of a lifer. The other in the same orange that she wore was small, slender and looked like she held onto the bars to keep from blowing away when thelarger woman with spiky gray hair cackled. It was calculated, Val realized, to make her cry. She had no plans to do so, not now.
"I'm not a crier. I'm a biter. Anyone got that in the pool?"
"Ooh, Spicy! What are you in for?"
"I bit my boss's balls off when he suggested I needed to give him a blowjob to keep my job."
"Struck a blow against the alien patriarchy! That's the ticket. You got credits?"
Val wasn't sure what the right answer to that question was going to be. Sure, she'd gotten credits to do the job, but had the Feds taken them away? She'd heard that the prison experience was based on a market economy, and without cash, how long would she live comfortably before the sharks descended?
"Who wants to know?" Val asked. She stood up from the bunk and approached. She made herself as tall as possible, but despite her gray hair, Ms. Spiky was built on a much larger chassis than she was, and her instincts told her that picking on the willow would be a cruel mistake.
"I'm Spike, on account of the hair. And that's Maryland."
"Is she from Maryland?" Val asked.
"No. I'm from Jersey. You really bite a guy's balls off?" Maryland inquired.
"Don't be silly, Maryland," Spike continued. "First of all, it was probably just his tip. I mean, getting a good teeth hold of a ball sac isn't as easy as it sounds. Much easier just to chomp down once he's in your mouth." She nodded as if she was speaking from experience. "Probably only took off this much." She pinched her fingers together about a centimeter apart. "But he's gonna tell the doctor he lost a good six inches!" This time she laughed from her belly. Maryland was definitely clasping onto the bars to stay upright.
"I suppose Stretcher gave you the five cent tour?" Spike asked.
"More or less," Val replied.
"Maybe I give you the full tour. C'mon." She led Val out of the cell block and down the hallway to the cafeteria with Maryland in tow. A group of blue shirts hung out at a table playing cards.
"This here's Spicy."
"Actually, I'm-" Val started to say before being interrupted.
"Spicy here is a cock biter!"
The crowd in blue let off a cheer.
"Most of us Blues in here have turned lesbian as a way to combat the male patriarchy." Val wasn't sure if that was how it worked, but she nodded all the same.
"Why you wastin' your time on a tangerine?" one of the Blues asked Spike.
"Cuz Maryland here's running low on credits," Spike explained.
Maryland slunk to the back and sat down at a table behind them. She was the one that finally turned on the water works. The Blue women had no pity in their eyes.
"You know. You know what will happen," she blubbered before she put her head back down into her arms.
Val wanted to ask, but she didn't want to look weak and susceptible to the tears either. Thankfully, Spike was ready to supply the answer anyway.
"Because of her size. She's afraid her new hubby is going to split her in two with his monster missile."
