Page 45 of Homebound
Ruby chose a quiet moment to approach and leaned close. “I have a favor to ask.”
“Sure.”
“Cricket felt funny this morning. All flushed up and coughing. She’s been under the weather all week and I’m afraid a major attack is coming.”
“Oh, no, Ruby. I hope not.”
Ruby looked resigned. “I need to sneak out for a few. An hour tops. If I report it, they’ll take my pay…”
Ruby wanted Gemma to cover for her.
“Okay. Please don’t get caught. It’ll make it worse.”
“I know, believe me. I won’t. It’s going to be cleaning time now, easy-peasy and quiet. Don’t tell Arlo. I’ll be right back.”
When the last inmates were taking their cells after the outing, Ruby disappeared. Gemma and Arlo went downstairs together to get cleaning supplies and received scrapers.
Arlo groaned, “Not again!”
“What is this?” Gemma turned the scraper in her hands.
“This is to pry dried up crap off the floor. Food and old snot. Who the hell cares about it in a slammer? Monkey work.”
He was grumbling the whole time it took the two of them to take the stairs to the third floor.
Gemma tried to reason with her outraged partner, “Sanitation, Arlo. To prevent bacteria from spreading.”
“To hell with sanitation! And where’s Ruby, anyway? Did she know about it? I bet the crafty bitch knew and found something else to do. I just know this is it.”
Gemma shrugged and said nothing.
They agreed to divvy up the floor in threes, leaving Ruby her portion, and to tackle the corridor in front of Little Green Man together. If there was a spot where harmful bacteria could find fertile breeding grounds, it was the area in the vicinity of the crazy alien’s cell.
They were almost finished with the floor crust picking-upping when the Obu moaned and banged something loudly, making Gemma and Arlo jump.
“What the hell!” Squinting, Arlo pointed. “He still has his mug from this morning. Dumb Ruby, she must’ve missed his cell when she picked them up.” Arlo was still irritated at Ruby’s no-show.
Not wanting to aggravate his offended sensibilities and intensify his interest in where Ruby had really gone to, Gemma rose from her kneeling position.
“I’ll get it from him. He’ll be wanting a rub anyway.”
“I don’t know how you can bear to touch him. That hide is probably flea-infested.”
“We all have our flaws, Arlo.”
Seeing her approach, the Obu squeezed his massive arms through the bars, making them available for Gemma’s attention. Smiling, she gently ran her fingers over his thick short fur. Why couldn't she take a shine to him instead of the disagreeable Rix? The Obu, at least, was sweet and liked to cuddle.
“I need your mug, bear-man. And what is it that you did to your bed? Why bother with sheets if you use them for twisty toys?”
She pressed her hand to the scanner to unlock the door and went into his cell where she quickly made his bed for him. Technically, bed making by inmates was supposed to be enforced but, as with many other prison rules, the alien block got left out of inspections because dealing with the aliens required more effort than the prison officials wanted to put forth. Little Green Man, for instance, never made his bed.
Gemma picked up the empty dented mug from the floor and was on her way out of the Obu’s cell when she felt his hot breathing on the back of her head.
“Another arm rub? Maybe later.”
He pressed at her from behind, his entire bulky body now flush with Gemma’s. She was about to tell him to back off a little when his gorilla arms came around and engulfed her in a crushing embrace. And he was unmistakably aroused.
In one hot second, fear drenched her in sticky sweat. She lunged for the door but with the Obu glued to her back, it was like running while strapped to a sweeper. He was huge and terribly strong, and he was licking the back of her neck with sloppy swipes of his slippery tongue, his warm drool sliding down under the collar of Gemma’s shirt.
