MA-22 (Patreon)

Being held in a prison cell sucks, even when you’re with the love of your life. It’s cramped, uncomfortable, nowhere to sit comfortably, nothing to look at, nowhere to go, nothing to do. We chatted, sang songs, played puzzle games, braided each others’ hair, and generally tried to keep from going stir crazy.

Karyn’s monthlies came and went several times during our incarceration. So we knew months had passed. Both of us were irritable (read bitchy) and I’d been through nicotine withdrawal on top of it.

Karyn had us doing yoga in the mornings, followed by meditation sessions where we took turns humming deep pacifying tones. We told each other stories, talked about our childhoods, played ‘never have I ever’, and challenged each other to math puzzles.

Sometimes these escalated into screaming matches.

After one such fight, we retreated into our own special spaces. Karyn had the left side of the cell, and I had the right and we sat facing the metal wall, arms folded, both of us in tears.

She came to me shortly after, putting her arms around me from behind.

“I’m sorry,” she said.

Fuming, I turned my head. “But you were wrong.”

I felt her cringe a little, but she nodded. “It doesn’t matter.”

“It does matter, you have to admit you were wrong.”

She inhaled. “I was wrong.”

I nodded, still facing the stainless wall, arms crossed. I wasn’t ready to forgive her yet.

“Ugh, this is excruciating. When do you think they’ll let us out?”

“How many times have you had your period?”

She shrugged. “Four, I think? But I missed at least one, that I know. This fucking diet.”

I nodded. “So we must be close to the date of Ambition.”

“You think they’ll let us out after it?”

“They can’t keep us here forever.”

“I suppose not...”

We heard a lock open, and the door swung open.

Stunned, I shielded my eyes from the harsh light that entered. We occasionally had people come in — once, I got sick from something in the sludge they fed us and they gave me anti-biotics. Another time, they fixed the toilet that had clogged. They also occasionally brought us new nylon jumpsuits to wear after they became so smelly and ragged.

I recognized the figure in the doorway. “Stephen?”

He nodded. “Come, I’m getting you two out of here.”

“What?” We both got to our feet.

“Don’t ask questions, this has taken me quite a long time to set up. Can you walk?”

I nodded, then almost promptly fell back down on my ass. We’d been doing a bit of cardio to stay in shape, but it was still quite a shock to see someone and to know we hadn’t been completely forgotten.

“Come, we have to hurry. This window only lasts a very short time.”

He helped us out into the hallway, and we got into an elevator. Inside he had a rolling cart, and he pulled back the lid. “Get in.”

We both nodded, and I got into the cart first, followed by Karyn. My old bones did not want to fold in the manner they needed to, so it took a few moments for me to bend my neck enough so he could replace the lid. The cart was stuffy and hot, and I heard some kind of rustling as Stephen disguised the cart as whatever.

We went up a couple of levels, and the elevator door opened. I felt the cart rolling out of the elevator, and a short time later, the front of the cart opened a different door.

“You’ll have to crawl through!” he whispered urgently. Karyn crawled, and I followed, though it felt like kneeling on glass with my bad left knee. Karyn dragged me into a vehicle and the door was shut.

Stephen opened the passenger side and ‘unloaded’ whatever else he’d set on top of the cart. A short time later, he was speeding away through the parking garage.

“Stay down until I give the signal!” he said.

I was in pain. My back was twisted, my knee was excruciating, and somehow I’d managed to stub my toe getting into the cart barefoot. He drove quickly through the garage and pulled up to the security checkpoint. So far so good.

A klaxon went up in the garage, and Stephen said: “Fuck fuck fuck fuck!” softly.

“Uh, Sir, we’re going to need you to park your vehicle on the left here. Apparently, there’s been some kind of security breach and we’ll need to inspect it.”

I sighed, looking down at Karyn. Her eyes were wide, and we were both trembling with terror and excitement.

“I’m late for an extremely important appointment,” Stephen said. “Look, as you can see, I have nothing in my car!”

“Can you please open the hatch, Sir?”

“Randall, is it?” Stephen said.

“Yes, Sir. Randall Simpson.”

“Look Randall, as you can see I’ve been cleaning out my office with a bunch of junk. If I stop to open the back, I’m going to be late for this appointment which could mean millions in revenue to the company. Are you sure you want to be responsible for that?”

“Really, Sir, if you could just—“

“I have to go! Open the gate!”

“Nope,” the guard said. “I need you to park your vehicle and step away—“

With a roar, we bounced forward and felt the shock of impact. At first, the vehicle stopped, and Karyn and I were thrown against the back seat of the vehicle, but then he gunned the engine and I could hear the squeal of tires. I smelled burning rubber, as the car slewed forward again, and with a strange tearing sound, we started forward again. He gunned it, and turned hard left, then right throwing us from side to side in the vehicle.

We both yelled a bit at the pain from being dashed against the sides of the car.

“Sorry!” Stephen yelled from the front. “Just hang tight, I’m going to get us out of here!”

We drove for awhile, and briefly, I heard sirens behind us, but after some deft driving maneuvers, Stephen must have left them.

“We need to change cars. I’m pulling up now, and you can get into the back seat of the Lexus.”

He pulled to a stop with a screech, then opened the back hatch. Dazed, but not terribly wounded we both staggered out and into a smaller Lexus SUV.

Stephen headed north, slowing his rate of speed. We all kept checking the rear-view mirrors to see if anyone was following us. Karyn and I ducked every time we came in view of a state Trooper.

After two hours, he pulled over at a convenience store. “There’s clothes for you both in the duffel bag. I’ll wait here and you two can use the restroom to change and get cleaned up.”

“Thank you, Stephen,” I said. We hadn’t talked much during our mad dash out of New York, and I felt awkward considering what I’d done with the pics he had sent.

Karyn and I staggered into the ladies’ rooms. She had a bad bruise on her collarbone from being tossed like a salad in the back of the Cadillac.

“You okay?” she asked me after we both had used the restroom.

“Yeah, Jesus, that was some ride.”

“I know.” She pulled off her nylon jumpsuit and pulled on the jeans that were in her size. The other outfit was a long denim dress that I pulled over my head, flipping my braid out from under the collar.

“What do you think he’ll want in return?” Karyn said.

“Not sure...guess we don’t have much of a choice.”

Karyn looked at me. “We could make a run for it, here. Maybe hitch a ride?”

I shrugged. “I think he’ll be okay. Just don’t let him get me alone.”

“Believe me, I won’t,” Karyn said. “From this point on, we are joined at the hip!”

I smiled. “And nice hips those are.”

She giggled, and we went back outside.