Gang of One by Mulgrew Gary

Author:Mulgrew, Gary [Mulgrew, Gary]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Hachette Littlehampton
Published: 2012-01-23T23:00:00+00:00

12

DON’T PANIC

I LASTED IN THE CLEANING JOB for six weeks, during which time I availed myself of every opportunity to find alternative work. I had initially hoped to continue my partnership with Gato, as I felt we made a good team and I hadn’t been hassled by anyone else wanting to use the toilet while I had my head halfway down it. Gato talked to me constantly, often about the many buildings and banks he had robbed, and how he had managed to get into them and escape without a trace. I say without a trace although that isn’t strictly true as he was eventually caught because of his insistence on leaving the ‘paw mark’ of a cat in each conquest. I asked him if he thought of leaving a fairy cake instead, but he didn’t see the funny side of that. Like many others I had talked to, Gato had a barely disguised pride in his work and I doubt he was actually interested in what he stole – it was the challenge he liked. He seemed constantly frustrated that it was a drug bust that finally got him Federal time; like he was cheapened by it, since his real artistry was in breaking and entering. Sadly, however, my education was curtailed. One day Gato approached me and told me that another Sureno brother was coming to Big Spring and that he would be taking my job in the toilets, thus making me redundant. It seemed the gangs really did control every aspect of the prison – even the least glamorous ones.

This was a pity as I’d got into a tolerable routine by then. Everyone would head off to work by 7.30 a.m. and I would continue reading to around 8 a.m. I got into the habit of reading while facing the wall at that time in the morning, so I didn’t have to see who specifically had just been into the latrines, or speculate as to what they might have left there. That helped me. It was pretty gruesome work, but I was usually finished in an hour and a half, by which point there would be a queue of people waiting to undo all my hard labour. I didn’t mind. No one came to check my handiwork, and I would be finished and back to my bunk well before lunchtime.

That gave me time to try and find new work. Big Spring offered a number of interesting positions for the misplaced Bank Executive on a range of salary levels, peaking at $200 a month in the ‘factory’ assembly line, producing fine garments for other prison establishments. Unfortunately that career path required a six-month initial stint in the kitchen, unattractive to me on grounds of the sharp knives and the Tex-Mex menu. I had also heard that there was much fun and merriment to be had from placing various concoctions and organisms into certain inmates’ food, and since I had to eat this stuff every day, I really didn’t want to know what was in it.

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