The Drying Room by Malcolm Joines

Author:Malcolm Joines [Joines, Malcolm]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781781489475
Publisher: Grosvenor House Publishing
Published: 2015-11-25T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Six

Slumped in the corner of his cell, he smoked the last few remaining cigarettes; the lights were out now and the guardroom was silent except for the occasional scuff of a boot on the wooden floor. The guard commander had peered through the hatch at him, unconcerned that he had elected to sleep on the floor. Except that he wasn’t sleeping. Stanley would be waiting if he closed his eyes, he knew that. Waiting and chuckling with glee at Cal’s self-inflicted predicament. He’d make Stanley wait for his triumphal celebration as long as he could. Georgie occupied every corner of his mind; without her, and her letters, the future seemed non-existent; a void waiting to be filled. The pain and heartache of losing her would burn in his brain, probably for always, he thought.

At first light, he woke from dozing through the last few hours. Stanley had marched through his head as expected. His rotting, stinking, flesh now falling from his bones, crawling with maggots. Eyes bulging and deep red, still he cackled at Cal. “I’m still here Daff, never going to be rid of me now! Georgie was the only one that could help you! And you’ve lost her!” His cackle became a loud, pulsating roar in Cal’s ears, forcing him to full wakefulness. He washed and shaved, dressed in his two piece denim overalls and waited for the guard to open the hatch to check on him. When he did, Cal beckoned him in and asked him if he would post his letter. The guard agreed and Cal reluctantly handed it to him. It was done, he felt as if he’d slipped through the lifebelt and all hope was gone.

At breakfast, Jack signalled to him that he would visit him that evening. Cal gave him a thumbs up sign and indicated, by pretending to smoke, that he needed some cigarettes. The day passed slowly, Cal had been sent to the cookhouse to scrub pans for most of the day. At least it wasn’t too arduous, he’d had worse work details. Boredom was the enemy, giving him time to reflect on his letter and wonder if he should have ripped it up and written a fresh one, just telling Georgie that he’d been caught and then wait for her reaction. Too late now, the letter would have been collected from the post-box and delivered to the sorting office.

That evening, Jack arrived as promised and was let into Cal’s cell.

“One hour, no longer.” the new guard commander told them. Both boys nodded their agreement. Jack’s face looked puffed and bruised, a gash above his right eyebrow told Cal he’d been in a fight.

“Christ, Jack ! What’ve yer been doin’? Yer face is a mess. Don’t tell me it’s Nicolls again.”

“Hiya Daff, yeah, the bastard gave me a beatin’ again today. Says it’s a little reminder and that you are gettin’ the same when you get out. Anyway, what happened? How’d you get caught so quick?” Cal went through the relevant details then told him about his letter to Georgie; sobbing throughout his tale.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.