In the Dark

I don't know how long I was out, but when I regained consciousness I was naked and sore. My little mirror revealed bruises all over my face. My teeth all seemed to be there, but one eye was swollen shut.

A week later I received about half of my normal breakfast. After that I got a half sized meal every couple of days. Twice I had to eat it off of my cell floor because they just threw the bowl into my cell.

I figured out something was happening a week ago when I started being fed three times a day, and I was getting actual meat. I was also given milk to drink. If I had been a Thanksgiving turkey I'd be getting fattened up for the slaughter.

Two days ago they must have decided that I didn't look like a starving waif any longer and I began getting the fare I was used to before my punishment. I was still naked, and in dire need of a shower.

Shortly after my morning meal, a transportation detail banged on my door. A woman threw a flimsy shift through the door and ordered me to don it. I did and then backed up to the door to be cuffed.

Two women led me down to the wash area. Instead of leading me to the usual shower room, I was led to a room with a concrete bath tub. A woman in a prison shift like mine was running water into the tub.

"Are they going to drown me?" This thought ran all of the joy of an impending bath right out of my head. I was ordered to strip and get into the tub. I removed the shift and obediently slid into the warm water.

The feeling of the water caressing my body was the best thing I had ever felt. I was so enrapt by the feeling that I didn't notice the man in the suit standing by my tub until he cleared his throat.

I looked up and tried in vain to cover myself. He smiled as if amused by my modesty. "Please excuse my interruption of your bath." He said in a pleasant tenor voice. His English sounded like he had spent time in an English speaking country. He was accompanied by a small woman wearing a shift like the prisoners, but of a much nicer design and better material. "My name is Som Wattana and I am the warden of this jail." The man said as he gestured to the woman to come closer.

"I just wanted to wish you luck in your trial today, and I would be remiss if I didn't inform you that if you are found to be guilty you might spend as long as a year here before you are moved to whichever facility will be your home. I just hope you learned from your previous ordeal." He looked me in the eye and I knew he was making a threat that he could deliver on. "Prison wardens don't care what shape their new charges are in Mrs. Ingalls."

With that he turned and left. The woman who had accompanied him handed me a small tray with a razor and soap on it. Another tray was by the door with a hairbrush, and some lip stick on it. A parcel that I assumed to contain clothing was next to the tray.

I washed myself a few times quickly; I wanted to get the "work" portion of the bath done so I could just enjoy soaking. I picked up the razor and noticed that it was the old style that allowed you to pop the blade out to change it. I thought back to a girl I went to school with who had used such a blade on herself after her drunken boyfriend caught her fucking the hockey team and broke off their engagement.

I wondered if the staff was encouraging the use of the blade in that manner. Surely the guards would make sure the blade was in the razor before we went anywhere. I shaved my arm pits and legs. It took longer than usual because I hadn't shaved in some time and the razor kept clogging.

About ten minutes after I was done shaving, a tall matronly woman came in and said "It time for you get out now. You get ready for trial." and then she was gone. I got out and dried off. I felt much better and probably smelled better as well.

I open the parcel and pulled out a rather nice skirt and mid sleeved top. I put these on and found a new pair of sandals under the parcel. When I was dressed the woman came back in followed by two more officers. I was unsettled to note that one had a pistol trained on me as the woman checked the razor to be sure that the blade was still there. She nodded to the men and they cuffed me.

They took me down a hall and down a flight of stairs to a heavy door. I suddenly realized I was about to be outside for the first time in months. It was a short trip from the building to the van. There were three Thai women already in the van. They looked me over but said nothing. We all wore the same dress and sandals, a faux pas at a party, but I suppose it's the life of a detainee.

February 2005

Warden Wattana wasn't lying when he told me I would likely not be moving for a year. My trial ended just before Christmas. It was only four hours long and I was sentenced to forty years in prison for trafficking opium.

Mr. Kasagawa and Mr. Buchanan were both in court with me. As Mr. Kasagawa argued my case I could tell it wasn't going well. When Mr. Kasagawa told the court that the opium belonged to Carlos and not me, the police said there was no record of Carlos on the flight. When Mr. Kasagawa said that he had stayed at the same hotel, once again the prosecution countered with records showing no one named Carlos was registered at any hotel in the district that week.

The prosecutor claimed that I made up Carlos to put the blame off on someone else. Mr. Kasagawa said that there were many men like Carlos who lured unsuspecting women into hauling drugs.

The judge however disagreed. He said he and his government were tired of foreigners flouting their temporary status in his country to poison the youth with drugs. He said he was sending a message that foreigners would pay dearly for supplying drugs to the Thai people. He could have given me only ten years, but decided forty sent a sterner message.

I was devastated. Mr. Buchanan assured me that he'd get the State Department involved, and Mr. Kasagawa assured me that he'd keep appealing my case as long as he could. The only positive thing I could take away from that day was what awaited me when I was returned to the city jail.

After we entered the jail I was taken to a different elevator than the one I had ridden before. We went up two floors and I was led into a large room with many cells. There was a large common area in the middle and there were women walking, reading, and doing other things. All of the cell doors were opened and I thought I was going to be made an example of.

The guards led me to a cell with two beds, a desk and a toilet. Both beds had mattresses and a blanket. "This is your cell. You have bottom bunk." the guard said as she uncuffed me and left. I briefly looked around my new cell and then made my way into the common area.

I soon found out that there were two types of inmate in this pod. The first type were awaiting transfer to the women's central prison Klong Prem. The women's center in Klong Prem is known as Lard Yao. The other women in this pod were serving short sentences, or awaiting deportation. There were no Thai citizens in this pod, only foreigners.

Two women I talked to quite often during their stay were Wanda and Shasta Williams from Coral Gables Florida. The sisters were serving 90 days for assaulting a "lady boy" who had tried to dance with Shasta's boyfriend at a local night club.

"Shit," said Wanda, "If they wasn't haulin our asses to the motherfuckin' airport as soon as we get out, we'd go find that fag and beat his ass again."

I also met Akiko Tamagachi. She was Mr. Kasagawa's other client. We chatted a few times before she was deported back to Japan. She admitted to being an escort. She told me the only reason she had been arrested and deported was because she had taken several clients from three prominent Bangkok whores and they had more pull with the local authorities than she did. She said she'd go back to Japan and wait a year and then return.

For my first few months in the pod I had no cell mate. It didn't bother me since I had spent the previous months all alone. The pod was nicer, we got three meals a day, and we got to shower, without assistance, every other day. Twice a month, if you had no behavior problems, they gave you a razor and let you shave. I was growing used to my solitude until the day I came back from my shower and saw that I had been given a cell mate.

My cellmate turned out to an Australian woman named Helen. She was serving a ten month sentence for slapping her boyfriend in a Buddhist temple. The monks had forgiven her on the spot, but a religiously zealous police man had made sure she was brought to justice.

Twice I was visited by Mr. Kasagawa. The first time he apologized profusely for failing me. I told him to not be hard on himself because the prosecution did have a confession on the record and evidence. He also informed me that Ken's ticket home had been used, but no one could confirm if Ken used it.

The second time he visited was to tell me that my first appeal had been shot down and that it would be a year before he could file another one. I asked him if he'd heard anything more about Ken and he said he hadn't. I got the feeling that he knew more than he was letting on, but I didn't push the issue. I was afraid that my involvement with Carlos had also gotten Ken locked up, and I loathed myself deeply at that moment.

After both disappointing conversations with Mr. Kasagawa, it was Helen who kept my spirits up. We talked deep into the night and she made me see how I had been played. I came to see Helen as a sister and I hoped that she felt the same.

One night about a week before Helen was released, I was lying in bed and Jeff crossed my mind. I had been so worried over Ken that I hadn't even thought about Jeff. I thought about the two of us and got horny. Then to put my mind onto other things I wondered if he'd gone on to school after all. Then when I thought of him pleasing another girl I wanted to tear her face off. Frustrated and lonely I fell asleep.

In my dreams my beautiful Jeff broke me out of prison and took me to an island paradise. We fucked in every position and he made me come over and over. I let him put his big hard cock into me anywhere we were and any hole he wished. When I awoke my sheet was soaked.

"So, who's Jeff?"

Helen's question hit me like a ton of flying rocks. I couldn't even fake a quizzical look before she said, "You kept moaning his name out all night long dear. You had me wanting Jeff before breakfast time came."

"It was just a dream." I said. Even I wasn't convinced, but I was saved by two women from Ireland joining our table. "You can tell me later." Helen said as she dug into her porridge.

During the day, every woman in the pod was detailed to clean all cells and the common areas. Usually all of the cleaning was done by midafternoon which left a few hours of leisure time. Most of us talked or played games using items around the pod as game pieces. Checkers and chess were the main games because we could play no matter what languages we spoke.

Helen rarely played games. She chose instead to read one of the twenty or so books in the pod library. Once in a while I'd read, but I had become quite adept at checkers and I was a popular opponent.

After supper we would shower on shower nights or lay around our cells and chat. A guard would yell out to us about ten minutes before "lights out" and women would move back to their cells from where ever they'd been.

Helen came into the cell and we chatted idly until the lights went out. I was almost asleep when I felt Helen's breath on my ear. "Soooo, who is this Jeff that has our Darlene all atwitter? "

I turned my head and was looking right into Helen's eyes. I'd had all day to think about it and I had a good answer. "He's a guy I knew in college. We had awesome sex, but he was too lazy everywhere else for us to work."

"Was he better than me?"

I was confused and answered the only way I knew how. "How would I know?"

As soon as I said it she kissed me. It was slow and tender and soon I found myself kissing her back. Our tongues intertwined and my hands moved to her hair almost involuntarily. I pulled her face tight to mine and savored every second of her kiss. At one point she moved her lips to my ears and suckled. I let out a moan and she was quick to shush me.

We both knew the consequences of being caught having sex in our cell. We'd seen three pairs of women caned in front of everyone to drive the point home. There had also been a woman caned for masturbating. We knew to be quiet, and to listen for guards walking by the cell door.

She sucked on my neck and I felt the chills run all over my body. I was running my hands through her hair and down the back of her shirt. She sucked in hard as my fingers danced around across her spine.

Then it was my turn to suck in hard when she reached up under my shirt and tweaked my nipples. I felt them stiffen as she toyed with them. I managed to reach around and fill my hands with her breast.

I had often played with my own C cup tits. They felt plump and pillowy. Ken usually lavished a lot of attention on them when we played. Jeff however seemed to think they were merely handles during doggy style.

Helens breasts were about a c cup but felt so much firmer than mine. I really enjoyed the feel of her firm mounds in my hands. Suddenly I had an urge. I rolled us over so that I was on top and lifted her shirt off of her. I latched my mouth onto her breasts and sucked greedily.

She bit into my shoulder to stifle her moan of pleasure. I took great satisfaction in knowing I could make her feel that way. Just as that triumphant feeling hit me, so did another feeling; the feeling of Helen's finger invading my pussy. Before I knew it she had three fingers in me and I knew they were getting soaked.

"We have to be quick!" Helen hissed into my ear. I was about to ask her what she meant when she spun around and buried her face in my sex. I looked up to see her pussy inches above my face.

I had never eaten another woman before, but I had been eaten many times. I just did what I had felt guys do to me before. Helen's ass was bouncing up and down and I was having a hard time keeping my lips planted on her clit. Juice was dripping from her pussy and covering my chin. I reached up and stuck a finger into her wet hole and she slammed her hips down and shuddered.

As she was cumming, it felt like she had put half of her hand in my pussy. I felt stretched and full. As her orgasm subsided she went to work on my clit double time.

Usually my orgasms start out faint and build. Not this one. She sucked my clit into her mouth and I felt my loins explode. I quickly grabbed my pillow and screamed into it as wave after wave of pleasure tore through me.

Before I had fully come down from my orgasmic euphoria, Helen flipped off of me, kissed me quickly and jumped into her bunk. Less than thirty seconds later, a guard stood outside our door peering in and listening.

Terror allowed me to hold my breath so he wouldn't hear me panting. I had a sinking feeling that he could smell our sex in the air. It seemed an eternity before the guard moved along.

I let out a sigh of relief and heard Helen whisper a breathless "Thank You" from above. I couldn't believe that I had just had sex with another woman. I had hopes we could do this as long as we were in here, but that was the only time. Two days later Helen was released and deported.

I spent my last weeks in the pod without a cell mate. I missed Helen terribly, but I had friends in the pod that I spent time with during day hours, but none ever hinted that they wanted a sexual relationship. Of course there were the public canings to discourage such behavior.

Three days before I was transferred they caned two Vietnamese women for engaging in sex. Both women ended up in the infirmary after their caning. I don't know how long they were in there, but they weren't out before I was transferred.

On the day that I was transferred to Lard Yao, the women's prison in the Klong Prem prison complex there was no pomp and circumstance. After work duties were complete I was ordered to my cell.

A guard was waiting for me in my cell and told me to gather my belongings. I only had an extra pair of panties, and a small bar of soap. After I had put the items in the small box the guard carried I was cuffed and led out of the pod. A small rickety van carried three other women as well as myself across town to the prison. One of the women I had seen around the pod, the other two I believed to be Thai nationals.

We were ushered out of the van and through an iron gate and then down a long concrete corridor to a large room. When we were in the room three two guards shouted out at once. One yelled in Thai and the other in English. "Strip!"

All four of us stripped out of our shifts in no time. We had all learned that these guards had no tolerance for delay. No sooner than we were naked the guards yelled again. "Bend over against the wall!"

For the next ten minutes we all had hands crammed roughly into our vaginas and anuses. The other foreign girl cried and was slapped for her tears. The guard said something to her, but I couldn't understand him. After being cavity searched, we were de loused and hosed down.

As we filed out of the room a guard handed each of us a drab gray smock and a flimsy pair of panties. We stopped long enough to don these clothes and then proceeded down a bamboo lined corridor leading to a steel gate.

Just before we reached the gate we were stopped at a table. We each had to state our name. After each stated their name we were handed a stack of papers and told to sign. I tried to read what I was signing and got my hand smacked with a thin steel baton. I wondered why I had so many more papers to sign but didn't feel I was in a position to ask. With the papers signed we were steered towards the gate.

At the gate we were handed a pair of thin soled sandals. As we put these on, a guard told us that our stay here would be much nicer if we behaved ourselves. Once we all acknowledged the guard's admonishment, the gate open and we filed through to our new home.

The main area was a wide open dirt yard. It was surrounded by large bamboo shacks. In the middle was a large vat filled with water. It looked as if the women did their laundry in that vat. We walked across the yard to where a group of women were standing.

Most of these women wore a gray smock like the ones we were given. Three of them wore a white military style shirt. The guard who led us in gestured to one of the women in white. She nodded and one of the women who had been standing by her came and stood by me and another stood by the other foreign woman in our group. As the woman in the white shirt spoke in Thai, the woman who stood next to me interpreted. The other girl was being talked to in French.

"I am Guard Chief Dao Boonliang. I am second only to Warden Saowaluk." At that moment two more women joined our group and stood next to the two Thai women that had come in with us.

"These ladies will take you to your dorm and outline what is expected of you and what your schedule will be."

"My name is Annette," my guide said offering her hand. "I'm a South African citizen spending my last few months of a six year stay as a guest of the Thai Government."

"I'm Darlene Ingalls from Oakland California. I guess I'm beginning a forty year stay."

"Forty years? Who did you kill?"

I explained my case to her as we walked toward the barn like structure that would be my home for the next four decades. As we entered I saw that there were no bunks. She explained that at night everyone grabbed a thatch mat and found a clear section of floor. In the morning we all had to roll our mats back up and store them in racks.

She told me that every morning the head trustee in each dorm would tell us of our work assignment for the day. She said the dorms weren't necessarily divided by nationality, but that the Thais all seemed to be in a select few dorms. She said it wasn't uncommon for an entire dorm to speak English.