In the Slammer Ch. 05

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That was last week. They came for Dolores before we ever received a reply to my letter. I'm not even sure it went to the right address. We made a couple of fallback plans, but I'll tell you one thing. I've never felt so helpless as I do right now, sitting here behind these bars, thinking about her out there on the street with nothing but her pack of condoms and her twenty dollar bill.

Rachel Ramirez moved herself in with me. She just started lining up beside me after showers. Nobody said a thing. The bulldog, the hound dog, the girls, they like to have things neatly tied up, but they don't bother to look any farther than they can see. I could tell you that Rachel and I sleep back to back. I could tell you that the outside rules don't really apply. I could tell you that it's just for kicks, that it's nothing personal, that I'd be a damn fool to do any different. But I'm not going to.

I sit with Annie at breakfast now, in Dolores's old spot. "She'll be all right," she tells me. "Don't you worry about her. It's the two of you together you should be thinking about now. It's never too early to start planning for the future. That's what Mrs. Carlesn says. Things aren't so easy out there. You know that as well as I do. But if anybody's going to make it, it's you and Dolores. No doubt in my mind about that. No doubt whatsoever."