Watson

by Kathi S. Barton

  “His name is Watson, and no, I have not had a stroke. I can remember things very well, and you can bet that I’m going to get you when I—”

  “Yes, yes, I know. When you get out of here. You’re not, so I’m not worried about you any more than I am the other two women you’re locked up with. You’re just lucky that Ohio is no longer using lethal injection to kill off dirtbags like you.” Rayne got close to his mother, and he stood up. If she so much as harmed Rayne, he’d kill his mother without a second thought. They all watched as Mother leapt at Rayne, gnashing her teeth at her like a wild animal. “Yes, it really is too bad. I mean, if they would allow it, I’d take you out right now so that no one has to fuck with you and the other two. I just had a thought. You went from being the bitches five to only three of you. To me, that’s good. Perhaps you guys will continue to kill each other off or yourself, and the state will save a good deal of money.”

  “I loathe you.” Rayne smiled at his mother. “When I get out of here—”

  Rayne slapped his mother hard enough to jerk her head around. Blood poured from a split on her lip, and her cheek bore the print of her hand. When Mother started to speak again, Rayne hit her twice more.

  No one moved in the room, not the guards nor any of the family that had come up here. Mother seemed as shocked as he’d ever seen her. It wasn’t until his dad started applauding that Wats knew this was about the best way to deal with someone like his mother.

  “You’ve been told quite enough that you’re not getting out of here. None of you are. If I have to stand here and slap you around until you understand, I will. Say it after me, Tina, I’m not getting out of here.” Mother said she was and that she was going to kill her—another slap to her face, more blood on her nose and lips now. “You’re not going to get any help from anyone in this room, Tina. I’d learn quicker if I were you.”

  “I’m going to—” This time, Rayne hit her with her doubled-up fist. Not only did his mother’s head snap back, but blood splattered down the front of her and Penny behind her. “Hit me again and—”

  So Rayne hit her again. “I can do this all day. And I’m sure if I get a little tired, Abby or Amy will take over for me. Won’t you, ladies?” They both stood up. Abby pulled off her sweater and started shadow punching like she was getting ready to have her turn. “See? We’ve all learned that you’re not going to get out of prison. As soon as you learn it, we’ll be on our way. And you should also understand this. None of us will return. Not for any of the three of you. There will be no funeral for the three of you. I’m going to talk Wats into donating your body to science. I’m sure they can find out what the fuck made you such a terrible person. Or not. I don’t know. But you can bet that no one will make a fuss about your deaths, nor will they…well, they might well have a celebration. We might even have the town’s mayor make it a holiday. No kiddies in school that day. The mail will be paused. Yes, I can see that happening. What do you think, Clayton? You can do that when you’re mayor, right?”

  “You’re nothing but a cheap piece of ass.” Rayne laughed and told her now that she was Wat’s wife, she didn’t have to be cheap. They had all kinds of money. “Watson, you’re to get this piece of trash out of my sight. I have had enough of your little fun with me.”

  “No. And if you call her trash or slut once more, I’m going to take over where Rayne left off and beat you until you scare small children when they see you. If you were to ever be able to see small children.” Wats stood up, and the rest of them did as well. “I’d like to say this has been fun—some of it has been—but it certainly gives us all a sense of freedom. You’re dead to me, Tina. I have no mother. As far as I’m concerned, Holly was my mother, and you—you’re nothing. We, none of us, will return. You are, as of the moment we leave here, on your own. The warden is going to treat you like any other inmate behind bars. No more pacifying your sense of entitlement. Good luck with your life. Or not. I don’t give a shit what happens to you from now on.”

  They left then. He and Rayne were the only two left behind when first his uncles walked out the door, then his cousins. Wats turned to his mother once more before he and Rayne left as well.

  “I hate you. I thought you should know that before I’m out of here. I hate you with a passion that I will never have for another being. You took the life of the greatest person I’ve ever known. You even took years from my being with my father that I won’t ever forgive you for. My children will never know you. None of us will name our children for any of you. As far as we’re all concerned, you died the moment you took the life of Holly.” He walked out the door holding Rayne’s hand.

  His mother and the other two were screaming at them to come back. The more steps he took away from the room they’d been in, the more stress was lifted from his shoulders. By the time he was in his dad’s car, getting a hug from him, Wats knew that he was going to be all right. They survived their mother. A great many people couldn’t say that, sadly.

  “I nearly wet myself when you hauled off and knocked his mother back off her butt, honey.” Dad was still laughing when he hugged Rayne, who was nursing her bruised knuckles. “I tell you, Rayne, you’re the best thing that has happened to me in a good long time. I hope you never change. Never.”

  “What if our children are like me? What will you say then?” Dad looked at him, then back at Rayne. “We do want a lot of kids, Wesley. I hope you don’t mind that.”

  “I will never be happier than when a baby of my son is put into my arms to hold for the first time. And Rayne, if any of them are like you, that will just be butter on my toast.” Dad got into the car. He was blowing his nose, so Wats held Rayne to give him a minute.

  “I think you touched something in my dad that no one has ever touched before.” Rayne laid her head on his chest. “I love you, my heart. How about we make it official and get hitched up tomorrow if I can arrange it? I have to tell you, however, I’m worried about marrying a slut.”

  She smacked him on the arm and got into the car. Wats was laughing when he turned back to the prison and looked at the high wire, then the armed guards in the turrets. There were people in the yard, all of them with the same uniform on, a drab gray with nothing much to distinguish one from the other.

  This was the perfect place for his mother and aunts. He wished they’d been there before they’d killed his Aunt Holly, but he also knew things had to go the way they did in order for them to have what they had now. The timeline of life, Abby called it, was something they had to think of rather than what they’d lost. Without the events that were in place, he would never have gotten closer to his dad. Never have met Rayne. Things, he knew, he’d cherish forever.

  Chapter 6

  Tina didn’t know what to think right now. Her mouth was sore and was going to need stitches, they told her. One of the officers told her she’d likely get both her eyes blackened. That didn’t sit well with her, so she asked for someone to go to her house and get her makeup. Of course, no one moved to do as she bid them.

  When she asked why no one had come to her aid when she’d been abused, all of them, even people that weren’t in the room, said they’d seen nothing. That she’d fallen. Well, she was going to get to the bottom of this. Heads were going to roll, by God.

  “All right, inmate. You sit right there, and we’ll fix you right up.” Tina never, when she had a choice, did what someone told her to do the first time. It was a source of pride for her to be argumentative whenever possible. Eita would have been so proud of— “We do this the easy way, which is you sitting in this chair, or I knock you out and stitch you up while you’re under. It’s no sweat off my back.”

  “Your bedside manner is wonderful. I’m betting that is why you’re here putting stitches in people that have been abused.” She told her she was like her. “Doubtful. I’m a Wilkerson. I am well above anyone here. Most of the world, too, I would imagine.”

  “I’m an i
nmate like you, dumbass. I killed my husband.” Tina jerked back from the woman so quickly that they both went to the floor. “What is it with you, bitch? You want someone to hurt you? Sit the fuck still, or so help me—”

  “I’m not going to allow an inmate to touch me.” The woman was larger than Tina by a great deal, but it was a matter of principle now. No criminal was going to touch her. “Get a real doctor here right this minute. I’ll not allow— My son. He said he was some sort of doctor. Call him back in here to do this for me. It’s the least he can do since I’m not at home yet.”

  “You’re not going to be going home either. You’re here for three lifetimes. You were told that several times. Also, you were told that no one from your family will come back here.” The woman laughed. “At least my family will come to see me. Every weekend, like clockwork.”

  “They’ll have to come and get me.” At least Tina hoped so. A pinch to her arm was all the warning she got before she simply fell back on the floor. “Fucking bitch.”

  When she woke up, she was tied to a bed by leather straps. Trying to lift her head made her sick, so she just closed her eyes and laid there. After what felt like forever, she started calling for someone to come and get her. Tina wasn’t used to being treated this way, damn it. She wanted to go home and be pampered.

  “There you are. How do you feel?” She told the criminal that she was sick to her belly. “Yes, I guess you might be. But it’s done now, and as soon as a guard comes to get you, you can go to your new room.”

  “I have a new room? Oh, how wonderful.” She was so excited she nearly forgot about being chained up. “I do hope my family sent me some of my things. I think when I leave here, I’ll just leave them behind. Surely he wouldn’t have brought up my good things for this place.”

  “Good things? You don’t have anything. You don’t pay attention well, do you? You’re getting a new place to live, not a new makeover. Speaking of which, you should have a look at my handiwork. Your lip is going to be scarred, I’m afraid, but nothing I can do about that.” She told her she’d be able to get her face done when she got home. “Yeah, you keep thinking that, and they’ll put you in a locked cell for your time here.”

  When the guard came to get her, Tina was giddy with excitement. Of course, the man didn’t say a word to her, not answering any of her questions. Before they entered a set of doors she’d never seen before, he finally turned to her.

  “You are no longer to get special treatment around here.” She asked him if he thought she was getting any in the first place. “You have been. All three of you have been. However, the moment your ex-husband told us that he wasn’t going to have anything to do with you, we figured he’d be all right with you being put in the general population. You and the other two will be with all the other inmates.”

  “I don’t understand.” He nodded as if he’d expected her to say that, and the door was opened that they were by. Peeking in, she saw that there were three other people in the room she was standing by. “Where is my room? I mean, I haven’t had to share with anyone before this. I don’t want to now. Do you know that they’re criminals? I’m not.”

  “You are as well, Inmate. You’re just like all the other women in here. A criminal. However, these two ladies will be leaving here in a few weeks. We thought we’d introduce you to prison life easily.” She started to back away from the room. “Don’t make this hard, Inmate. This is where you’re going to be spending the rest of your life. This will be your cell.”

  “No. I don’t want to be in there. My family—” He said no one was coming to get her. “They will. They’re just upset with me because we killed that bitch Holly. But I’m a Wilkerson, and we have to keep the bloodline pure. She wasn’t anything but a slut.”

  “You’re no longer anything but Inmate. If you have to be referred to, your number on your shirt there is what you’ll be going by. Remember that number. I’ve already been told that you’ll not get any mail from anyone. There isn’t a fund set up for you, so you’ll need to work for—”

  “I’ve never worked a day in my life, and I have no intentions of doing so now. You’ll just have to bill my husband for this.” He shook his head and said that wasn’t how things were done. “Well, perhaps you should change your rules for special people like me.”

  “Look, Ruth, she thinks she’s special.” The two women in the cell laughed. “Nobody is special around here, girl. You’re just going to have to get friendly with a couple of dykes, and you’ll be fine. Just make sure you get you a nice big girlfriend, or you’ll be beating them off. Get it? Beating them off.”

  She didn’t get it. When Tina was shoved into the room, she fell over her chains. When told to come to the door, she thought for sure she was being played with, that they had no intentions of keeping her locked up like this. When the door slammed shut, the guard told her to put her hands in the opening, and he’d unchain her.

  “This isn’t right. Someone is playing a joke on me.” The sound of the slamming door was still ringing in her ears as she put her hands into the opening. “I don’t think this is funny at all. You’re to let me out of here, or so help me I’m going to own your ass.”

  His gun was right there. She only had to wait for one second when she was freed, then she’d show him what a Wilkerson did when things didn’t go their way. Tina didn’t count on the snappy thing being on it, but she was able to wrestle it out without much in the way of trouble.

  “Back up.” He lifted his hands up but didn’t move. “You heard me, move back, or I move you back.”

  The two behind her were plastered against the wall. They weren’t saying a word of encouragement to her, so she ignored them. As soon as the guard told her she was going to get herself killed, she waved the gun in the direction of his head and fired.

  She’d not counted on him moving too. Oh well, Tina thought, one less thing she’d have to worry about. Yelling for Penelope and Salma, she went to get them out of their cells. They were getting out of there, or she’d have to roll a few more heads.

  “I don’t have a key. Can you get out?” Penelope was closest to her, so she fired another shot at the lock. The scream had her looking at the criminals in Penelope’s cell, and she realized she’d hit her best friend. “I didn’t mean to kill you, Penelope. I’m so sorry. But I don’t have a key.”

  Not even bothering with Salma, she made her way down the stairs. There were a lot of guards there, and all of them had their guns pointed in her direction. They’d not hurt her. She knew this because she was a Wilkerson.

  “I’m going to go home and get some of my things. I’ll come back if I can.” No one moved, but they did tell her to put the gun down. “If I do that, you’re not going to let me go home. I just need a few hours to go there. Perhaps a couple of days now that I think about it. Then I’ll come back.”

  She smiled at them and felt her lip split open again. That had to be taken care of too. She was going to have to go under the knife. Telling them what she was going to have to do about her mouth, they told her once again to put the gun down.

  “My husband used to be an attorney. He’ll sue your asses if you hurt me. Just call me a cab and let me go home. You’ll see. Once I’m fixed up, I’ll come back. But I won’t be treated like a criminal.” The first sharp pain took her breath away. Looking down at herself, she saw that her shirt now had a hole in it. “You shot me? Why? I’m cooperating.”

  The second time a gun fired, she fell to her knees. This wasn’t the way to treat her. She was the oldest living Wilkerson wife. There should have been respect given to her, not gunshots into her shirt.

  It was then that she heard a volley of guns going off. Nothing could have prepared her for the pain now. She fell to her back and knew that somehow it was going to take her longer to get this taken care of. Firing her own gun, lifting her arm up to do so, Tina saw her wrist shatter, her arm covered in blood, the gun disappea
ring bringing on so much pain that she screamed. There was something leaking into her eyes. Not having the strength to keep her bloodied arm up any longer, she let it fall to her side. Opening her eyes when she heard her name, Tina looked up at the man dressed all in white.

  “Jesus?” He said he was a doctor. “That other woman said that to me too. But she was a criminal. I want to go home.”

  “I’m afraid it’s much too late for that, Inmate.” It was getting harder and harder for her to concentrate on things. Even her breathing was hard to make work. “There is no one to notify of her death, I’m assuming?”

  When the person she couldn’t see said there was no one, Tina wondered who they were talking about. It must have been Penelope, she thought. It had been an accident, killing her. Surely no one would hold that against her. Penelope was her friend, not a criminal like the rest of these monsters. Tina just wanted to go home. Take a bath. Dress up nicely. Closing her eyes, she knew she’d overcome this. Knew too that she’d be going home as soon as someone fixed her up.

  ~*~

  Wats was sitting on the deck when his dad joined him. Late last night, a guard from the prison, someone he’d gone to school with, had called him directly. His mother was dead, as was Penelope. Then this morning, he’d gotten a second call from him. Salma had killed herself like Christa had, chewing out her wrists and bleeding out. He hadn’t any idea if his dad knew or even wanted to know, so he told him about the baby he delivered last night.