by Jay Sharman
Jackson walked towards Julian and said, ‘Julian we need to have a quick word with you.’
Julian was annoyed by Jackson and shouted back, ‘How dare you come to the shower room like this. You are infringing my privacy. You can’t let me even take my shower in peace. I do not want to talk to you now.’
Jackson was not prepared for this attack, and said, ‘I am sorry that you feel like this, we just wanted to ask you a few questions.’
Julian still had shampoo on his head as he came out of the shower and shouted, ‘You have already asked me enough questions today. I have a legal right to say “No comments” if you want to ask me more questions, then I need the presence of my solicitor.’
Jackson never saw so much anger in Julian’s eyes before. He just looked at DC Lewis, who had already started to leave the room, as he realised the gravity of the situation. Julian finished his shower and came to the changing room, where Jackson was still waiting.
Julian said abruptly, ‘What right do you have to come to the shower room like this. Moreover, a police officer can’t come inside here, as the place for interview or questioning prisoners is in the police station.’
Jackson stepped back and said, ‘I am sorry that you feel like this.’
Julian rubbed his wet hair with a towel and said, ‘Yes, you should feel sorry because I can take action against you for sexual offences, as you have been peeping at me, while I was taking my shower.’
‘No, I did not mean that. Ok, I am going now.’ Jackson extended his hand to shake with Julian, but Julian at that very minute dropped his towel from the waist to the floor and got ready to put on his underwear. Jackson had no choice but to leave the room hurriedly.
Lewis was still waiting outside who asked Jackson, ‘Any luck with shaking of hands with Julian Dashwood?’
Jackson looked dejected as he said, ‘No, Julian was very clever in avoiding shaking hands with me. Maybe, he knows what we are trying to do.’
‘Yes, he must know that now, we must keep a close eye on him.’
Julian looked outside his shower room and was happy to walk to his room as he found that Jackson and Lewis had left the area.
Nicki was still in her bed but turned her head to the door as she heard Julian slamming the door. ‘Julian, the prison officers were looking for you. What have you done this time?’
Julian put his wet towel on the chair and replied, ‘Another prisoner took his life today and by coincidence, I happened to be present in the workshop at the time of his death.’
Julian narrated the whole story to Nicki about the whole incident of that afternoon.
Nicki got up from her bed to ask, ‘Julian, even I wonder why that is the case?’
Julian looked at his hands and asked, ‘Nicki do you find anything different in my hands?’
‘No, they look fine and same as before,’ Nicki said that after touching Julian’s hands.
Julian stretched his hands forward to look at them and whispered, ‘When DC Lewis shook hands with me today, I felt electric current going through my body and Lewis fell back and the strange thing is that the table showed a crack, but my hands did not suffer any damage. Everybody thought that we were struck by a lightning.’
‘Julian, even I feel sometimes that your hands have high voltage of electric currents. I wonder whether you charge yourself from some electrical appliances.’ Nicki started to laugh.
‘It is not funny Nicki, how do you explain the metal detector, even that reacted to my touch.’
‘Julian, there is something wrong somewhere. Remember you touched the dead person today and maybe something happened to your body after that.’
Julian sat down on the chair but was still looking at the ceiling. ‘I have touched many dead bodies in the past, but nothing has happened to me. I am scared that something is wrong somewhere. I do not know where. Let me touch you and see what happens.’
Julian touched Nicki’s hands and asked her, ‘Do you feel anything, Nicki?’
‘No, not this time but I felt something last time after the priest had collapsed after shaking hands with you.’ said Nicki with a frown on her forehead.
Julian sat down on the chair, took a deep breath, and rested his both hands on arms support, ‘So there is no fixed pattern in electric current in my body as it only happens with certain group of people on certain occasions.’
‘May be Julian, you should go for some medical tests or even blood test to see if there is any change in your body’s salt levels. I am not a doctor, but I am sure that you know what to do.’
Julian stood up to switch on the television and said, ‘Yes, I need to have some tests done. Maybe, I should also have an ECG done to check if my heart is fine as well. I will see the doctor tomorrow.’
Nicki got up from her bed to touch Julian’s forehead. ‘You feel a bit hot today. Maybe you have got a temperature. You must take some medicines.’
‘Nicki you seem to have become a doctor as well.’ Julian laughed.
‘The doctor also needs help from others. If you go to see the nurse today, she will give you some paracetamol.’
Julian put on BBC 1 and said with a toothy grin, ‘OK Madam, I will just do that this evening. Anything else?’
‘Nicki laughed, ‘No, that one order is enough for one day.’
Julian decided to go to the nurse immediately as he felt hot himself. When he reached the outside of the nurse’s room, there were about ten people standing in front of him.
As a GP Julian always had patients waiting for him in the queue and now, he had to wait for a nurse just to get a simple paracetamol tablet from her.
In prison, it was a controlled drug, as there was a risk that prisoners will store these tablets and one day may ingest large quantities to harm themselves.
Julian could tell by looking at the patients, that very few needed any medicines. Some just wanted to come out of their rooms for a while and others wanted a chat with their friends in the queue. What surprised Julian was that to book a doctor’s appointment, the prisoners had to fill out a form and then stand in the queue to hand over it to the nurse on Wednesdays and Sundays. Why could they not have a box outside the nurse’s room, where one could post the forms anytime they liked.
Even to get repeat medicines, the prisoners had to stand in a queue and very often they had to get their medicines in smaller quantities to prevent the misuse of drugs by some prisoners. Consequently, some of those prisoners had to suffer, as they became more ill by standing in the queue than by the actual disease itself.
Julian realized that to get a doctor’s appointment was always a struggle as they had to wait for two to three weeks before they saw a doctor, but by that time either the illness got better or prisoners were moved to another prison. The nurses were supposed to inform the prisoners about their appointments by sending a slip through the door of their cells a day earlier, but more often than not, the prisoners did not receive any notification of their appointments and hence missed them many times. Many prisoners complained that they had received an optician appointment when they had indeed requested for a dentist appointment
The nurses worked very hard although many prisoners did not like them, especially if they refused to give prisoners whatever they asked for. The biggest demand the prisoners made was to install a box outside the nurse’s room, where they could put their forms, letters and repeat medication slips, but nobody in top management was ready to make any changes.
The nurses were happy with the present situation as that made them look busy in the eyes of both the management and the prisoners.
Julian was standing there for ten minutes and still had not moved forward in the queue, some big guys had walked to the front of the queue and nobody dared to question them. One of them was the only surviving Greens, Greg. He looked very anxious and melancholic especially after the death of Robin. For some reason, he had changed a lot and became a placid and mellow figure. The prisoners sympathized with him after the loss of his three friends, an
d he was asked many times about his health by his friends. He had gone to see the nurse that day to get some anti-depressant tablets, but he did not like to come there every day to get his medicine.
Greg asked the nurse, ‘Why do you want me to come here every day? You can simply give me these medicines for the whole week.’
The nurse was still looking at the treatment card. She replied while looking through the rim of her glasses. ‘We are instructed to give them daily for your own safety. The prisoners have taken overdoses with them in the past in order to kill themselves.’
Greg looked at the nurse with increased wrinkles on his forehead ‘Nurse, when we are outside, the GP gives us a month’s supply, but nobody takes them in one go.’
Nurse raised her voice and said, ‘Look Greg, these are not my decisions. You need to speak to the governor or the doctor regarding this. I am busy now and need to see the next patient.’
As Julian was busy listening to the argument between the nurse and Greg, he felt somebody’s hand on his shoulder. When he turned back, he saw smiling face of Mr Jackson standing there.
He said, ‘Hello Julian, sorry that I intervened with your privacy earlier. I have come here to apologise for that’ and he extended his hand out to shake with Julian.
Julian had no hesitation in accepting his handshake. Jackson was expecting some kind of electric shock but was pleasantly surprised that nothing happened.
Jackson withdrew his hand and walked away. Julian grinned as he knew the real reason for Jackson’s kind gesture.
Julian quickly took his liquid paracetamol in a plastic cup and started to walk back to his room.
Chapter 32
Julian was on call second time as a listener that night. In his last shift, he was called only once by a depressed prisoner.
None of his colleagues knew that he was a doctor and Julian felt on a number of occasions that he was probably over qualified for the job. As the name suggested, a listener had to talk to the prisoners about their problems, when they were felling low or depressed for a variety of reasons. The prisoners were not given any advice, but they were encouraged to talk or express their concerns about themselves. The majority of them felt better after a session with a listener.
Some of the prisoners showed increased suicidal tendencies, but listeners were not allowed to even suggest to them that they needed to see a doctor. They had to make their own decisions.
Everything was kept confidential by the listeners, so the prisoners felt happy talking to them with confidence. Some prisoners contacted the listeners so that they could come out of their cells whereas others just wanted a cigarette from the listeners. Some even tried to pass drugs via the listeners, but that was discouraged by the prison staff.
If any listener was found to be misbehaving, then they were disciplined and punished by prison officials. Julian had enjoyed a good reputation in the prison, as he neither took any drugs nor did he smoke, so he had more freedom of movements in prison as compared to other prisoners.
Julian was talking to Nicki that it was quiet that evening, as he had not been called by anybody for a session. At that precise moment, he heard a knock on the door and followed by unlocking of his door.
An officer came inside and asked, ‘Julian are you the listener on call tonight?’
‘Yes, I am.’ replied Julian while still lying in his bed.
The officer stepped inside the cell and whispered, ‘We have many requests to see a listener tonight. I just wonder what the reason for that could be.’
Julian shrugged his shoulders and said, ‘I do not know, officer. I have not seen them yet’
The officer took Julian to the shower room and for a second Julian got worried that the prison officials might hang him there like the Greens.
The shower room was dark and there was a bad odour caused by dirty and wet clothes left by the prisoners after their shower earlier in the evening. The windows were closed, and the floor was slippery.
Julian felt that he should not go there but the officer sensed Julian’s reluctance to go inside the shower room.
He said, ‘Do not worry Julian, we do some routine checks on the listeners from time to time to see if they are supplying any drugs to the other inmates.’
The officer checked Julian’s pockets and searched other parts of his body but found nothing. All the gates were open between the wings in the evenings, unlike during day time when they were closed to monitor prisoners’’ movements.
The whole prison was quiet that evening, as all of them were locked inside their rooms, where majority of them were busy in watching television. Julian felt that televisions were the biggest source of entertainment in a prison as without them, the prisoners will go mad and probably would bang their heads against the walls and doors or harm other prisoners.
Julian went to ‘A’ wing where they had a special room for listeners. Listeners were advised not to listen in their rooms in case the prisoners tried to attack a listener. In the past, a listener’s arm was broken, when a prisoner became aggressive after demanding drugs from him.
Julian walked past an enclosed area in one side of the wing, where gallows was used to hang more than one hundred prisoners in the past. Looking at that site from outside the gate, made Julian perspire with fear and anxiety. He felt as if a noose was tightening around his neck and he was dragged to the gallows by some unknown and unseen strong hands. Julian’s breathing became quicker and his heart faster. Julian just could not tolerate that feeling anymore and he started to walk faster than the prison officer.
Looking from the outside the gate, the gallows were not easily recognized as the entry there was only through one door, that was situated in the middle of the corridor and it blended with the rest of the rooms; it gave an impression that it was one of the cells.
In the past, three floors were used to make the gallows operational as the hangman had to adjust the drop according to the weight of the prisoner. The last hanging there took place more than fifty years ago, but one could still feel a horrific sense of fear and silence surrounding that area. The majority of prisoners did not even know about the existence of gallows in the middle of their rooms.
For some reason Julian could not understand that despite his attempt to walk faster, his steps were getting harder to take as he felt a sense of numbness in his legs.
Julian sensed that there was a white shadow standing behind the door with an extended arm and calling Julian to come to him.
Suddenly one of the prison officers said, ‘Julian, what is the matter? Why are you slowing down?’
Julian replied looking at the door, ‘I do not know. Just wanted to check what is behind that door.’ Julian pointed to the door, where he saw a white shadow.
The prison officer took a deep breath and whispered, ‘Behind that door, there was gallows used for hanging prisoners many years ago.’
‘Can one go there to see that from inside?’ Julian asked as he slowed down his steps.
‘No Julian, why do you want to go there? We already had plenty of hangings in the prison recently and we do not want to see another one.’
Julian had nearly reached the listener’s room, where they stopped. Julian turned to look at the entrance of the gallows again, but the white shadow was gone. He said, ‘I just wonder that why have the prison still kept the gallows intact, when the death penalty has been abolished.’
The other prison officer replied, ‘May be, they could bring death penalty back again as the murder rates of the teenagers has increased in the streets of our cities.’
In the meantime, the first prisoner officer opened the door for the listener’s room which was twice the size of an ordinary prison room and had three cushioned chairs and a wooden coffee table in it. A poster of the Listeners was hanging on the pale lemon walls and there was a toilet seat in a corner. The officer left Julian in the room on his own and told him they were going to get the first prisoner for a session with him.
The first prisoner was a thir
ty years old Algerian guy. After Julian greeted him, he said, ‘Everything you tell me today is confidential.’
The man replied back, ‘No English. I --- need --- somebody who --- speaks Arabic languages.’
Julian replied, ‘Sorry, I do not speak anything else. Please sit down here and try to explain me as much as you can.’
The Algerian man then started to show his arms, that had many cuts and bruises caused by blades everywhere. He said, ‘I feeling no good and I will be cutting myself. So, give me a cigarette.’
Julian took a deep breath and whispered, ‘I do not smoke so cannot give you a cigarette but if you want to talk to me about anything else, then say something’
Algerian man got up to wash his hands in the sink. ‘No man, this prison is shit. I getting bored in my cell, come on man, get me a cigarette, look, look, my body shaking. Come on man, get me a cigarette. ‘
Julian realised that the reason that he asked for a listener was to get a cigarette. Julian simply got up from his seat and rang the doorbell for the prison officer. Julian told the man that he had to go back to his room.
After five minutes, the next prisoner came and asked for a particular listener. Julian asked him if he was feeling low or depressed.
The English man replied, ‘A little bit, but I feel more comfortable talking to somebody I know. I have never seen you before, you look quite a decent man, what are you doing here. Call my friend, mate’
Julian moved back in his chair and whispered,’ I am sorry, but your friend is not on duty tonight, so I cannot call him but I am more than happy to talk to you.’
The prisoner laughed and bent forward to say, ‘Mate, you know nothing about my life, come on get me one puff of cocaine. Look my body is aching, just one will do tonight. These fucking geezers keep me locked up. Just get me one, mate.’
Julian thought that the man did not like to speak to a listener, but only wanted to chat with his friend and also get his stuff.
