‘Shut up, you idiots,’ hissed Kitkat. ‘McNichol’s coming.’
Luke watched the least-hated screw in Dwight walking towards them, picking her way carefully through the mud. He wondered what was up – she was supposed to be on dining hall duty right now. He always knew where each of the supervisors was at any time. It was just something he’d always done, just as he guessed most of the kids in here would have. In the homes they grew up in, not knowing where ‘daddy’ or ‘mummy’ or ‘Uncle Dave’ was at any particular time could leave you in casualty for the rest of the night.
Ms McNichol fidgeted with the buttons on her trench coat as she walked. The jacket could not quite close over her belly. A couple of months back he’d just assumed she’d been eating too much lasagne for dinner, but now it was obvious to everyone that she was pregnant. As she entered the circle of light around Dorm Four she pulled the collar up on her coat and glanced around. She stopped in front of Luke.
‘Black,’ she said. ‘There’s no gym for you tonight. I need you over at Admin.’
Thank God, he thought. ‘Sure,’ he said. ‘Why?’
‘You just go where you’re told, Black. You don’t need to know why.’
‘Yes, Ms McNichol.’
‘I’ll need another Dorm Four boy,’ she said. ‘Nguyen, you’ll do. Wait at the front of the dining hall after you’re dismissed from your meal and I’ll escort you both over there.’
The sound of the others marching back from dinner to the halls faded into the night, leaving behind frozen silence. Luke shoved his hands deeper into the pockets of his tracksuit pants and stamped his feet. Zac shuffled next to him. The cold made ghosts of their breath, and Luke blew it out in sinewy ribbons, watching them curl and vanish. The air felt wet, and the darkness outside the pool of light in front of the hall might as well have been an inky ocean for all they could see of it. With no housing for miles around, and the main buildings of the Dwight centre behind them, Luke and Zac could have been anywhere. Or nowhere.
‘We could just take off right now,’ said Zac. ‘Where is McNichol?’
‘I know,’ said Luke. ‘Too weird. They never leave us alone like this.’
‘What do you reckon she wants us for?’
Luke shrugged. ‘Something boring, no doubt.’ Whatever it is, it’s much better than being in the gym right now.
‘Do you reckon she feels sorry for you and is just trying to get you out of No Rules Basketball?’ said Zac, as if he’d read Luke’s mind.
‘Who knows? Maybe. I wish she’d hurry up, though. It’s friggin’ freezing out here.’
Zac blew smoke rings with his breath. ‘What if we did just run?’ he said.
From under the cowl of his hoodie, Luke gave Zac a sideways glance, paused a beat. ‘You just got here.’
‘Doesn’t mean I want to stay.’
‘You’d try to escape?’
‘Would you?’
Luke didn’t speak for a moment. He didn’t know how far he could trust Nguyen. Suddenly, he raised his head and squinted into the darkness.
‘Well, anyway,’ he said, ‘it looks like you’re not going to have to worry about being chased by the swamp rat tonight. Listen.’
They heard the engine of a car approaching before they saw the lights.
‘That’ll be McNichol.’
‘Will you be all right if I leave you boys to it for a while?’ said Ms McNichol, standing in the doorway to the biggest office in Admin. She put a hand against the doorframe for support. The skin around her eyes was pale and pouchy.
‘Are you okay, Ms McNichol?’ said Zac. ‘You look kinda wonky.’
‘I’m fine, thank you, Nguyen,’ she said, straightening. ‘Remember, I only need these boxes unpacked. You are not to touch anything else in here. Oh, and one each of the requisition notebooks in this box is to go into each of the pigeonholes over there.’
Gravel crunched at the front of the building and Luke looked up. Who could that be at this time? Ordinarily, the other officers would approach from behind the building, and he’d never heard of deliveries being made at night. Holt liked the place locked down tight; it was when he could make the most of his private disciplinary moments. God, I hope it’s not Holt come down to take us back to the gym, he thought.
‘All right, boys, that sounds like them,’ said Ms McNichol. ‘I do not want you to move from this room while I attend to this.’
The doorbell sounded.
‘Who is it?’ said Luke.
‘None of your business is who it is, Luke Black,’ said McNichol, fixing him with a stare. ‘Get on with your work. It’s just an intake.’
Luke thought he could hear the movements of several people at the door. McNichol turned and left the room. He stared after her. An intake? At night? That had never happened in the four months he’d been here. He wondered why she’d brought them down here without another officer. And why would she do an intake on her own? The screws usually worked in pairs. He felt Zac watching him.
‘Don’t admissions usually happen in the morning?’ asked Zac.
‘Yep,’ said Luke.
‘Huh,’ said Zac.
‘Mmm,’ said Luke.
‘You know, you never did tell me why you’re in here,’ said Zac, pulling hose-like wrapped cylinders from a huge box of disposable cups. The rolls were almost as long as him.
‘No, I never did,’ said Luke.
‘Here, catch.’ Zac speared a tube of plastic cups through the air towards Luke. The roll soared towards him, lost momentum and dropped, bouncing off his shoulder before sliding to the ground.
‘Oh really,’ said Luke. He picked the tube up from the floor and moved towards Zac, who had armed himself with another one. ‘You’re going down, ninja,’ he said, and swung.
Zac’s arm blocked the move instantly and Luke’s weapon slapped back into his face. He laughed and again raised the plastic roll. He swung and Zac’s arm shot out. The bag split and the cups continued their journey without it. An arc of plastic sprayed through the air as the cups rained down.
‘Damn,’ said Zac, smiling. ‘Good job, Black. How many do you reckon there are?’
Luke looked around. The floor was peppered with plastic; cups rested on every chair and desk. As he watched, one rolled from the top of a cupboard and fell.
‘Have to be a hundred,’ he said.
‘Looks like you’ve got some work to do, then,’ said Zac.
‘
‘Well, you lost.’
Luke grinned and began collecting cups.
‘What the
‘Everything’s cool, Ms McNichol,’ he said. ‘I just dropped a bag of cups.’
She scowled. ‘It looks more like something exploded. I do not have time for this, Black. You’d better have this mess cleaned up and the rest of those boxes unpacked within fifteen minutes.’
She stepped further into the room and for the first time Luke noticed that there was someone behind her. ‘Take a seat right there, Abrafo,’ she said. ‘And don’t move.’
Handcuffed and in ankle bracelets, Dwight Juvenile Justice Centre’s newest inmate shuffled into the office.
Luke blinked. And then the light left the room in stutters, darkening inwards from the edges of his vision. Luke
