“I’ll do it. Happy to,” I said, offering him my hand. Frank grabbed it, pulled me in and patted my back.
“Good lad.”
6.
I wasn’t there the morning they initiated Nails into the Cruds, but I heard the complete replay in my cell that very night, courtesy of Hal, Jack and Razzie. Hal and Jack did most of the talking, Razzie unable to speak courtesy of a stitched-up lip that Nails had busted.
The other 2 were also sporting their own trophies from the fight, Hal a beautiful shiner that completely closed one eye and Jack a torn earlobe.
“That fucker took down everyone, right up until the final round. Dylan, he knocked out 7 dudes cold,” Hal said, his face comically screwed up as he shared the tale. The other 2 were nodding excitedly along. Razzie tried talking at one point, briefly forgetting his injury, but I could see him tear up as a small sliver of blood wept from his lip. Instead, he nodded more enthusiastically.
“Glad that fucker is on our side,” Jack said.
“That good, huh?” I asked.
“Should have seen Frank. Couldn’t have smacked the grin from his face with a sledgehammer dipped in shit,” Hal continued. “It’s like he’s smitten.”
“I’m sure he is,” I said, laughing a little.
“So, where did you end up?” Jack asked once the story was all told. Hal and Razzie both turned to me, their interest evident.
“Got a new job. Up in the medical unit,” I said.
“Friendly up there as well, I hear?” Jack asked with a grin.
“Really? She’s up there?” Hal said, having been infatuated with the officer all through her tenure in the unit. I nodded. “You lucky fuck,” he replied, slapping my back.
“Don’t worry. I’ll be sure to give her your number if she ever makes a move,” I said, toying with him.
“Yeah, I bet you will.”
7.
The job in the medical wing had proven to be a worthy replacement to the shit I used to do in the unit. Although the nurses mostly kept to themselves, they were polite whenever they needed to interact with me. There were quite a few things I was required to do that needed input from staff, but I almost felt like it was a proper job.
Apart from the colour of my uniform, there wasn’t a lot of difference between me working there and a real hospital on the outside. It actually felt half normal to go to work each morning. To say I enjoyed it from the very beginning was an understatement.
My morning began as soon as the prison was unlocked, making my way to the wing with the first wave of workers to leave the unit. Once in the hospital, I went and collected all the fouled bedding from the previous night and bagged it, ready for collection by the laundry service.
I then swept and mopped the entire ward, an officer unlocking each door that I needed to enter. Each cell had a different bed configuration, so the process was a bit all over the shop. Some cells only had single beds, while the others had 2 beds or sometimes 4 beds. They looked like regular hospital rooms apart from the cell doors that locked the crooks in.
The prisoners also looked like regular hospital patients, although some were kept separated from others. Boners, or Protection prisoners, were isolated from the rest. But unlike in a regular unit, no-one was burnt through their doors. My guess was there was very little tolerance for that sort of thing in there and most kept to the rules.
Once the cells were all swept and mopped, it was time for me to collect the lunch trolley from the kitchen. I saw plenty of regular faces along the way and enjoyed the fist bumps every few steps. I heated the food if it needed it as the officers conducted lunchtime count, then dished the food out and handed it to the crooks via the traps.
Once count was called correct, there was the kitchen to clean, followed by the staff toilets and common areas of the unit. I returned the meal trolley to the kitchen, then returned and waited for the laundry truck to show up. When it did, I helped wheel the used laundry out to the back door and helped unload the fresh laundry onto trolleys that I wheeled unto the building.
The rest of the afternoon was mixed between folding prisoner clothing and fresh bedding. I also helped restock the books in the shelves once a week and helped with sweeping the exercise yard out.
There was plenty for me to do, the jobs varied and never-ending. I loved the interaction with the other prisoners as well as the staff. Some of the officers were a little gung-ho, but others were friendly and easy going. It made the job so much better than I ever imagined. And throughout it all, I smuggled.
8.
While the jobs I performed at work would earn the praise of the medical staff, the smuggling earned the praise of the gangs. And not just the Cruds. I even managed to help Clancy with his operations from time to time. And how did I manage to get my hands on all this contraband?
Let me tell you about the actual contraband first, just so you have an idea of exactly what it was that was making its way into the Palace. We are talking cigarettes, not just tailor-made packets, but also pouches of tobacco, together with rolling papers. Alcohol, sometimes in little hip-flask-sized bottles, right up to ‘share-around’ sizes. There was always an assortment of porn floating around, whether it was dirty magazines, movies on DVD’s or photos from girlfriends, wives, mistresses or just paid hookers.
There were also the occasional ‘random’ items that people requested, namely from people like Frank, Clancy and other gang leaders.
