She's the meanest judge in the state."
"Well, I don't know about all of that," Sherry said, "but she is the first African American woman to become a judge in the state and sometimes holding one accountable and demanding nothing less than full responsibility is the best you can do for them, even if it doesn't look like it at the time." Sherry didn't care if her opinion might be unpopular with us-she always spoke her mind.
As I was about to go inside the hearing room for my ticket, the outside door at the end of the hall swung open and Josh came in with the cold. He saw me sitting there and said, "Good, I'm glad I caught you before you went in." He came up and handed me a piece of paper. "Here you go, Squeeze. I think this will help."
"What is it?"
"Policy Memorandum 1977-2," he said. "It lists all of the non-bondable offenses that you can be locked up for pending a disciplinary hearing."
"Yeah?"
"Well, two-in-a-room is not one of them," he said. "Which means the only way they can lock you up pending a hearing is if the shift commander determined that your ongoing freedom was a threat to the security and good order of the institution."
"Well maybe he did."
"Does it say so on your ticket?"
I looked at the report. It didn't mention this.
"Your due process has been violated," he said. "They have to throw it out, pursuant to Wolff v. McDonald." Josh grinned. Maybe all his years in the prison law library was finally paying off.
I looked up not knowing if I should trust him. It sounded too good to be true.
"You owe me one," he said.
"I'd say you owe me already." I handed him back the citations.
"Maybe you're right," he said, "but take it anyway. It should help."
When I went inside I handed the policy directive to the hearing officer, who read it, studied it for a moment and then picked up the phone. Whoever he called didn't answer, so he hung up and started writing. He put a check in the box marked Dismissed.
When I came back out in the hall, Black Diamond and Josh were waiting for me.
"It worked!" I said. "I got off."
Josh seemed even more thrilled than I was. "Information is power, Squeeze." Inmates love getting over on The Man. "Now let's hope it helps you to keep your job."
"Did Sherry say anything about my being fired?" I asked. I hadn't been officially notified that I was losing my job.
"It doesn't look good, Tim."
"But now that I beat the ticket, I should be OK. Right?"
"I'm not sure that will be enough for the warden, since it was on a technicality."
"I'll file a grievance," I said.
"I doubt it'll do you any good, but you can always try. Stop by and see me this afternoon in the law library and I'll see if I can come up with something."
"Thanks," I said.
He nodded.
I smiled at Black Diamond. "Maybe you two can hook up."
"I'm already ahead of you," Josh said.
"Well, all right," I said, imitating Black Diamond. "Go make it happen, girl."
"See!" Black Diamond said. "You're catching on."
I sat outside Sherry's office, waiting to go inside. Her door was closed, which meant she was probably in a staff meeting. It was nice of Josh to help me, but I was still suspicious of him. He was smart, but nobody does nothin' for free. Not inside anyway.
I hoped he was wrong about Sherry and the warden, but when her door opened, she told me right off that she had to fire me. I tried to object, but Sherry held up her hand. "I'm going to hire you as my clerk," she said. "If that's OK with you?"
I smiled from ear to ear.
"Good," she said, "then it's settled. I'm having a desk and a typewriter moved outside my office first thing tomorrow morning."
But little did I know what lay ahead for me later that day.
That afternoon, when I returned from school, Reese grabbed my ass. "Now go back and get your little bitch," he said, "so I can grab some of her ass, too." The two guys that were standing with him laughed.
When I told Paul about it, he just nodded coolly and stared at the opposite end of the cellblock. "OK," he said, after a minute. "It's gonna be like that is it."
He looked at me. "Listen to what I tell you, and do exactly as I say."
I sat up in my chair. I was scared, but Paul's confidence reassured me.
"Before you come down to chow tomorrow, I want to take your padlock and put it inside a sock. I'll show you how to tie it, but make sure it's the longest sock you've got."
My eyes widened. "What are you going to do?"
"I'm not going to do anything. We're gonna do what we have to do," Paul said. "These motherfuckers have to learn we're not playing."
The next morning, we returned from the chow hall early and ducked into the shadows of the door to the infirmary. It was still dark outside and unseasonably warm, but I was still trembling as if it were below zero.
Paul had me stand behind him, with my sock dangling in my right hand. It was heavy from the padlock secured at the bottom by a tightly tied knot. Paul peered out from the edge, trying his best not to be seen. He had brought his lock in sock as well. Yet for all his bravado, he was shaking as much as me. For the first time, I thought maybe he was in over his head.
Reese came up the walkway alone. He didn't see us standing there. Nor did he see Paul come up behind him when he cracked him on top of his head. The sound of the lock bouncing off his crown let out a loud smackrattling the tumblers inside the lock. Reese staggered backward, and Paul hit him with a left hook and then again with
