Earth Legend by Florence Witkop Page A

meal and I was left alone at last
to look around the small room that was now my home.
    The jail ran on a schedule and I soon learned
to judge time by what was happening instead of by checking my
comunit. Lunch meant it was noon. Lights out was at ten. No one
wanted to disturb Jake when he was sleeping it off so mornings were
somewhat erratic. When he wasn't in jail, breakfast came early and
began a gossipy time of day. When he was in the cell next to mine,
which someone jokingly said was reserved for him, breakfast was hot
cereal that I ate as quietly as possible so as not to wake him and
the deputies tip-toed around while doing their chores. No one
wanted to deal with Jake if he was still suffering from a hangover.
Let him sleep long enough and he became reasonably decent.
    So the days passed. The prisoners who were
there when I came were released and more were added. In time they,
too, left and still more days passed, turning into weeks. The cells
on either side could have had revolving doors for all the times
prisoners came and went. But I remained.
    The hours were long and boring both for
inmates and guards so everyone ended up being my friend. I'm easy
to be with and a good conversationalist and for the most part the
other prisoners were regulars who I got to know quite well, though
they came and went while I stayed.
    I became pretty good friends with the guards
too. They were nice guys who felt sorry for me. They didn't see how
stowing away compared to the crimes of the other prisoners. They
tried to make me comfortable. I got a new bed and bedding, better
than the other prisoners had and they said Cullen Vail had approved
the extra expense though privately I thought they said so to make
me feel better. There was a belief in the entire Security
contingent that there had been something between Cullen and me up
to the time he arrested me and nothing I said could change their
minds.
    They also thought Cullen should have managed
not to find me when he learned I was a stowaway. Or that he could
have let me go. I head them muttering among themselves and,
finally, they said it out loud where I could hear and after that we
got really chummy.
    I never told them the story I'd told Cullen,
the truth, though I was pretty sure they'd heard it because once
the night deputy did suggest that I might have been left alone if
I'd been able to think of a more normal reason for being on the
Destiny. After all I had papers and a comunit and that would have
been proof enough for most people and perhaps Cullen would have let
it go if I'd been less creative.
    They said many times that they wished Cullen
hadn't dug into the manifest for my name. But whenever they said
that, they rolled their eyes and we all laughed because of course
Cullen would do whatever was necessary to do his job perfectly.
    Most of the time they approved of that
quality in their boss because it made their jobs easier. He was
very efficient, they said. They just didn't see why he had to be
quite so efficient in my case but once I was arrested there was
nothing anyone in Security could do because the Captain had
authority over stowaways and they were only holding me until he got
around to hearing my case.
    Which would be a long time, they said,
because more pressing problems had his attention. Like dying
plants. Failing crops. A shortage of food in the near future,
followed by starvation and the inevitable anger and riots that
would follow. I was in cold storage so I was put on a back burner
and languished in jail, gossiped with the deputies and generally
was bored silly.
     
     
     
    Chapter Eight
    Cullen Vail helps me escape.
     
    One morning I was dozing between Jake who was
sleeping it off in the cell to my left and someone new on my right,
a teenager who decided to go jogging without bothering to dress
first. She almost caused a riot and at the moment was too busy
sulking to talk but the thought of another female nearby was nice.
The deputies were busy so with no social