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She left the study and hustled to the bedroom, dismayed to find Bear lying on the floor, chewing a roll of toilet paper into bite-size bits. “That’s helpful, Lassie,” Be
Be
She stared at the closed book in her hands. It was only ten pages thick and its cover was of thin cardboard, punched through with a three-hole puncher and fashioned together with common twine. Did she have the right to look inside it? Did she want to? Be
A snapshot of Winslow with her mother. There was no mistaking it. He had the same masculine grin and wore a T-shirt like the one in the photo Co
Her mother? Her father? Be
Be
The last page of the album was blank, its picture torn out, too. Was this the page that held the photo of Winslow with the two babies? Be
The clippings.
Be
Be
Right?
Be
Then Be
Right.
Be
She turned the book over. There was a small pink envelope taped to its back. Be
Be
17
“Five minutes to lights out!” shouted the guard, and inmates began shuffling to their cells for the night.
Alice was already washing up in her cell. She dried her face and spotted Shetrell’s girl, Leonia, glancing at her as she lumbered by. Weird. Leonia’s cell was on the lower tier of the unit, underneath the ground floor. What was she doing on the upper deck so close to lights out? Goin’ up to Shetrell’s for a quickie? Disgusting. Alice didn’t get it. She liked her men with dicks. Anthony had been the exception, and Alice used to call him the only dick without a dick. She wasn’t sorry he was gone. She was only sorry she’d ended up in jail for it.
Alice stepped close to her cell door and watched Leonia amble down the hall. The big girl’s arms hung apart from her sides, the steroid shuffle. Alice flicked out the light and edged away from the door, watching. Leonia looked back over her shoulder in the direction of Alice’s cell.
Alice stood motionless in the darkness at her door.
Leonia turned back and walked past Shetrell’s cell without going in, then continued down the hall and took the stairs down to her tier, where Alice lost sight of her.
“What’re you doin’?” Alice’s cellie whined from her bunk. “I was readin’.”
“Shut up,” Alice said. Wondering.