It had been 10 days since they had instituted the smoking ban. One last bit of freedom, one last moment of calm. Geneva inhaled the last tobacco smoke tinged with filter; she realized the inmates were dealing better with it than she was. But they had quit cold turkey and she was only quitting for 10 hours at a time. Stubbing out the butt she gathered the utility belt from the passengers seat of the car. Lock and double-check the car. Buckle on the belt and pin on the ID card. Straighten: pants, shirt, belt, collar. She walked up the long walk way that lead to the wide cement stairs up either side. For a single story concrete and brick building it looked strangely antebellum. All it was missing was the gabled roof and the balconies, but the front was so tall it could have been designed for balconies. The walk way followed half way around the pillared front to a door on either side. The one story building was actually laid out like a series of cubes but Geneva had always thought it was laid out like a maze. You entered either side through one set of huge glass doors and then another. In between there was a few frightening seconds where one had to close before the other opened. In-between you knew what it was like to be a window display or an oddity on exhibit. Geneva always stood perfectly still for the 10 second count before the next door made a subtle click and allowed her to step into the lobby. Inside the building had changed a lot but this was still a lobby. The architect’s model was no longer there on display under glass. That would be silly, providing the inmates and guests with a visual layout of the complex.
She walked over to dispatch. "Hey Joey"
He looked up from the monitors crammed into a tiny room. His bulky frame barely able to turn without bouncing a shoulder off one of the unit lock down switches on the wall. "Checking in Geneva?" She nodded while swiping her card and signing in. Joey turned again slamming his shoulder into the key box "Damn! Why did they have it cram all the equipment into here?" Geneva looked up without a smile "The biggest switchboard in town lived in that room" Joey stopped rubbing his shoulder and looked around the room "I guess there was all kinds of wiring leading into here then" a door banged in the distance echoing down the wide empty hall. Joey looked thoughtful. “So what happened to the switchboard?" Geneva shrugged. "I don't know what happened to the physical thing, but the network became the first Internet dial up for the city." the echo bounced around the polished floor, down off the high ceiling seeming to settle near Geneva's feet. She stepped on the spot like she was pinning a loose leaf or runaway paper. JoAnn walked up, following the echo. "Giving Joey a history lesson?" She said smiling. JoAnn was more often than not the cause of the echo. She was loud and liked to stir the emptiness with noise, usually her loud voice. "Yeah, she's giving me a reason why this damn tiny room has all the controls and electronics"
“It's not that tiny Joey. You’re just huge.”
Joey squared his shoulders with pride taking up even more space "How does she know so much anyway?"
Geneva interrupted before JoAnn could answer, “I’m a local, not a transplant.”
“Right. I keep forgetting you didn’t come with the job like most of us…the job came to you.” Joey smiled at her.
Geneva smiled a half embarrassed smile at Joey as the words she said so often came from his mouth. “Sometimes I wonder if they hired me because I'm a woman or because I already knew the building"
"Both" JoAnn’s casual voice bellowed "You are in unit D today.”
Geneva walked down the echoing hall that JoAnn had just come from. Geneva didn’t find it odd that the echo was not from the last words. She followed the echo of “Unit D” around the corner as if it were to escort her there.
Joey squinted into the sunlight and called down the hall after her. “See ya for dinner?” Her figure seemed to wave an affirmative back towards him.
She walked away making less noise than a slight breeze rubbing up against a decorative wind chime. The walls and floors seemed to absorb her voice, her footsteps never seemed to reverberate or carry. Only a tiny jingle of keys or loose change and the occasional radio call betrayed her presence.
The hall leads her through the unlocked double doors and around the corner. Geneva followed it thru' the secure door into the cubes. Hallways crossing hallways like graph paper. Tiny courtyards enclosed by hallways and old offices. More secure double doors with single hallways wide enough to have 3 gurneys side by side. Then another door to another secure unit. The inmates and guards of Unit D would be waiting for her, Geneva looked at her watch. It used to be smoke break now it was just time in the yard. Geneva didn’t know why they still did it. It wasn’t like the exercise time when they were allowed out to the back (what used to be a pasture) or the side field. There was no space for games in the space where they were allowed in the early evening. It was just one of the larger courtyards created by all the squares on the graph paper. Just windows facing eachother, a bit of green below and blue above. Geneva opened the unit door and went straight to the heavy steel courtyard door to unlock it. There was only an anxious guard and one inmate by the door. In the past everyone would be waiting, anxious and ready, already having bartered and paid for the cigarettes to smoke outside. Stella, the guard. Nodded to Geneva as she swung the steel door open. The fresh air stirred the scent of jailhouse humanity. Stella turned her head as if the smell had taken a swing at her. She looked at Geneva and when she quietly spoke she looked past her “I’m gonna slip off …” Stella added the international sign for lifting a cigarette to her lips. Geneva nodded and looked outside. It was a one person job anyway. The walls were so high it would take more than 3 inmates cooperating to even get up to the roof. The chance of 2 inmates working together was improbable and besides after that there was the guard station set up on top perched like a cupola, the security cameras, the sensors, and the razor wire at the perimeter.
Very few went outside, most stayed in the day room watching TV. Geneva turned her attention to the outside. She watched the hardest core smokers walking the perimeter of the yard. Everyone had walked it and counted it. Most had walked it so much it was habit. Geneva could tell from where someone was how many more steps they would take before they would make a right angle to their path. Jo had 20 more steps to go when she sat down. Right there in the foot worn path. 40 steps and Linda would be on top of Jo. Linda frowned at the interruption of her circuit. She hesitated, looking back over her shoulder, missing a beat. One by one their pace slowed. Why Linda didn’t just cross the yard Geneva didn’t know. There was no one in the middle sunning or reading or whatever they had once done while they smoked. There was no one there anymore but just like the habit that kept these few women walking around the edge, even without smoking, kept them from deviating from their routine. Geneva lifted Jo up by her elbow and moved her out of the way before there was a pile up.
She looked at Jo, she seemed out of it, “Do you need to go to the infirmary?”
Jo came back a little and focused on Geneva “No” she sighed looking at the slightly confused women trying to regain their pace and spacing “I just got tired of it. Nothing else will change anything here. We are a hermetically sealed device of perpetual motion”
Geneva walked her back inside “There’s no such thing”
Oh sure there is, here there is. In the rest of the world maybe not, but here, here there are no sources but ourselves.
Every order has with in it the germ of destruction. Instruments strive to become out of tune. The pressed and dressed yearn to be folded and crumpled. Schedules eagerly try to compensate for the worlds interrupted rythem every so often missing a beat”.
She looked into the yard through the bright window. “There are no carriers here. We’re all perfect pitch with lifetime guarantees.”
She looked back at Geneva and laughed “Well at least 5 to 20”.
And then...
