Three Little Boys

Chapter 10

By the time I return to the drama hall it has filled up. The mass role call is already underway and the deputy governor is on stage, presumably filling in until the Governor has finished dangling Sally over a giant fish tank containing man-eating sharks.

I enter from the Green room and take the concealed stairway up to the control room. I could have taken the longer route – the one that would lead me across the stage. Part of me thinks that I should have done. I know deep down that I truly belong in the spotlight, not behind the scenes. But then I think of the fleshy floozy I have left in charge of the booth. She will practically be going to pieces up there without me.

"Oh, hi, Doug," Nadine says upon my return. I can hear the relief in her voice now I have returned to oversee things.

I nod, courteously.

"Look, I'm really sorry about what I said earlier... about you spending all evening in the bus shelter. I just... you know... wondered if you might like to do something some time... after prison? Oh, hang on..."

The Governor is taking the stage and Nadine has to perform a lighting change. What she has just proposed is a lovely idea in principle, but I doubt this meaty mademoiselle could stand the pace at which I live my life.

"Allison smokes cigarettes," I declare. I feel that if Nadine is the snitch I believe her to be, I'll use her mammoth mouth for good and she can tell tales on the wicked.

"No way," she gasps.

"Yup," I say. "I just caught her out back. "Appleby came out. He only saw Sally though. I think she got sent to the Governor's office."

"Serves her right," Nadine says as she prepares the lighting for the first prize-winning lag to take the stage. I think she has finished talking. I will never get used to how she can't say everything she wants to in one go. "Doug?" My silence tells her that I will permit her to continue. "About what I was saying..." I can't remember a word she's said since I've been back here. "You know, about us and after school and..."

It is tragic that little Kirsty Tyrell will never get her award for 'Outstanding Contribution to the Environment.' She was down as the first person to receive a prize, yet both she and Nadine are destined to wait.

An alarm sounds, but I am not alarmed. I already have my bags packed. All I need to do is sling my coat over my arm and go. The upper level of the drama hall has its own fire escape.

"Doug, where are you going?" asks Nadine.

I don't need to watch the masses down below as they clamour to pile through the only two ways out. I can however pick out the faint aroma of smoke, mixed with gunpowder, coming from... if I had to guess, I would say the Green Room.

"Looks like there's a fire," I say. "I'm going. You can come with me if you like?"

"But... the lighting?"

"I've got a feeling this whole place will be alight pretty soon," I say, proud of that witticism. I will write it down for my eventual autobiography.

And everyone lived happily ever after. I know it's a cliché, but, when confronted with the sight of so many smiling faces, it's hard to sum it up any other way. The prison has closed. Granted most were going home anyway for weekend release, but it looks like no one will be returning here on Monday. I watch as the Governor confers with firemen while the wardens desperately try to maintain order by directing the cons back to their respective wings in order to retrieve their property. At the same time, they perform a head-count to make sure that no one was accidentally incinerated.

I was already packed. Everything I hold dear is on my shoulder or in my head. I do not need to return to my wing. I doubt I shall ever see it again. I think that Nadine must have left a beef and pickle sandwich in her desk, as she seemed ever so anxious to return and check on its safety.