City of Red | Part 1

Chapter 6 | Becoming Nurse Riley

The year was 1964, just three years earlier, and Cristina was partying at the Manhattan Hotel in New York City. It was New Year's Eve and she had just been hired at Saint Paul's Hospital, so there was great cause for celebration.

The man she was making out with was just happy to be there. "You're a wild one!" He spoke loudly so he could be heard over the music. "I didn't catch your name!"

"I didn't give it!" Cristina gave a drunken smile and slid her tongue into his mouth.

"It's almost time, everyone!" Someone said, then everyone counted down.

"Five, four, three, two, one...Happy New Year!"

Cristina and...whatever his name was, kissed passionately for the next five minutes then he took her out of the party, down the hall towards his room. Halfway there, he couldn't take it any longer and bent her over between two vending machine.

The next two minutes were nice, ending with a few weak pumps and whatever his name was, wheezing in the back of her head.

"Hey, let me bring you back to my place." He said.

"I got an early shift in the morning." Cristina replied. "I should get going."

"Well let me get your number, at least."

"This feels like a one and done kind of thing, Fred."

"Tim."

"See?" She smiled.

A few minutes later she was driving down the road, her windows down to let the cold air hit her in the face. Had it not been for the alcohol keeping her warm, it would have been painful.

She was smiling. She felt happy...then she ran through the red light and t-boned another car.

* * * *

"You're lucky no one was killed."

Cristina opened her eyes. By her count it was day ninety six, give or take, behind bars. She sat up on her bed and looked at the man outside her cell. "Do I know you?"

"No, but I know you. Cristina Riley, graduated at the top of her class from New York Medical College last year. Perpetual party girl, seasoned drunk just like her father, and now a felon, as well."

"I think that about sums me up." Cristina offered a sad smile.

"I work for Harrold Black and Samuel Gate and they've authorized me to offer you a job at their new maximum security prison, located in Georgia."

Cristina walked over to the man, leaving just enough space between them for the bars. "In case you didn't notice, I'm in jail. Got a court date coming. So, I'm a little tied up. Thanks though."

"Here." He handed her a folder through the bars.

Cristina opened it and scanned over the document inside. "Are you serious? Is this real?"

"That is the district attorney's signature at the bottom. It's as real as it gets. All you have to do is say yes. But, there are conditions you must meet. You will be employed by Black-Gate Industries, stationed at their newly constructed and first of many, maximum security prisons as a nurse. You will be required to sign a non-disclosure agreement where upon penalty of violation, you will be returned to this cell and pick up where you left off."

"Why are you offering me this instead of a nurse, you know, one that's not in jail?"

"Let's just say my employers prefer people from your side of the bars."

"Because we're easier to control."

"Precisely."

"Then yes. Of course. Whatever gets me out of here. So this means my arrest disappears? Record expunged?"

"More like removed and placed in a box somewhere else is more like it. Should you violate your non-disclosure agreement, it remains accessible."

"Sounds like blackmail."

"It also sounds like freedom. I'll return this afternoon to collect you. You may keep the paperwork. It's yours. It was a pleasure, Nurse Riley. I'm happy I could help you."

* * * *

Cristina sat up on her couch, frustrated at being unable to sleep because of what the girls told her about her patient. It also didn't help that everything they said was true. Cristina was falling for him...an unconscious inmate named Alfonso Machetti who was in the mafia, apparently.

Cristina got up and turned on the midnight news and stayed awake the rest of the night, hoping for something related to the Scarlatti family to come on.

At four in the morning, her next-door neighbor banged on the wall from behind her television. The walls in her apartment complex were paper thin which is why her neighbor hated any kind of sound so early in the morning.

Cristina got up and banged on the wall behind her television and said, "I'll turn it down, you bitch!"