Two Pink Lines

9

Tom nearly jumps out of his seat when the door to his office flys open. Alice Smith comes storming into the room, looking pale and miserable, with her eyes puffy and red, like she's been crying. "Alice, you can't keep barging in here whenever you feel like it."

She ignores him, waving her hand to silence him. "Where is he?"

"Who?"

"FP. Is he here? I need to see him."

"You saw him a few days ago."

She rolls her eyes. "I know that, but this is important, I need to see him right now."

"Alice, in case you've forgotten, he was arrested. He's an inmate now, I can't just let you in to see him whenever you want, that's not how the system works." He turns back to his papers. "I'm sorry but I can't help you."

Her eyes fill up with tears and she steps closer to his desk. "Tom, please. I need to see him, just for a few minutes."

He sighs, the sight of someone as iron strong as Alice Smith showing her vulnerable side, too much for him to resist. "I can't do anything for you today, he's being transferred over to Shankshaw in about an hour. However, there's visitation on Sunday and I suppose if it's that important, I can call ahead and approve a visit for him."

"Thank you." She breaths out, a sense of relief washing over her. "Thank you so much."

He nods. "Just, seriously, start knocking, or at least call ahead of time so I don't nearly have a heart attack every time you show up."

•

Sunday felt like it took forever to finally come around, but when it finally did, Alice was up bright and early, getting herself ready to go drop a bombshell on FP.

"Hi, I'm here for visitation." Alice tells the woman at the desk when she walks into the prison.

"Name and inmate you're here to see?" The woman asks, clearly bored.

"Alice Smith, here to see FP Jones. Tom Keller said he was going to call and approve the visit?"

The woman is quiet for a moment as she reads over a log of names. "Ah, yes, here you are. Here's a visitor pass and the visitation room is just down the hall, we'll notify the inmate that he has a visitor and he should be in shortly."

Alice cringes was the woman calls FP an inmate, it just sounds so horrible. "Thank you." She smiles tightly and walks down the hall to the visitation room, immediately overwhelmed with the sound of multiple voices talking over one another and kids loudly chatting away.

She swallows hard and finds an empty table towards the back of the room. She drums her fingernails lightly on the table, anxiously waiting for FP to show up.

The door opens and her head immediately snaps up, locking eyes on FP who's being uncuffed by one of the prison guards.

She stands up and gives him a small wave so he sees her. His eyes immediately grow wide when he does and she feels her stomach turn.

"Al? You're really here! I thought it was just some cruel joke."

She smiles a little. "Nope, I'm really here."

"How? I mean, they haven't even given me phone privileges yet, let alone visitation."

"Tom called ahead and approved this visit." He nods, aching to hold her but not wanting to overstep. Things didn't exactly go well last time they saw each other. "It's okay that I came, right?"