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Sonia had noticed Joan, the ex-governor. She was hard to miss. She found herself intrigued by her. What had happened to bring her from the heights of power in this prison to being an inmate? She knew that it couldn’t have been a lack of intelligence or planning. She had heard rumours that Joan had had a breakdown. What made her tick? Sonia was a good judge of character and was expert at profiling. She sensed there was much more to Joan. She sensed she had quite the history and wasn’t always like this.
Joan had noticed Sonia. She was hard to miss. Very elegant and aloof. She wondered what made her tick? Joan sensed that she was like herself. Willing to do anything to get what she wants. But, she also sensed another side to her. She wasn’t quite as one dimensional as she herself had become. Sonia was firmly in control during the vote for top dog and told inmates in no nonsense terms that it was one vote only. This impressed Joan.
Sonia knew Joan was also on remand. For murder. She had heard all sorts of stories. She wondered how much truth there was to what the inmates gossiped about. Judging by the way Joan carried herself, she had pride in spades. It almost as though Joan reveled in being universally despised.
Joan knew that Sonia was on remand for murder. She sensed that if she was guilty, it wasn’t a crime of passion. Sonia killed for a logical reason. If she was a murderer, she was a cold blooded one, just as she herself was.
It would seem they had something in common.
Sonia was on her way to the showers. Joan was just coming from the showers. They rounded the corner at the same time and collided. Joan was quick to reach out and steady the much smaller woman. Sonia apologized saying how clumsy that was of her. Joan said she hoped Sonia wasn’t hurt and it was her fault for not putting her full attention on where she was going. They made some small talk and then Joan asked Sonia to join her for lunch. Sonia replied that sounded lovely.
At lunch, they found a table to themselves. As they sat down and began eating, they were sizing each other up. Speculating. Two hawks. They were both wary of revealing much about themselves other than the basics. Nothing much was a secret in this prison, but, they both knew that it wasn’t all that it seemed.
Joan enjoyed Sonia’s company. She felt as though she were with a person equal to herself in terms of intelligence and refinement. As they were preparing to leave, they both said simultaneously, we must do this again sometime.