MISCHA'S CELLMATES regarded her as part celebrity and part pariah. They barely acknowledged her presence, which she thought might be some kind of ritual for a newbie. Only the blond woman was willing to speak to her. Mischa suspected she was the only one who spoke English.332Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡhhZgy9z5jw
Her name was Roseline. She was a carjacker. She'd been convicted of a third offense more than three years ago and was serving a five-year sentence. She had soft blue eyes and a youthful face, though her skin was blemished and her nose crooked.
Mischa sat on the bottom bunk with her, after she threw the two extra mattresses off and gave her a seat. Roseline opened a large plastic box that had a long number on it and offered her biscuits from a can. Mischa ate a few of them. They were dry and stale but it was food. The actress hadn't eaten dinner, or lunch. Her stomach was howling at her.
"Do not tell them I gave you food," said Roseline.
"Why not?"
She didn't speak for a while. She seemed to be struggling with what she could say to Mischa.
"Do not tell them," she said.
Roseline was the only person who had treated Mischa like a human being here, so she decided not to push it.
Rosaline checked out her fashionable wardrobe, the smock and thin pants. "Those clothes are for....les pauvres."
The poor, she meant. The indigent prisoners who couldn't afford their own clothes. Mischa didn't qualify as poor. Stubborn and naïve. But not that poor.
"Ah, you----argued? With that guards? You must not do that."
"Dix minutes pour les lumieres!" The guard's voice, calling for lights out in ten minutes, crackled through the intercom speaker by the door of the cell. Mischa looked at her watch. It was ten minutes to eight.332Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡHrLZkfvA55
Mischa considered the sleeping arrangements again. Seven of them. Four beds. Two extra mattresses for the floor. She assumed she was the odd person out.332Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡTCsydisyQ6
Rosaline got up and pulled the blanket off her bed on the top bunk. She laid the blanket out in the small space on the floor that hadn't been taken up by the two extra mattresses. She then Mischa's bedsheet over the blanket, the latter to use her own blanket, apparently, to cover herself.332Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡr0mRBHlwGK
"Do not---argue with the guards," she repeated.332Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡim2mSHniSd
"Tomorrow's another day."332Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡOuTmVmlalZ
With that, the lights went out. Everything was dark.332Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡcdOK0Wfjro
"I am not---speaking of tomorrow," Rosaline whispered. "I am speaking of tonight."332Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡVf9kUfsotM
