Free Young Women Reform: Novella 1 by Candace Mia Page B

and the room. He
was looking at her, at her expression. He was stunned that he’d be
allowed to be alone with this girl. He wouldn’t do anything with
her, but Ms. Pennington couldn’t know that. She’d have to know that
most prisoners would. Hell, a large proportion of the prisoners he
knew would settle for a boy the age of Penny. In maximum security,
there were no conjugal visits.
    Penny moved to another door, which she
opened. “This is your bathroom.”
    He couldn’t believe it. Having this nice room
was amazing to him. But was he really going to have his own
bathroom. He was thrilled to see it. Besides being excited about
having a personal place to do his business, he figured there would
be a faucet in there, and he was very thirsty. He walked that
way.
    Penny just stood there, right between him and
the bathroom.
    He didn’t know what to do. He wasn’t going to
ask her to move. He was afraid to ask anybody for anything at this
point.
    “Don’t you want to see your bathroom?”
    He hesitated and then said, “Yes, ma’am.”
    She giggled. “You don’t have to call me
ma’am. I’m only eighteen.”
    He squinted, like he’d be able to see it. He
supposed she was eighteen. She was just small and would probably
look younger than that for many years to come. At least, she would
to him. It had been a long time since he’d seen women on a regular
basis and would be able to judge such things.
    “Okay,” he said.
    “Oh,” she said. “Would you like for me to
move?”
    He hesitated again. “Yes, please.”
    She giggled again. “No. I think I’ll
stay.”
    He still didn’t know what to do. This place
was already a thousand times better than the place he’d come from.
It didn’t really matter if she was of legal age. He didn’t have a
legal life. What was legal here was what Ms. Pennington said was
legal. And he doubted she’d brought him here to make physical
contact with the women.
    She giggled again.
    Then there was a stern female voice.
“Penny!”
    His head shot to the doorway to the room.
There stood Ms. Pennington. “Is this anyway to treat the man who
will be your teacher?”
    “No, Ma’am,” Penny said in a voice that
shook. He looked at her. Her head was down.
    “Is this what you were instructed to do?”
    “No ma’am.”
    He looked back at Ms. Pennington. She had
that look on her face, a look of confident superiority. “Leave Mr.
Wakefield alone, so that he can become accustomed to his new living
quarters alone, seeing that you can’t seem to show him
appropriately.”
    “Yes ma’am,” Penny said and started to leave
the room.
    “Go ahead and go into my office,” Ms.
Pennington said. “We’ll have a talk about manners.”
    “Yes, ma’am,” the little woman said, sobbing,
then left them there.
    Ms. Pennington looked at him. “I know this
will be a difficult adjustment for you, Brody. I will have a
certain amount of patients with that. But one thing you’ll have to
learn is to be stern with these young women and not let them run
over you. Do you understand?”
    He did not. “Yes, ma’am.”
    “Good. Dinner will be ready in half an hour.
I will send someone for you.”
    “Yes, ma’am.”
    “Good,” she said, smiling. Then she left him
there.
    #
    He drank water from the bathroom tap. He was
so thirsty that it was wonderful. There was a combination shower
tub. It was stocked with plenty of shampoos and soap. It had been
so long since he’d had a bath. The prison didn’t have a bath. And
you only got a few minutes to take a shower. Was it okay to indulge
in this?
    Before he’d gone to prison he’d had baths. It
hadn’t been a big deal then. He did it. The prison soaps had
smelled sterile, but not good. Every bottle he opened smelled good.
He wanted to stay in the warm water of that tub for hours. But he
settled for fifteen minutes. He found towels in the bathroom
closet. They were big a fluffy, not scratchy. He went into his
bedroom and looked in the dresser there.