Free Prisoners of the Williwaw by Ed Griffin

his last hope."   And the prison chaplain advised her, a little crudely she thought, "Hell, wives can leave if they want after six months and besides, a prison boss' wife's got nothing to worry about up there."
    "Ah, freedom," he said, glancing over at her, giving her that super sexy look. The whirlwind.   Like the first time she saw him when she was twenty-five.    It was in Detroit at a party given by her father to celebrate a very successful limited partnership that he and three other doctors had formed.Gilmore was there because the fifth partner was the organization.
    He was a leader that night, drawing them all in, the white doctors, the black doctors, their wives, - and she too, was drawn up into the whirling, irresistible vortex of wry humor , intelligent discussion, bold plans, and fearless action that was James T. Gilmore.
    The squall lessened.   He drove onto Adak's main road.   "We just have a little way to go."
    "To Bering Hill?"
    "No.Our place is right down here." He pointed out the front.   "Bering Hill is way the hell around a big bend in the road and up a hill."
    "Look at that building."   She tried to read the sign through the rain.   "Diesel something."
    "Diesel Electric Power Plant."
    The building looked strange.   It rose out of the ground without landscape, without trees, without bushes.   It was stark and cold.   Every building she saw was that way.   There was tundra and then there was building, like a skyscraper in the middle of an ice field.   " Brrr .   Give me a warm fireplace here.   Does our house have a fireplace?"
    "Hmmm," he whispered, leaning over to nibble her ear, "I had other ways in mind of keeping warm."
    She slapped his knee.
    They drove past a big rock with graffiti on it.   Jeannie Dickinson, the little girl from the plane, trudged along in the rain with her parents.   Latisha put her hand on Gil's elbow.   "Wait. Stop.   Let's give them a lift."
    "We're not going that far.   They're going up the hill.   We're just a little further."
    "Come on, Gil."
    He stopped, putting the car in neutral.    Latisha opened the back door and shouted for them to get in.   The woman and Jeannie got in and with them a lot of wind and rain."Holy shit, Boss," the woman said, "I ain't never seen so much rain."
    Her husband, the Asian man, waved them on.   He had their luggage in a shopping cart.
    "Wow," Jeannie said.   "Like I saw an eagle."
    Latisha turned to look at her.   She was smiling despite the fact that her black hair was soaked and lay plastered against her face.   "This place is cool," she said.
    "I like it, too," Latisha answered.
    Jeannie's mother opened her purse and looked at herself in a pocket mirror.   "Fuck!" she said.
    They drove to the top of the hill, carefully maneuvering around giant potholes, passing several other families struggling up the hill, the wind in their faces.     Latisha read the map and found the Marine Barracks, where they let Jeannie and her mother off.
    Gil turned the car around.   "Wait," she said as they passed a view spot on the top of the hill.   "Let's get out and look."
    "Get out?"
    "Come on."
    "It's raining."
    "Not as much."
    "Latisha, I've got to get to our place."
    "Why?What's the rush?   We've got fifteen years here."
    "I just do."
    "Why?"
    He looked frustrated, but he put the car in neutral and pulled on the handbrake.
    She tucked her hair under her hood and got out. The visibility had increased, but the wind still howled at them, bringing with it the strong smell of the sea.
    They could see below them what the map euphemistically called Downtown Adak, the runway, the factory, the hospital, the store and piles of rubble from previous structures on the shores of Kuluk Bay.
    To the south stark hills and mountains marked the beginning of the wilderness area.Gilmore shook his head.   "It ain't much, but - if the feds keep shipping prisoners up here…"
    "It'll get crowded."
    The wind whipped her parka hood off and blew her