“What a nightmare!” Veronica muttered and groaned under her breath as she rolled to a sitting position from the hard cot. Rubbing the grit from her eyes, she finished the maneuver and began to stretch the tightness from her shoulders and muscles from such cramped quarters. Waking up from a cat nap induced by stress and exhaustion in a prison cell was a whole new experience for her, one she didn’t want to get used to. The clang of metal resounded as her breakfast tray slid against the bars onto the small table at the foot of her bed. She glanced unpleasantly at the congealed oatmeal, and toast, with the small packet of jam they had given her. Three days in a row. Yum, she thought, as her stomach growled and she scooted across the bed towards her repast.
Three days of this, and she already had the routine down. She reached for the milk and felt the moisture on the container. Again, she realized it wouldn’t be very cold. The guards never seemed to be in a hurry to deliver meals. The hot stuff was cold, the cold stuff warm. Delish!
She opened the cardboard container and took a long swallow trying to choke it down. Her stomach needed something, and though not as active as she usually was she found her energy sapping. One more look at the oatmeal, and she knew she couldn’t do it. The milk was already curdling in her stomach. She pushed it away, and reached for the toast and jam. Peeling off the cover on the small plastic packet, she stuck her finger into the gooey contents, and spread the strawberry jelly-like substance across the surface of the barely toasted bread. No knives in jail, not even plastic.
Her hearing was today, thank goodness. Then she’d be out of here. Out, and ready to fight to prove her innocence. The first day she had been in complete shock and denial. The second day, she’d been a mess, an emotional basket case. But after her visit with her mom, her gumption and fight returned and last night she began putting the pieces of the puzzle together. She was ready to fight.
Seeing her mom had helped. Tremendously. Her mom was a beacon of strength, had always been. She told her not to worry about bail and a lawyer. She was already on it.
How could she not worry about those things? Her mom didn’t have that kind of money. But, she was glad for the reassurance anyway, and despite the tell-tale signs, her mom’s red rimmed eyes, the twisting of her wedding band around her finger, Ronnie knew she was worried but trying not to show it.
Ronnie hated putting any kind of hurt and stress on her mother. Not just the worry, and the fear, but now the economic burden of trying to prove her daughter’s innocence. She’d pay back every penny, she swore to her.
“Baby, you’re my daughter. My heart. I would do anything for you, you know that.” Her mom reached out putting her palm on the glass partition separating them. Ronnie touched the surface of the glass as well, hating that her hand shook as she placed her palm against the cool surface.
She had never been in this kind of predicament before, and disappointing her mother was the worst thing of all. Her mom had worked hard, put her dreams on hold, and lived only for Ronnie for twenty years. She was supposed to be making her mom proud that all her hard work had not been in vain.
Choking back the sob that threatened to come out of her throat, she asked, she had to, “Mom, you believe me, don’t you?”
“Baby, Veronica, of course I believe you. I have more faith in you than in anything else in my life.” Lou looked into her daughter’s frightened eyes, and wanted more than anything to pull her daughter into her arms, rock her, and chase away the nightmare she was going through. But this wasn’t one of her childhood nightmares that could so easily be chased away with soft soothing words. This was real, and she was terrified for her daughter.
“Thank-you Mom,” Ronnie sniffed and pushed a blonde strand of hair out of her eyes. “I’ll pay you back for the lawyer, for the bail, everything, some day,”
“Hey, none of that,” Lou chastised, wanting to build up her daughter’s courage. She knew she raised a strong girl, and she would need to be strong now. They both would.
After Veronica had described the public defenders response to her, Lou knew getting a lawyer, a good one, was absolutely essential. She also had a person in mind. Her dear friend Ana’s brother-in-law. She had heard stories of his successes in the news. Surely, he would help her for a friend of the family, for his new sister-in-law. Not one to normally ask for favors, Lou would grovel for her daughter, on her knees, on broken glass or hot coals. Whatever it took. “I’ve got a great attorney in mind. Jay is working on the bail now. He went to talk to a bondsman this morning.”
“Thank-you,” Veronica muttered again, hanging her head in shame. She knew this was critical. The public defender she had been assigned was a total loser in her opinion. He hadn’t asked if she was innocent, probably wouldn’t have even believed her. He had been stiff and formal and quite detached in the brief meeting this morning. In fact, he’d seemed bored and hadn’t even made eye contact.