Walk Tall Walk Straight: Part 5
Hard Knocks: Hard Time part1

Hard Knocks

Eugene Judd could be forgiven for thinking that with his arduous upbringing, prison would be a 'walk in the park'. Any ideas he may have had along those lines had been dispelled, twelve hours into his two year sentence. From the moment he had entered the prison gates it had been rush, rush, rush, interspaced with barked derogatory comments and commands. "Stand on the line, lean against the counter, oh you can't can you, little fella?" Then it was "Strip, shower, put these on, follow me". Next he had found himself stood in prison utilities while any processions he had entered the court with that morning had been listed and placed into a brown envelope. He knew he wouldn't be seeing them for another two years. From there he had been walked to his cell, suffering the comments that had been part and parcel of his whole life, if it hadn't been for the immediate rapport he had struck up with his cellmate, he was sure he would have been crying by now. As he pondered the days events over and over, while lying in his bunk, Eugene knew that this was nothing like anything he had faced before and he wished that sleep would claim him and give him a brief respite from the thoughts running through his mind. "Having difficulty sleeping mate?" "I guess I'm just not use to all this 'Two Scoops'". 'Two Scoops' was the name Judds cellmate liked to be known by, he insisted it was because it had only taken two scoops of distilled flypaper solution to convince the judge, that he had not had his wife's best interest at heart when he had laced her dinner with them. His real name had not been revealed to Judd and he didn't feel that it would be prudent to ask. "The first few weeks are going to be hard, especially being as tall as you are, but if you stick with me, I'm sure you'll settle. Now I suggest you get your head down, lying there worrying about it isn't going to solve anything. Remember, you can't change the past, only the future". Despite the reassuring words, it still took Judd another forty-five minutes before he drifted off to sleep. If asked later, Judd would have sworn on a stack of bibles, that he had only been asleep for five minutes before the nightlight burst into full illumination. Even before he had had the chance to become accustomed to the bright light his ears where assailed by the jangling of keys and the barking of inaudible commands. This dual assault on his senses jarred him into full consciousness and he found himself sitting upright staring upwards towards the 'Power Bunk'.

Two hours of prison regimen had Judd struggling to keep up and by the time he had slopped out, showered, breakfasted and dressed he was ready for his bunk again. All the way through these events, his cellmate had kept up a running commentary of what was what and who was who within the prison. It was also made clear that at some point he could expect some trouble from one of the prisoners. "It's their way of working out what your about, most new fish get tested, but you're an oddity as well", with that he had laughed and smiled towards Judd.

The move against Judd came later on that day. As a new inmate he hadn't been assigned work, so had spent the day in his cell and trying to avoid the activities around him. It was when he had gone for lunch that he had realized that things were going to happen. Strangely enough, the attack came from an unexpected quarter. Judd had just collected his food and was heading to a quiet table when he unexpectedly found himself sprawled on the floor covered in mash potatoes, pork, vegetables and gravy. Looking up, he found himself staring into the face of one of the ugliest men he had ever seen, a nervous giggle erupted from his mouth, spraying his assailant with remnants of his lunch. This just forced Judd to burst into laughter, this caused snickering from the tables nearest to the events, and while his assailant looked on with puzzlement in his eyes and a bemused dumb look on his face Judd pulled himself to his feet. Coming to the conclusion that events where not going as he had envisaged, the attacker, like most bullies resorted to plan b. This was to shout very loudly and very close to your targets face. As the bully leant forward to bring his face as close as possible to Judds, Judd chose that moment to finish his climb back to his feet, his upcoming head and the attackers chin met with force.

Judd shook his head to clear away the dizziness and opened his eyes to see his attacker staggering backwards with blood pouring from his chin. Unable to arrest his clumsy movements, the attacker crashed through a table, taking four inmates with him. As Judd turned and started back to his cell, brushing away food as he went, guards were already rushing towards the melee. He was already back in his cell by the time the guards had managed to extricate an unconscious form from the beating fists.

His cellmate returned just after he had come back from the showers. "I don't know what the hell happened there, but for a newbie, you sure know how to make an impression. A man in the infirmary a mini riot in the food hall and you with only a red mark on your head and no charges. Sharing a cell with you is going to be interesting" Judd grinned and a lot of the anxiety he had felt during the day disappeared. He guessed that he was likely to face more problems, but he now felt better able to deal with whatever the next two years threw at him.