CHAPTER 2.
Sgt Patterson sat in her warm office looking out at the wretched girl toiling
away under the supervision of Corporal Jenks, who was shouting at her in a
perpetual litany of abuse, urging her on to greater efforts and making sure she
had not a second's respite until the task was completed.
She saw her shovelling several loads of coke into the barrow, trundling the
barrow over the distance to the fresh and slowly growing heap, unloading the
coke and returning to the first pile for hour after glorious hour. (Not so
glorious for Private Brown!). The sight of the naked body becoming increasingly
flushed by exertion and cold became more and more exciting to her. She thought
with glee of the discomfort and worse that the poor girl was enduring.
There were twenty other female prisoners here at this penal facility but only
one who had been sentenced to serve her detention in a state of total nudity.
Patterson had never found out the reason for the exceptional severity of
Eloise's punishment. Four years' detention was incredibly long- the girl nearest
in terms of length of sentence was serving only six months- and the regime of
eighteen hours a day of hard labor exposed year round to the elements was savage
enough in itself, but to be naked and outdoors during the winter months was
likely to kill the girl or so she had thought last year when Eloise had been
delivered to their "care".
It almost had killed her she remembered. Only warm air outlets from the camp
buildings where she had been allowed to spend a few minutes every two hours to
warm herself up a bit had saved her. Also she was proving to be quite
exceptionally hard, as though she was determined to live, even though many might
have given up in despair by this time.
I wonder what her story is, she thought. Why is she the only prisoner whose
record I cannot see and why are the staff forbidden to talk to her other than to
give her work and to discipline her?
She resumed her contemplation of the wintry scene. A gang of women were cutting
up logs. They had only been working since seven am and had had a breakfast -
unlike Eloise whose first meal of the day might not be for hours yet.
Sadistic bitch that she was, Patterson felt a slight pang of pity for the
unfortunate girl. Not that she would let it get in the way of doing her job.
What must she have done to deserve this? Damn. I wish I knew.
