1.09 Bath Time

Shortly after breakfast, Bear pokes his snout through the bars and says, "Number six, bath in five minutes. Get ready."

Bath? What a relief!

My hair is a greasy, disheveled mop, my scalp itches, and, after sweating in this muggy kennel all night, my sell-by date is fast approaching.

There’s no telling what Bear means by "get ready". I can only hope it doesn't entail stripping down to my birthday suit and sashaying butt-naked down a catwalk, dingdong flapping and the cellblock ringing with lusty catcalls.

Below the washbasin is a plastic washbasin, the kind you see Japanese totting under their arms when they pop into their neighborhood public bathhouse. I toss everything imaginable into it—half bars of soap, two hand towels, a fresh pair of regulation skivvies and a clean t-shirt—then kneel down before the cell door, awaiting my turn.

"Number six," Bear says, sliding the door open. "Your turn."

Pointing to the end of the cellblock where another guard is standing, he tells me that the bath is the second to last door on the left.

“Golddigger”, that well-upholstered next-door neighbor of mine, has also been let out of his cell and is halfway down the corridor, strutting with the air of a sumo wrestler about to step into the dohyo for a bout.

Good god, I hope they don't expect the two of us to bathe together!

Overcast sky grow dimmer yet as images of prison showers cloud my thoughts: a fumbled bar of soap and unwelcomed visitors barging through the backdoor, without so much as a how-d'ye-do, while the guard looks the other way.

© Aonghas Crowe, 2010. All rights reserved. No unauthorized duplication of any kind.

注意：この作品はフィクションです。登場人物、団体等、実在のモノとは一切関係ありません。

All characters appearing in this work are fictitious. Any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.

The first installment of No.6 can be found here.

No. 6 is now available on Kindl