Prison Power Play

Sunday, January 29, 1984: First Cell Block Showdown. How Strangers Become Cellmates.

Bang-bang, rattle-rattle, lock-lock. The door bangs open and a young thug is pushed into my cell.

He looks like my older brother, smaller than me, with a nasty rash on his face.

He throws his clothes on the top bunk, says mine and looks at me like a maniac, knowing that it was mine.

My first dick comparison.

With an "I shit bigger piles than you" expression specially trained for such occasions, I stand up and stare deep into his eyes without saying a word.

"Just kidding," he laughs and sits down on the lower bunk.

One to zero - for me and now, I think. Who knows what he'll do to me at night when I'm asleep.

"Why you're here?" he wants to know. "Leaving the country," I answer in monosyllables. "And you"? "Brawl". This could be a real pain in the ass.

We sit down at the table and stare at each other.

"No cigarettes?" he asks. "No, nothing," because I was surprised by the cell to cell transfer and hadn't had a chance to get paid.

"No problem," he says and offers me a but. We smoke.

After yard time, something happens that no one would have thought possible: the hatch opens and an arm belonging to Siegfried waves in.

"Tommy? Quick!" he whispers, and as soon as he glimpse me he throws cigarettes, onions, tokens and bread through.

My new cellmate is completely off the socks. This should finally clear up the situation.

And I can sleep undisturbed at night.