CHAPTER 7
As bad as the days were, the nights were sometimes worse for the nude prisoner.
Yes she was finally able to stop working and rest, but with it came the awful
solitude and being left alone with her nightmares.
While the other prisoners were able to get some down time to relax and talk to
other prisoners to stay sane, Eloise was not allowed such frivolities. She was
not allowed to speak to any of the other prisoners and was the only laborer not
given a partner for her daily work.
And of course, the major difference lied in the uniforms of the prisoners. While
she toiled completely bare in the frigid cold, her fellow prisoners wore
prison-issued work pants, sweatshirts and boots with gloves and hats. In the
summer, she was allowed no covering from the baking sun but her fellow prisoners
received sunscreen, hats, etc. In addition, when the weather got too hot, they
were given midday off to avoid heatstroke.
Not for Eloise. She burned terribly that first hot, summer day. And while the
other prisoners were rounded up early one day, just before the usual lunch
break, she was left to suffer alone, trimming hedges, pumping the well for water
and lugging it to the kitchen. She suffered under the brutal summer heat, the
only concession being a drink break once every hour instead of the usual break
every two hours.
Her prayers had changed over the length of her sentence. When she was finally
given a chance to be alone after 18 hours of hard labor and constant yelling
from the guards, she had first prayed for the sentence to be brought to an end.
That somehow, they would give up on her and let her walk free. But two weeks of
labor, pain and humiliation unlike anything she had ever experienced had changed
her prayers.
Now she prayed for little things...more mild weather, a job that did not require
too much lifting, a chance to talk to anyone. Alas, even these prayers went by
the wayside these days...the weather was anything but mild, dipping into the
single digits at night. Every job they conceived for her involved serious
lifting and painful movements. And the chance to talk to anyone never came to
be...she was never alone when other prisoners were around and her guards refused
to answer any questions unless they were work related. She desperately wanted to
have some decent human contact, even for a moment.
She worked 18 hours every day, even weekends. No other prisoners were given such
a sentence. 18 hours on, six off, that was her life. The only way she could tell
the weekends came when she was awoken at 4 a.m. and brought to work...on the
weekdays there were prisoners moving about, working in the kitchen, etc. But on
the weekends, it was just her and whatever unfortunate bitch that had been given
the unpleasant weekend task.
Usually, she worked from 4 a.m. until roughly 11 a.m. then she would be given
whatever food was left over from breakfast. She then worked until 7:30 p.m. when
the scraps from dinner became available. Even for meals, she was alone, usually
forced to eat her meals while kneeling on the floor or out in the dirt. She
hated the life they had subjected to and wanted to die.
She then went back to work until 10 p.m. If her work was done sufficiently, she
was allowed to use the facilities and go to bed. Again, she was ushered into an
area where no other prisoners were allowed and was allowed to do her business.
She was allowed no covering at all so the guards would shave her pubic hair,
underarms and legs. The only covering was her hair and even that was cut mostly
short to make it easier.
After a shower and use of the toilet, her only permitted use during the day (the
rest of the day she was forced to do it outside in the main prison yard and then
clean up the remnants), she was taken to her cot and chained to the bed. The bed
was just a metal frame with the flimsiest mattress over top of it. Of course
there were no blankets or pillows...she was not allowed anything but the basic
necessities of life.
Her hands were chained to the frame above her and her ankles were chained to the
frame at her feet, spread apart. She was allowed no heat and no light. She had a
window in the beginning but the warden had ruled that it gave her too much
pleasure and light so it was bricked up. Never has anyone known a more total
deprivation.
In the silence, she prayed and replayed the events that had gotten her locked
into this three year sentence of hell.
