The Loverboy

by Miel Vermeulen

  sounded like the men"s area. None of the women in her area

  attempted to speak to her and she just lay there trying to

  figure it all out. Several hours later two steel plates and two

  steel cups were pushed into the cell and the guard yelled “Hora

  de cenar” as she walked away. The woman on the bottom bed

  immediately scoped up the better looking plate and gave her a

  threatening look. Kim picked up the other plate. She was hungry

  but the food did not look very appealing. She picked a bit at

  the beans and unidentified meat and tried to wash it down with

  the water from the cup. Then she handed the plate to her cell

  mate who accepted it suspiciously.

  She lay in the bed as the sun outside began to set through

  a small two square foot barred window. Her mind clouded with too

  many thoughts again as she finally fell asleep many hours and tears later.

  Chapter 20:

  Morning came early and breakfast had been no better than

  dinner the day before but at she had been hungry enough to eat

  about half of it this time to the dismay of her cell mate. After

  having given up and giving her what had been left of breakfast

  her cell mate had warmed up a little but there was no

  communication possible as neither spoke the other"s language,

  but at least the tension was a lot less.

  She still hadn"t completely grasped what was going on but

  had figured out by now that things were bad and was trying to

  prepare for the worst. Drug trafficking charges were more severe

  here in Mexico, however she hadn"t known about the drugs and it

  hadn"t been hers. Surely they couldn"t hold it against her that

  she had been ignorant. Also she was innocent and they had to

  prove she was guilty.

  When the faded old clock on the wall outside the cell

  showed ten two guards came and motioned her to turn around. When

  she did they put the handcuffs back on through the bars before they let her out of the cell. She nodded at her cell mate who

  gave her a genuine smile as if to say “good luck”. The guards

  led her outside where the same van that had transported her from

  the airport to the police station was waiting. She shuddered

  seeing it as her body was still hurting from yesterdays ride.

  The ride was fairly smooth to her surprise and the driver was

  considerate to his passengers. She still felt unstable but did

  not feel like she was going to fall off the bench at any minute

  nor did she get slammed into the divider when the van slowed

  down.

  About an hour later the van stopped and the driver got out.

  She could hear the ocean again and found it very calming.

  Fifteen minutes later the driver came back and opened the back.

  She was let out and saw she was in the harbor of La Paz. Before

  her was a large ferry and she was taken aboard on a small ramp

  that was different from where the passengers got on. The ramp

  was more for personnel and supplies she figured. From there they

  led her into a room in the belly of the ferry without windows or

  anything. The room had a small cell that had four beds in it but

  she was the only occupant. The officers instructed her to enter

  and locked the door behind her. An officer from the ferry signed

  some paperwork and the police officers left. She had no idea how long this was going to take but settled down on one of the bunks

  and was left to her thoughts.

  Every hour someone stopped in to check on her but did not

  speak to her. She was starting to feel very alien as there was

  nobody to talk to and she could not wait to get to where ever

  they were taking her. Then she would finally get someone from

  the consulate to visit her and explain what was going on. They

  would be able to contact Jake for her and he would set the

  record straight and help get her out of there. Everything was

  delayed again but surely it was just a delay and nothing more.

  It couldn"t be, not after everything she had been through, she

  couldn"t just lose everything she had worked for. Every

  disgusting act would not be for nothing. She would have her new

  life. She felt the motion of the boat and just stayed on her

  bunk.

  An hour into the trip someone brought lunch which was very

  nice compared to what she had been fed in the La Paz police

  station. Several more hours passed but with no notion of time

  and no window she had no idea how much. Dinner was brought as

  she was getting hungry again and she ate it all. More time

  passed and she started to wonder if this was ever going to end.

  She finally dozed off and was awoken a few hours later this time

  by another set of police officers. The police officers handcuffed her again so took her out on the small ramp. She

  passed a wall clock and it read twelve o"clock. She had been on

  the boat for about thirteen hours. It was dark out but it was

  mild and not cold.

  She was transported with another van again and arrived at

  the Mazatlan police station where she was put back into a cell

  only to be woken up several hours later. She was served

  breakfast again and longed for the food she had received on the

  ferry but ate anyway. Then she was led outside again where there

  was a bus waiting for her. The bus had Santa Martha Acatitla

  printed on the side and Kim figured it was the prison she was

  being transported to. There were five other prisoners on the bus

  and they were all seated as far apart as possible. The police

  officers and prison guards did some paperwork and ten minutes

  later the bus left.

  The trip was long and the seats were better than they had

  been in the vans but handcuffs were not removed. They stopped

  for lunch and dinner at which times they were able to have

  bathroom breaks. The bus also stopped at five police stations

  along the way and more prisoners entered the bus. By the time

  they reached Santa Martha Acatitla there were twelve of them. It

  had gotten close to midnight again and they were led one by one

  into the prison where they were processed and given dull blue uniforms while their normal clothes were taken away and they

  were taken into a cell block.

  The prison was older and heavily secured. There were tall

  walls and towers with armed guards. She felt really

  claustrophobic walking into it despite the huge size of the

  complex. When led into the cell block everything was quiet and

  she was led into a cell. Her new cell mate woke up for a second

  and then fell asleep again. She settled in on the top bunk and

  planned to go to sleep which she didn"t think would be hard

  after the long trip but soon after she settled in she heard a

  loud screaming. To her surprise the screaming seemed to be one

  of an infant. Then she heard a mother"s soothing attempts to

  quiet the child. She was shocked, “there are children in here?”

  she thought. The rest of the prison seemed oddly unbothered by

  the noise and her cell mate certainly didn"t wake up from it.

  This seemed to be a not uncommon thing. She lay down and tried

  to go to sleep.

  The crying lasted abou
t forty five minutes and after that

  all was quiet again. The next morning they were awoken at six am

  and Kim was dead tired as she looked around. In the light she

  noticed that her cell mate was blond to her surprise.

  “You aren"t Mexican?” she asked. The woman who was in her late thirties introduced herself

  as Rose Desmond from Austin, Texas. Rose was friendly and seemed

  eerily comfortable in these dreadful surroundings. Rose was

  welcoming and took Kim along into the mess hall where breakfast

  was served. The food wasn"t great but it was better than she had

  had in the past at the police stations and while eating Rose

  explained how things worked in the prison. She pointed out who

  to stay away from and who was good to hang out with. She

  introduced her to Maria who was her lover. Rose was not gay she

  explained but after fifteen years her she had taken on a lover

  to drive away the loneliness.

  Sex between inmates was not allowed but it went on and as

  long as it didn"t cause problems the guards overlooked it. The

  mess hall also had a number of little kids running around. Kim

  was very surprised about this and was informed that kids born in

  prison were allowed to stay with their mothers until they were

  six years old. The prison was old and harsh but if you followed

  the rules it was a lot better than many of the other prisons.

  The men"s wings were a totally different story but they

  were completely segregated. Rose also told her that they liked

  to put foreign prisoners with other foreign prisoners to help

  them get settled. She also pointed out a woman by the name of

  Marcella Nunez. Marcella, Rose explained was the daughter of Fernando Nunez who is a major cartel drug lord and had dangerous

  connections. It was best not to mess with her. Marcella liked

  the place and everyone else she would not risk getting

  transferred to a worse location but if you crossed her she would

  have someone else take care of the problem. Kim took note and

  agreed to stay out of her way.

  “What are you in here for? If you don"t mind me asking” Kim

  asked Rose.

  “Like most foreigners for drug trafficking” Rose said

  without looking up.

  Kim swallowed.

  “When do you get out?” Kim asked fearing the answer. “My

  parole is coming up in three years. It was denied last year but

  my sentence is done in another five years” Rose said, “What are

  you in here for?”

  Kim swallowed and said “I was arrested with two pounds of

  cocaine at the airport four days ago, but I didn"t have anything

  to do with it and am waiting for the consulate to get me out of

  here.”

  Rose snickered a little and added “Don"t hold your breath,

  they are very strict and the consulate will help but won"t risk

  pissing off any officials over a dumb American that tried to smuggle drugs. They will help you get a lawyer. See if someone

  at home can get you some money for an actual lawyer instead of a

  public lawyer as they are way too busy to do much for you”.

  “I have a bunch saved up and my fiancé will get me a decent

  lawyer” Kim reassured Rose but was more trying to reassure

  herself.

  “Good” Rose responded somewhat disinterested, “You"ll need

  it.”

  After breakfast Rose showed her around and then left for

  her shift in the kitchen. Kim wandered around a bit. Things felt

  weird as she didn"t understand anyone but she was glad she had

  been able to talk to Rose. She stopped at the library and found

  a few old books in English that didn"t seem very interesting.

  In the afternoon she was summoned to the visitor center

  where she was told she had a visitor. The visitor was a man in

  his late forties with a receding hairline and a clean expensive

  suit. He explained that he was from the American Consulate and

  it was a custom to visit US citizens that were incarcerated in a

  foreign country. She explained how she ended up in there and how

  she was innocent. He listened but didn"t seem too interested and

  when she was done he told her they could not assist in the legal

  representation. He would contact anyone in the United States for her. She gave him Jake"s information and asked him to contact

  him and let him know what was going on.

  “Any family you want me to contact?” he asked.

  She thought for a few seconds but decided she did not want

  to have her mom worry about her and she knew her mom would want

  to help which she could not afford.

  Then she said “No, nobody.”

  He protested and told her it was in her best interest to

  contact her family as she needed all the help she could get but

  she forbade him which he accepted. Finally he offered to get her

  a lawyer until she could afford a better one. He handed her a

  pamphlet which he advised her to read and they parted ways. He promised he would check up with her soon.

  Chapter 21:

  When she got back to her cell she read the pamphlet and it

  had several tips on it.

  1) Learn the language. Being in a foreign prison can be

  really isolating if you don’t know the language.

  2) Get a job. Many prisons offer jobs that pay two or three

  dollars a day but it’s keeping busy that is the important part.

  3) Adjust to your environment. You are the minority and

  will need to be the one to adjust.

  She put down the pamphlet and just zoned out. She still

  couldn"t grasp it all and preferred on to think about it. Rose

  picked her up for dinner and they went to the mess hall. After

  dinner she went back to her cell for an early night. It was

  still loud and sleeping wasn"t going to happen so she read for a

  while. The next morning she was informed that she was going to

  court for a preliminary hearing. She was chained to another

  prisoner and in two"s they were led onto a similar bus that took

  her to the prison. It was about an hour and a half ride and when they got to

  the court house everybody was put into cells in the basement and

  they were collected one by one for a meeting with their lawyer

  or for the hearing. It was afternoon when she was collected. A

  guard led her into a closed room and left the room to stand

  guard outside. Five minutes later a young Mexican man entered.

  He seemed about twenty six and was wearing a tan suit with a

  blue tie. He carried a black bag and seemed to be juggling a

  pile of files that looked two seconds away from exploding over

  the whole room. But he managed to keep files from turning into a

  paper blizzard and put them on the table. Then he kept looking

  through them until he found a thin file with her name on it. He

  put the file in front of him and opened it. He quickly leafed

  through the content and then sat down and looked at her.

  “So, Miss Brown” he said, “My name is Nicandro Vargas, I am

  your court appointed lawyer.

  You are welcome to hire a different lawyer if you wish and

  if you have the funds but I will handle your case until then.”

  She nodded and asked “What is going to happen with me?” in
>
  a shaking voice dreading the answer. “Well, today is the first hearing. Kind of what they call

  discovery in the United States. We will also request bail” He

  said.

  Kim"s eyes lit up, she could be getting out of here she

  thought.

  Nicandro saw the expression of hope and quickly added

  “However in drug related crimes involving foreigners they

  generally do not allow bail. Most likely we will just get a date

  set for when the trial starts. This could take a long time,

  probably about a year.”

  She shuddered and asked “That long? When can I get out of

  here?”

  He paused and selected his words carefully “They are very

  strict on Americans that smuggle narcotics here and the case

  against you is very strong. I am not thinking it would be any

  time soon.”

  She started to feel her eyes well up and fought to hold

  back the tears.

  “But I"m innocent” she said, “I didn"t do anything. Don"t

  they have to prove that I am responsible?” “Actually they don"t” he said, “Mexican law works different

  than US law. There is no innocent till proven guilty here. You

  have to prove you are innocent. So if you can prove that the

  drugs were not yours we have a chance, however the only way I

  can see that happening is someone stepping forward to claim

  responsibility for putting the drugs on you without you knowing.

  Also you signed a confession.”

  He pulled a copy of the statement she had sign out and put

  it in front of her.

  She looked at it in shock and stammered “I.I.I…didn"t

  confess.”

  “This document you signed says that you agreed that the

  drugs were in your luggage and that you were the one who packed

  them” he said pointing at the piece of paper.

  She told him what she had told the officer and that she had

  been pressured to sign with the promise to get out of there even

  though she couldn"t read the document.

  Nicandro studied the document and said “There are no lies

  in this document. They just strategically left some parts of

  your statement out. I will try and fight this but it won"t be

  easy. I"ll see what I can do and I"ll ask for a speedy trial.” She nodded and there was a knock on the door. They were led

  into a court room which looked very formal. Her lawyer and the

  judge had some discussions with interjections from the agente or