I found Lenore in the library, just before lights out. She was reading Great Expectations and knitting. It must have taken her years to earn that pair of big plastic children’s knitting needles, the only kind an inmate could have inside here. I told her what had happened in the yard.
“Tricksie set me up. She must be working for the warden.”
Lenore looked up from the page. “You are learning to think.”
“But why do this?”
She closed the book. “It was a test.”
“It was?”
“Everyone gets tested in here, in some way. You’ve hit the two-year mark—that’s a good time to test you.”
“But why?”
“Because they want to see if an inmate is going to try and escape. And because they want to see if an Empowered prisoner is going to crack. And they want to see if you can be turned informer.”
“Tricksie was way too freaking nice to me, acting like she actually cared.”
Lenore cocked her eyebrow. “Was that all that tipped you off?”
“She wore perfume. No one wears perfume here.”
“Not unless they were given it.” Lenore’s eyes weighed me.
“A gift from the warden.” I rubbed my face.
It had been at act. Fulbright must like setting traps for inmates like me.
Lenore opened the book and went back to reading.
The warden.
“Fulbright’s not going to go easy on me,” I said. I wrapped my arms around myself and took a deep, sharp breath. But what did I expect?
Lenore glanced up. “Don’t look so grim. You passed.”
“I still don’t know about Ruth.”
Lenore shook her head. “No, you don’t. You don’t even know if she’s actually sick.”
I blinked at her words. No, I didn’t.
“Like I told you before, you get to decide what to do.”
The warden also had told me I had a choice. They were both right.
I hugged Lenore then, held her close until she hugged me back and patted my shoulder.
“You’ll make the right choice,” she said.
I nodded. I decided then and there. I wasn’t going to be the warden’s informant, and I wasn’t going to rat Tricksie out, either. I hoped it was the right decision. But whatever. It was my decision.
If I could have cried, my tears would have watered the curling leaves, but you never wept in prison, not if you knew what was good for you. Instead, I stopped watering three to save the others. The ones I sacrificed withered way until they were dried tangles of tough, ropy vines. My bones burned when I passed the dead plants but I didn’t pull up the withered stalks. I had made the choice. I’d deal with the consequences.
Inside, I didn’t have any power over plants, no Empowered abilities. But I had power over who I was.
The three plants I kept watering didn’t flourish, but new leaves grew, the vines became green again, and the stunted, little tomatoes turned cherry red.
Like me, they survive.
THE END
Afterword
Thanks for reading “Nullified.” I hope you enjoyed the story! I actually wrote an earlier version of this story a couple of years ago, when I was beginning work on what would be come The Empowered series. The earlier version, called “On the Vine,” appeared in the 2014 NIWA anthology, Underground. Mat had a different name, and a different, less defiant attitude.
“Nullified” is labeled a “prequel story,” but it’s really a linking story, between the events of Renegade, the prequel novella, which tells how and Mat became a criminal, and the beginning of Empowered: Agent, after she is released from Special Corrections.
If you haven’t read Renegade, you can find it here.
And you can find Empowered: Agent here.
About the Author
Dale Ivan Smith writes fantasy and science fiction, and is the author of The Empowered series. When he’s not writing or reading, he’s working as a para-librarian for Multnomah County Library, in Portland, Oregon.
He loves to hear from readers!
You can find him here:
@daleivan
daleivansmithauthor
www.daleivansmith.com
[email protected]
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