From Dragonfly: Two Mysteries Solved

Sometimes, prison is full of mysteries. They are mysteries, because we are only told what they want to tell us, so sometimes things just happen and we are never made aware of why... this is what leads to incredible amounts of gossip... A counselor gone for a month must be being disciplined, when in reality they are just home, caring for an ill parent. An inmate called to the Lieutenants office must be in trouble, when in fact they are just going on a med-trip or a writ. I can't tell you how in the dark we are about the real happenings of this place. But women are gossipers and are very curious, and so someones story will be altered, changed, and always made to something scandalous for no good reason, before it is disseminated around the full campus.

Well, usually that is how it goes. My new roommate went for a "call-out" at 9am Tuesday morning and never returned to our room. We weren't aware of where her call-out was to, but it was somewhere in the main building. I started to worry when she wasn't back for 4pm count, as missing lunch due to a call-out isn't that abnormal. I went to the C.O. on duty Tuesday night and inquired about my roommate, but she knew nothing about it. In fact, the "bed book" with all our pictures didn't even have her in our room, it still had Blondie, who left a couple weeks ago. When she wasn't back in the room for 9:30pm count, I really started to worry. I went back to the officer, who still knew nothing. Thing was, since she wasn't "missing" during the counts, the prison knew where she was, and we were just left in our room to ponder the possibilities... never a good thing.

Then, yesterday, she was still not back. Some had said, "oh, she'll probably come back in the night," but she didn't. Mexico was missing from our room and no one in the unit seemed to know what happened. So, we conjured up a story that she must have had surgery on her leg, which is broken. However, she was just telling us a couple days ago, that she wasn't allowed to have surgery, due to a weakened heart. So, nothing really made sense.

Then my bunkie, who works commissary trays, said that our roommate wasn't in med-surg (where the people who have surgery go after surgery)... So, that meant that our roommate had to be in the hospital... but why?? Once again, we conjured up the story of a surgery that needed her to stay in the hospital for a while, then she would be going to med-surge. Well, that's what we figured, although, it still didn't make sense.

So, last night, around midnight, as I was finishing a good book, I jumped out of my bed when someone walked into the room. It was Mexico. She was returning in a pink hospital gown and plastic bracelets on her wrists. She'd been in the hospital, due to a heart attack! She was getting an MRI on her leg on Tuesday morning, and she had a heart attack right there on the table. I guess it only required a one-day stay in the hospital, but she sure didn't look too well last night, moving much slower than usual. Poor thing. I wish they had told us she was in the hospital. We could have prayed. Mexico is not old, so her heart attack is definitely connected to whatever is wrong with her heart. It makes me sad, because she is going to be dropped in Mexico, and if she has her next heart attack, she will be alone there, away from her family in south Texas.

The second mystery I solved was not so big. A bag of laundry was in front of my locker last night. I assumed it was my bunkies, my bunky assumed it was mine. When we figured out that we should stop assuming, I reached in the bag and pulled out some pants. The label listed a woman on the other side of the atrium. So, I walked the laundry bag to her room, not knowing why on earth it was in my room. Well, they were her "missing" pants, but it wasn't her laundry bag. So, I reached for another item, a new name popped up. Leaving the pants with its rightful owner, I carried the bag to the new name on the labels. She wasn't in her room, but her roommate was. I left the bag there, saying that I hoped it was in the right owner's room. But the roommate said that her roommate has someone do her laundry (something that happens frequently, even though it is against the rules). So, I thought about who might do this woman's laundry... walked over to her room, and in fact, it was supposed to be there. The woman had accidentally dropped her laundry off in the wrong room. However, I instructed the person who would be doing the laundry that the bag is "sans one pair of pants that found it's owner..." Two mysteries solved at once. I guess that makes me a novice sleuth.