Chaos Space - Marianne de Pierres [10]
Jo-Jo liked her primness. Stiff and proper seemed ridiculous in her naked state but she bore it like a shield.
‘And I’m not a criminal.’ He lowered his voice. ‘I met an ‘esque who called himself Jud, and a Balol soldier—a woman. The Balol distracted me and Jud planted an uuli on my ship. They got me for illegal importation. While I was in custody they stole my ship.’ It felt good to talk to someone about it after months of stewing.
‘How long is your sentence?’
‘Three spins. Done most of one already.’
Bethany sighed. ‘I’m sorry for you.’
‘Don’t be,’ Jo-Jo said with infinite narcotic calm. ‘I’ll find them.’
They talked often after that and Jo-Jo turned his back out of respect when she had to piss. Petalu-Mau grudgingly joined in their tête-ê-têtes, and they pretended not to hear him moan with hunger pains at night. Not that their Latino jailers didn’t feed them but Petalu weighed more than Jo-Jo, Bethany and the three guards who rotated duty put together. He had an appetite that matched accordingly.
‘Did they really slam you for selling aphrodisiacs?’ Jo-Jo asked him.
‘Mos’ places want Petalu to sell stiff-makers. Here they lock you up. Can’t figure them Latinos. What my woman gonna say when Petalu come home looking like this?’ He slapped his loose skin folds like they were a musical instrument.
‘You have a woman?’ Bethany’s eyes widened.
Jo-Jo could see her comparing her height and weight to his and wondering what she must be like.
‘Mama Petalu Mau. That woman’s strong like a Bangar buffalo. Mau has bred twenty-three ‘uns from that girl.’
Jo-Jo’s jaw dropped. ‘You’re shitting me. You have twenty-three children?’
Mau’s eyes flicked upward while he thought. ‘Last count ‘em.’
‘What are you doing out here, then?’
‘Mama like it that way. Just cook up another ‘un when Petalu home too long. She already wore out one womb.’
Jo-Jo and Bethany laughed.
‘Bethany Ionil?’ A guard’s voice interrupted them. ‘You have a visitor. Collect your clothes from the waiting cell.’
‘A visitor, Beth?’ said Jo-Jo, scowling. Protective feelings towards Beth had crept up on him over the weeks. He blamed it on boredom. She wasn’t his kind of woman but she didn’t annoy him either. Some people paid harder for their mistakes than others. ‘Tell him I said to watch his hands.’
She gave Jo-Jo a mock-irritated look. ‘How many times have I told you?’
‘Yeah, yeah, you’re not that sort.’ Jo-Jo grinned.
Beth grinned back.
Her door scraped open and he watched her disappear from her cell.
‘You want to make ‘uns with Beth, maybe?’ remarked Petalu.
Jo-Jo stared at him in shock. ‘Never in a million, mate. Never met a woman yet who made me think in that direction and I can tell you right now, I never will?
Petalu shook his head sadly. “Uns are what gets a man to heaven. Petalu fear for your soul.’
‘My soul is bright and shiny, mate.’
While Bethany was gone Jo-Jo drowsed on his bunk, enjoying some extreme revenge fantasies and contemplating jerking off. The fantasies flowered like fractals in his mind, fuelling his anger to such a pitch that he instructed his HealthWatch to increase his narcotic levels.
Instead of the expected wash of calm throughout his body, a message blinked up in front of his retina. Your HealthWatch subscription will expire in six hours. Renewal may be made through a Gal Bank outlet or by farcast to any of the following relay stations .. .
Crap! Jo-Jo let go of his balls and sat upright, heart pounding. Without HealthWatch he couldn’t imagine how many past sins might catch up with him. Not to mention the claustrophobia of his cell. He had to get out of here.
He began to pace. Four steps before he hit the wall. He put his hands against it and hung his head, trying to swallow back the nausea that his panic had kick-started.
‘Josef! Petalu!’ Bethany’s alarmed and excited tone got his attention. She was standing at the campfire, banging on the screen.
Jo-Jo switched off his privacy shade. ‘What’s wrong?’
Petalu was slower to respond, suggesting that his drowsing fantasies were more advanced than Jo-Jo’s.