Cell 56 Willow Butler Asher was staring at him. His chin was jammed – it must have been uncomfortable – up against the bars surrounding his bunk; his fingers were twisted beneath his chin, twitched off at awkward angles. Einar knew he’d been staring a while – it was something he did, when Einar ignored him, stare unblinkingly to try and get some sort of reaction. Often it went on for hours. But tonight Einar curled the corner of his book – it was a second hand book, it did not warrant the delicacy of a bookmark for its corners were already tousled from previous fingers’ use – and placed it on his single pillow. “What?” he asked. It took a moment for Asher to respond. It wasn’t often that he got a response from his little game and Einar pinpointed the flicker of pride and surprise over usually blank eyes. Asher was one of those boys who had trained himself to speak without emotion and his eyes to remain impassive and dull, no matter the topic. Still, Einar could tell he was suddenly struggling to find words. “What’re we gonna do when we get outta here?” He had never indulged himself enough to think about getting out. To even imagine it felt wrong as if somehow their thoughts of freedom were betraying the persecutors’ smug smiles; the judge’s gavel. He rolled onto his stomach and jammed his chin into his fingers, a mimic of Asher’s broken-fingered clasp on his own jaw. It felt odd to Einar that they were trading each-others’ traits. Often he’d notice himself smiling with a corner of his mouth, singular, as opposed to the broad curve of both. He’d witnessed, a couple of times, Asher watching him smoke and later imitating it but he’d ended up looking more a member of French royalty with the way he flung back his neck – dark hair rolling the stark line of his shoulders – than Einar. They’d been together too long. “We might not get out,” said Einar. Asher dipped his little finger in his mouth, pushing at the points of canines. “No,” he answered carefully, clamping his teeth over his finger. “But, think ‘bout it, Einar. Look who got out last time. Last release, you remember?” “He was well behaved.”
124
