My Lady Greensleeves
By FREDERIK POHL
Illustrated by GAUGHAN
[Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from
Galaxy Science Fiction February 1957.
Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that
the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.]
This guard smelled trouble and it could be
counted on to come—for a nose for trouble
was one of the many talents bred here!
I
His name was Liam O'Leary and there was something stinking in hisnostrils. It was the smell of trouble. He hadn't found what the troublewas yet, but he would. That was his business. He was a captain ofguards in Estates-General Correctional Institution—better known toits inmates as the Jug—and if he hadn't been able to detect the scentof trouble brewing a cell-block away, he would never have survived toreach his captaincy.
And her name, he saw, was Sue-Ann Bradley, Detainee No. WFA-656R.
He frowned at the rap sheet, trying to figure out what got a girl likeher into a place like this. And, what was more important, why shecouldn't adjust herself to it, now that she was in.
He demanded: "Why wouldn't you mop out your cell?"
The girl lifted her head angrily and took a step forward. The blockguard, Sodaro, growled warningly: "Watch it, auntie!"
O'Leary shook his head. "Let her talk, Sodaro." It said in the CivilService Guide to Prison Administration: "Detainees will be permittedto speak in their own behalf in disciplinary proceedings." And O'Learywas a man who lived by the book.
She burst out: "I never got a chance! That old witch Mathias never toldme I was supposed to mop up. She banged on the door and said, 'Slushup, sister!' And then, ten minutes later, she called the guards andtold them I refused to mop."
The block guard guffawed. "Wipe talk—that's what she was telling youto do. Cap'n, you know what's funny about this? This Bradley is—"
"Shut up, Sodaro."
Captain O'leary put down his pencil and looked at the girl. She wasattractive and young—not beyond hope, surely. Maybe she had got offto a wrong start, but the question was, would putting her in thedisciplinary block help straighten her out? He rubbed his ear andlooked past her at the line of prisoners on the rap detail, waiting forhim to judge their cases.
He said patiently: "Bradley, the rules are you have to mop out yourcell. If you didn't understand what Mathias was talking about, youshould have asked her. Now I'm warning you, the next time—"
"Hey, Cap'n, wait!" Sodaro was looking alarmed. "This isn't a firstoffense. Look at the rap sheet. Yesterday she pulled the same thing inthe mess hall." He shook his head reprovingly at the prisoner. "Theblock guard had to break up a fight between her and another wench,and she claimed the same business—said she didn't understand when theother one asked her to move along." He added virtuously: "The guardwarned her then that next time she'd get the Greensleeves for sure."
Inmate Bradley seemed to be on the verge of tears. She said tautly: "Idon't care. I don't care!"
O'Leary stopped her. "That's enough! Three days in Block O!"
It was the only thing to do—for her own sake as much as for his. Hehad managed, by strength of will, not to hear that she had omittedto say "sir" every time she spoke to him, but he couldn't keep it upforever and he certainly couldn't overlook hysteria. And hysteria wasclearly the next step for her.
All the same, he stared after her as she left