Miss Vernon skipped off in her usual eager way, even her bouncy hair was enthusiastically annoying. Again, Vera smirked to herself thinking of how, over time, Jean’s passion and good intentions would be worn away as she got to know how hopeless these animals were. A little giggle even escaped her, luckily for Jean who had called her ‘Fuhrer’ under her breath.

Vera smoothed her hair and uniform and entered the office, all set for the best day ever. Her bubble was burst as soon as she entered to find Franky Doyle sitting in the governor’s chair. She had her feet up on the desk and was licking a cream doughnut suggestively. Running her tongue up and down the middle of it.

“G’day Vera” said Franky, not altering her stance at all, in fact putting her tongue deeper into the cake in order to lick out the filling. She raised her eyebrows lasciviously as Vera looked at her in disgust.

“Lovely spread you’ve put on for me”. Franky continued. She stopped leaning back on the chair’s two back legs and sat forward.

“So, it’s you doing this work scheme is it?” said Vera

“Yup, that’s right, Miss Vernon said we might to need debrief first” said Doyle getting up and standing in front of Vera, her head tilted back. ‘Sounds good to me”.

“Get your mind out of the gutter Doyle, she just means that I am to tell you what to do and you are to follow orders, understand?”

“Spoilsport” said Franky as Vera carried on talking

“I also have the VJ arriving in a short while, and these cakes”. She went to swipe the doughnut out of the inmate’s hand but missed “are for his tea and not for the likes of you”.

“BJ?” said Franky, with feigned shock “jeez you’re a dark horse Vera, lucky Fella”.

“It’s the Visiting Justice as well you know” Vera answered. ”and he will be here later so until then you can write out the address for the visiting orders and just stay out of my way” and with that she handed over a pile of envelopes and orders to the still smirking Doyle.

After this initial silliness was over, Vera was surprised to see that it all went quite smoothly. She kept looking at Doyle as she worked. Vera had always found her a mystifying woman, nowhere near as big as Monica or Bea but still strong and solid. Her dirty blond quiff hanging down, covering part of her face as she slowly wrote the words that meant nothing to her. Her neck and arms were toned and tanned from her occasional work outside. She wasn’t what Vera would call an attractive woman. More like a fascinating young man, until she opened her mouth anyway. She smoked cigarette after cigarette whilst she worked, her tongue just showing in concentration. Vera wondered what else that tongue could do. She was aware of Franky’s reputation among the other prisoners and had heard her name being cried in the throw of passion all over the prison at night so what was it about her? She was still staring when Doyle’ voice brought her back to reality.