The Order of The Covenant

Chapter 5: Lady Tanaka - Jail Bird

The Order of The Covenant

Chapter 5:

Lady Tanaka: Jail Bird

It was the mid of July in a 9'x7' cell at Bedford Hills Correction Facility, and Sarah woke up to the sound of store call. The weekends they were only fed twice a day and she missed breakfast being called at five-thirty am. She was coming down and felt like her stomach was touching her back. Not exactly the best of feeling. She carefully pivoted her feet out over the bed and scooted to the edge of the top bunk. She slid off till her feet could just reach the desk and stepped down to the seat, then to the floor. She opened her locker and reached for a pair of scrub pants that were cut off into shorts and slipped them on. It was considered contraband when they were no longer dress code but everyone kept a pair during the summer and used them for the weekends and after dress inspections.

She stepped out of her room and walked along the top side as all the people stood by their doors waiting for their names to be called.

" Well, look who came out of their cave." Big Tuna said.

"Hey Sarah." Toothless Tina smiled.

" Must be coming off the s**t and starving aren't ya, Sarah." Big Tuna Said.

" I've got something you could eat. Come into the room and I'll show ya."

Sarah continued to walk as she ignored their advances. In this place, it's hard to say someone's your friend. Rather, an acquaintance. And one of those acquaintances she was supposed to meet in room 119. Sarah leaned around the frame of the door and knocked.

" Hey Jill." Sarah peeked in to find Jill sorting through her store before putting it in her locker. She averted her gaze so she wasn't accused of 'locker-checking'.

" Hey Sarah. Looking for Melissa?"

" Yeah, she got her store already?" Sarah asked.

" Yeah, she's down in Aundrea's room."

" Aundrea's?" Sarah felt a pang of anger wash over her. She knew something was awry. She rushed to the stairwell and to room 079. There she found Aundrea, her skin and bones ex-s*x worker bunkmate Kesha, and Melissa handing over her net bag full of store goods.

" Mel." Sarah cried out.

Melissa turned around wide-eyed like a deer in headlights.

" You were supposed to pay me back."

Aundrea and Kesha looked at one another and rolled their eyes.

" You went and got more, didn't you? I knew this s**t was going to happen."

" Sarah, look -" Melissa pleaded.

Sarah ran off before she could say anything more. She normally didn't get store or ask her family for money. She had been in for three years on a five year bid and hadn't seen or heard from her kids or baby daddy ever since she lost custody and was arrested. She had kicked the habit for a while, then fell into deep state of depression and did what she could to find an out. Then stay away from it for some months and then find an out. It was all she could do to keep going and make it to the finish line. Yeah, you could blame her, but there was nothing to really do in this place but stare at four walls and wait on chow call. Sure they call the place a corrections facility, but what were they correcting? More drugs and money and phones flooded the prison she had ever seen on the streets. Maybe she would talk to Big Tuna and start scamming for her. She didn't want to join a gang though. Yeah, she had dated Spider, a loser who was part of Ghost Face, and moved out to New York from California to be with him, but that wasn't who she was or wanted to be.

There were rumors of someone, or rather something else. Not a gang. A woman who came in for murder allegedly. Some Asian girl. People were saying that she could get people anything they wanted if they could pay the price.

Sarah's stomach growled. If she was to go speak with her, then she would have to make herself more presentable. She walked back up the stairs and to her room. She took off her button-up green top and tied the white under-shirt at the center of her back. She brushed her hair and pulled it back in a ponytail. She didn't have any makeup and wasn't about to go through her bunkmates' locker. Out of the corner of her eyes, she noticed a pack of open skittles that her bunkmate left on the desk. She poured a few out and grabbed a few red ones and rubbed them across her lips. Quickly, she checked herself in the mirror and fixed a few strays and headed out the door. Down stairs, across the dayroom, there was a section of rooms that were declared Tanaka's. Not even the guards or warden would do anything about her. So if she asked you to give up your room, you got your s**t and got out. This woman had things brought in by the guards to her doorstep, so to speak. It was only three years that Sarah had been in, she had heard that Tanaka had only been in for a few weeks and was running the show.

As she approached the corner of the cell block, there was graffiti on the walls and women that stood out like bouncers.

" What you want?" A tall black woman said with her arms crossed.

" I came to speak with Tanaka, please." Sarah said.

" She's busy right -"

" Let her in Shameka." A voice called out.

The big woman by the door shrugged and gestured for Sarah to go in. As she walked in, she noticed the lights were off. Only a light shined that hung from the bottom bunk where someone laid on their stomach getting a tattoo from another girl. Two other girls sat on the top bunk as they watched her enter the room.

" So you have been betrayed and left empty-handed." The voice called out. Against the wall was an armour made into a book shelf. On the other side of that, in the corner, was a chair where Lady Tanaka sat in the shadow. A girl knelt on the floor in front of her. A single leg propped on her shoulder. Her face was buried between her thighs. Another woman sat in a chair across from Lady Tanaka painting her toe nails as she got her lolli licked.

" Tonya, get her a bag and put some store goods into it for the lady." Lady Tanka said. Her hand rested calmly on top of the girl's head.

" I'll pay you back. I promise." Sarah said.

Lady Tanaka hand extended from the shadows insisting her to be silent. " I don't need your money or food. I can get whatever it is I want delivered to my feet. By inmate or guard. What do I need of your store goods."

Sarah was speechless. She couldn't help but feel like she had stepped into something she now couldn't get out of. But what was she to do at the point of no return?

Sarah Looked over at the books on her shelf. As an inmate, you can spend your time gambling, writing, sleeping, but for Sarah, she read books. The books on the shelf were like nothing she had never seen. Thick tall books that could easily take the batter part of a year to finish.

" Those books are older than you are honey." The voice called out from the darkness as she let out a little sigh.

" Seriously? But they look so new."

" Some even older than I. I keep them in immaculate condition. I have an entire library at home. I hold them dear. Some of the books, I just simply can't part with. So I had them sent here. To keep a close eye on them."

Sarah noticed that she also had a stack of very ornate tarot cards along with some ruin stones.

" You do readings?" Sarah asked.

" Make sure to put some honey buns and coffee in there for her. She looks like she is coming down." Lady Tanaka told the girl filling the net bag. " Yes, honey. Did you need one?"

" I just find it fascinating."

" Long ago it all started with the hands. There's so much one can tell about a person from their hands. Then it was through bones and stones that one used to see threads of fait. It wasn't till the mid-fifteenth century that tarot card reading was invented and used. seventy-eight cards. twenty-two of those are the major arcana. fifty-six of the other cards are the minor arcana." She paused and swapped legs on the girl's shoulders to get her other toes painted. She let out another faint whimper. " Then of course there's other ways to do readings."

" Such as?"

Lady Tanaka rested her arm on the arm of the chair and leaned into the light. " To look through one's eyes."

It was then she saw what they had all been talking about. Those eyes. They were the most unnatural and tantric eyes she had ever scene. The shade of lavender that seemed almost illuminant. Swirls of light and darks.

If there was anything that troubled a person, it was the unknown. However, some things were more frightening to discover. Sarah didn't want it eating at her but she was afraid to ask. Before she knew it, she found the question had escaped her lips. " What would... Um, how should I repay you?"

Those lavender eyes that drew her in as they lit up. As she gingerly moved the other girls head aside, Tanaka sat up and leaned over.

" I heard of a bird who is looking at parole soon." She smiled that devilish grin. " So how about that reading?"