Dr. Hooters  Pt. XXXV




Captain  Morrison  ran her short, tar-stained fingers through her
thick black hair.  "I have to admit that physically,  you  appear
to  be, uh, equal to the task.  The job, however, rarely requires
physical toughness.  Mental toughness, actually, is more  desire-
able, due to the extreme isolation of the camp and the naturre of
the inmates whom you'll be supervising."

Yeah, yeah, yeah, thought Julie, blah, blah, blah.  Just give  me
the  job, bitch.   What she said, though, was different- "All I'm
asking for is a chance to  prove  myself,  Captain  Morris",  she
said, smiling sweetly.

"I'm  going  to  recommend you to Superintendent Anderson for the
job", the captain said, "And I want you to be at the Mercer  camp
by noon Thursday for orientation.  Come prepared to stay.  That's
all I've got to say."  Then the captain forced a  smile  and  ex-
tended her hand.  "Welcome to the team!"

Julie  took  the captain's hand in her own ham-sized one, and ap-
plied just enough pressure to let the captain know  who  she  was
dealing with.

"You  gotta  hell of a grip there, Heatherwick.  I can tell it'll
be good to have you on our side", the  captain  exclaimed  wanly.
Julie  stood  up, immediately filling the room with her presence.
At six-foot-eleven, she tended to own her  immediate  environment
aggressively,  and  the  captain  took  note of this.  Then Julie
turned and left the office.

"Phew!", whistled the captain.  "I need a cigarette!"

Leaving the legislature-ordered smoke-free administration  build-
ing,  she  saw Superintendent Anderson striding up the walk.  She
signalled him over.

"Hey, Captain Morris!", he greeted her, "How's  the  interviewing
going for that slot at Mercer?"

Captain  Morris  blew a cloud of smoke in the opposite direction.
"Hi, Sir", she replied.  "I've decided to give the job  to  Julie
Heatherwick."

"The big girl from Florida, right?", the Superintendent asked.

"Big  isn't  the  word for it, sir", the captain replied.  "There
she goes over there, by the parking lot.  You can see  for  your-
self."   The Superintendent looked in that direction, and saw the
huge redheaded woman stoop over to climb into her Voyager van.

"Not unattractive though", admitted the Superintendent, "for such
a big woman."

"Another  understatement,  sir",  added the captain.  "She's more
along the lines of drop-dead gorgeous.  Still,  I  wish  I  could
shake  this  feeling  I've got..."  She took another deep drag on
her cigarette.

"What's that, Captain?"

"I've been in this business twenty-four years, Supeintendent.   I
retire  next  April.   In this line of work, you gotta be able to
read people.  And that redhead is the most dangerous female  I've
ever laid eyes on.  She makes those man-cutters and crack-dealers
we got up at Mercer look like a bunch of church ladies!"

"Do you have anything to back up this hunch?", the superintendent
asked, his eyes narrowing.

"That's  just  it, sir", the captain continued.  "There's nothing
in her background that suggests anything of  the  sort.   Do  you
know  what  job  she had before?  Head of a research lab in Miami
Florida!  She lost that job 'cause she took off all  her  clothes
and danced on the table at her recertification hearing!"

"Head of a research lab, huh?  A mad scientist?"

"She's got a Ph. D.", the captain said, sticking Julie's file un-
der the superintendent's nose.  "Here,  check  for  yourself.   I
wonder  why  she wants to be a prison officer in the boondocks of
North Carolina!"

"Probably had a thing for some guy down there", assumed  the  su-
perintendent.  "Most of those guys are faggots down there in Mia-
mi, or so they say.  She needs some time in the woods to do  some
thinking,  and  maybe she'll meet a real Carolina man while she's
at it!"  He hitched his pants up and ran his hand over his  thin-
ning hair.

"She's  got  a  nice set, too", he added.  "Nice boobs and an ad-
vanced degree?  Take her on as a sargeant, OK?"

The shit you say, you asshole, the captain thought.  Someday, one
of  these little gals with a little law-work and a laptop comput-
er's gonna hang your ass for sexual harassment.  But it won't  be
Captain  Morris.   No ma'am.  Just give me five acres and my pen-
sion.  She sighed deeply.  "As you say, sir."


The Mercer Forestry Camp for Female  Offenders  was  isolated  as
Julie  could imagine anything being.  Forty Miles outside of Mer-
cer into the National Forest, she turned left  onto  road  marked
only  by  a  small  sign  indicating  the  prison's  whereabouts.
Twelve miles up this road, there was another  sign  indicating  a
gravel road along a powerline.  The camp was twenty miles up this
road, as close to the middle of nowhere as humanly possible.

Julie parked the van in the prison parking lot, and  reported  to
the low administration building for orientation.  She learned the
ins and outs of life at the Camp; there was a tour of the turpen-
tine  mill,  the food service area, the inmates' dormitories, and
the officers' quarters.  She learned that there were  two  shifts
at the Camp, the morning shift which supervised the inmates while
they worked, and the night shift, which supervised  them  in  the
eveniongs and at night while they relaxed and slept.

As  a  new  sergeant, Julie had a lot of responsibility.  Most of
the officers under her command had been working at the  Camp  for
four  or  five  years.   Uneducated,  surly,  and resentful, they
avoided any semblance of work, and were often harsh and brutal to
the  inmates  under  their supervision.  Julie left them to their
own devices, mostly.

The inmates were a mixed bag.  These were supposedly the most vi-
cious  and  incorrigible female inmates  in the whole prison sys-
tem, but Julie  found  them  to  be  quite  agreeable  and  quite
amenable  to  her control.  Of course, most of them played by the
same rules she did, which made understanding easier  between  the
new sergeant and the convicts under her supervision.

For Julie learned quickly that, whereas in prison there is a vis-
ible, clearly defined hierarchy  of  officers,  sergeants,  lieu-
tenants,  captains,  and  majors,  there  is a parallel hierarchy
which is much more important, but which is not quite so  visible.
Power  and  influence  flowed  along this informal hierarchy much
more regularly, and much more predictably, than along  the  offi-
cial one.

It  was at the top of this shadow hierarchy that Julie decided to
position herself.  Her first opportunity came on her  second  day
on  the  job.   Two  inmates, a white girl named Cathy Evans, who
Julie had been told operated a loan-sharking business in  one  of
the  dorms,  and  Yolanda,  supposedly an enforcer for one of the
black gangs, staged a fight outside Julie's post.

Word about the huge new sergeant had gotten around the Camp,  and
the  inmates  were  eager to test her mettle.  Would she be a by-
the-book type (one who followed the rules to  the  letter,  abso-
lutely  the  worst  by convict standards), a ball-buster (one who
used the officer's position and privilege for her own profit  and
benefit,  and  hence,  someone  you could do business with), or a
fuck-girl (someone easily intimidated or manipulated,  a  joy  to
the convicts' heart)?

By  the  time  Julie had responded to the hue and cry outside her
station, a considerable crowd had gathered to  give  the  'fight'
the  illusion  of  reality.  It didn't take Julie long to realize
that the whole thing was staged for  ther  benefit.   Interracial
incidents  were incindiary in the prison environment, and quickly
led to riots or general melees.  She waded into the crowd of  in-
mates,  thrusting  aside  those who impeded her progress, grabbed
the two protagonists by the collars of their blue  uniforms,  and
straight-armed them to eye-level.

She shook Yolanda, a big black woman, uglier than the night-toads
that hopped along the perimeter roads after sundown.  "I want you
to  cut  this  out  right  now, Yolanda!", she shouted.  then she
pulled her close and whispered into her ear.   "And  I  want  ten
percent of all the protection money, in fives and ones, in an en-
velope in my trailer every Friday!  Understand?"  Yolanda's mouth
dropped  open, and she nodded her head.  Julie dropped her to the
ground.

Then she turned her attention to Cathy, as pretty as Yolanda  was
ugly,  and pushed her easily over her head with one arm until she
dangled in mid air, legs flailing four feet off the ground.  "And
you,  slut!   I don't want no shit on my shift!  You all fight on
Sergeant Pevensey's shift, not mine."

Pulling Cathy's terrified face to within inches of her own, Julie
whispered  sweetly  to her.  "You're my kind of girl, Sweety-pie.
Good-looking and vicious.  I'm gonna change your life, but  right
now  I  want twenty percent of the action, off the top, and rates
are going from sixty cents on the dollar to eighty.  Understand?"
She shook Cathy like a terrier shakes a rat, then threw her three
feet into the mass of  inmates.   "Officer  Moon!",  she  yelled,
"Where are those Use Of Force forms?"


This  display  of strength impressed the whole Camp, officers and
convicts alike.  It wasn't long before Julie was the boss of  the
camp  in  all but name.  Old loyalties shifted, ancient alliances
realigned, and soon, not a transaction was undertaken, not a  fa-
vor  was  sought,  not a drop of liquor was sold, nor a young new
inmate violated, but that Julie got her share right off the  top.

Major  Testaverde, the titular Chief at the camp, appreciated the
efficiency and order that Julie brought to his compound, and  or-
dered  all  hands  to cooperate with the new system.  It left him
free to work on his golf swing, and, truth be told,  the  inmates
were  safer  and quieter under Julie's unofficial suzerainty than
under the old arrangement of competing gangs.

Julie asked that Yolanda be given the post of her own private do-
mestic, cleaning her trailer and keeping the grounds.  Major Tes-
taverde OK'd it, and Yolanda practically moved in  with  the  new
boss.   It  made it easy for Julie to keep up with the collection
of money from the various operations behind the fence,  and  soon
the hideously ugly Yolanda became equally feared as Julie's lieu-
tenant.

