At Daniel’s arraignment, Amanda Jaffe asked for a bail hearing and the judge set it for Friday. Daniel made a plan for getting through the week. It involved staying in his cell as much as possible and being as inconspicuous as possible when he was in the presence of other prisoners. Every morning at ten o’clock the guards unlocked the bottom tier of cells and let the prisoners watch television, talk, and walk around in the glassed-in recreation area. This was the most frightening time for Daniel. He had found a corner of the room from which the television was not visible and he had stayed there until it was time to return to his cell. On Thursday morning Daniel made for his corner only to find a wiry white man with a shaved head and swastika tattoo on his muscled biceps headed the same way. Daniel tried to avoid him, but he did not move fast enough and they collided.
Daniel’s stomach clenched. “Sorry,” he mumbled. The man glared. When Daniel did not look away fast enough, he moved close to him. “What are you lookin’ at, pussy?” “Nothing,” Daniel answered, praying that he could avoid a fight. “You sayin’ I’m nothing?” Daniel had been a civilized human being for many years, but the next second he was back on the street, he was fifteen, and he was listening to George, an ex-con who had been kind to him until Daniel rebuffed his sexual advances with a broken bottle. George had tried to seduce Daniel with tales of life in the Joint that had been filled with survival tips.
The tips had come in handy on the other occasions he’d spent time in jail and Daniel flashed on them now. “I… I said I’m sorry,”
Daniel apologized again in a voice intentionally meek and subservient.
The prisoner took a step forward. “That ain’t good enough,” he was saying when Daniel stomped hard on his foot. When the inmate bent forward reflexively Daniel snapped a hard elbow into his face. Blood sprayed from the man’s nose. Before he could get his bearings Daniel struck him again, this time in the throat. The inmate went down hard and his head made a hollow sound as it bounced off the concrete floor.
Daniel turned to see if anyone else was going to come for him. Most of the inmates gave the fallen man and his assailant a wide berth, but two prisoners with shaved heads started across the room. One man was slightly shorter than Daniel and had a weight lifter’s build. His biceps expanded and contracted as he flexed his fists. The other man was tall and flabby, but he had pit bull eyes and huge hands. Daniel knew there was no way he could take out two men, but he was poised to go at the weight lifter when the skinheads stopped abruptly. That’s when Daniel noticed the four Hispanics who stood beside him. One was his cellmate. “Whas up, bro?” Pedro asked the weight lifter. “Get out of the way, monkey,” he answered. Pedro smiled, but he did not move.
The weight lifter started forward. “Break it up,” a guard shouted from the door to the rec room. Three guards armed with truncheons backed him up. “We ain’t through with you, fucker,” the fat skinhead said to Daniel, spitting on the floor between them. Then he touched the weight lifter on the arm and the two men backed into the crowd. One of the guards knelt to check the unconscious man, who was covered with blood from his broken nose. “Who did this?” he demanded. No one answered.
“All right, that’s it. No more rec time. Get back in your cells.” The room cleared quickly. “Thanks, man,” Daniel said when he and Pedro were locked up. “I’d have been dead if you hadn’t stepped in.” Pedro shrugged. “I don’ like those skinhead motherfuckers.” “Well, it’s appreciated.” Pedro smiled. “I didn’ figure you for no fighter, but you clocked that Nazi good.” “Lucky punch.” Pedro’s smile widened.
“Sucker punch.” They both laughed. Then Pedro’s smile fell away abruptly and he wagged a warning finger at Daniel. “You watch your back. Those are bad people. They gonna hurt you if they get the chance.” Daniel nodded. Then he climbed onto his upper bunk. As soon as he was certain that Pedro could not see him, he let go of his self-control and started to shake.