Chapter 14

Jenn was once again startled awake. Someone was opening the cell door. She looked up and saw that it was just breakfast being delivered. It was breakfast, if that’s what you want to call it. Jenn longed to be back home. Even if just to have something edible to eat. Unfortunately there wasn’t anything she could do about it. She was lost, alone in a foreign land and alienated from her friends. She wondered what had happened to them. If they had fallen to a similar fate. She hoped not. She hoped that whatever had happened to them that they were safe and sound.
Jenn ate her breakfast. Quickly. It wasn’t too bad. At least it didn’t make her sick. She had her cellmate, Matt, to keep her company. He had even gotten her a lawyer. Although she wasn’t quite sure what good that would do her. Speaking of Matt, where was he? She didn’t see him on his bunk. Was it possible he had already been released? If so, good for him.
Just then, Matt was led in. “You’re quite the early riser, aren’t you Matt?”
“It’s 9 AM.”
“It is?”
“How would you like to meet some people?”
“Seeing as how I’m going to be here for a while, I don’t see why not.”
“In a few minutes a guard is going to come with some activity forms. Ask for the form for the arboretum.”
“Hmm. That’s not dangerous, is it?”
“Why would it be?”
“No reason.”
“Well, it’s not.”
Jenn waited and in a few moments a guard came in. “Do you need any activity forms?” he asked.
“I’d like the one for the arboretum.”
“Here you are.” He handed her a small stack of papers. “When you’re done filling them out, you can give them to the next guard who comes by.”
Jenn sat down and got busy filling them out. There were a few release forms, a change of area form, and a field trip permission form. “That’s a lot of forms to fill out,” Jenn remarked to Matt.
“That’s Rome for you.”
She finished filling out the forms just as the second guard came back. “I see you’ve requested to visit the arboretum.”
“Yes, sir.” Jenn replied.
He took Matt’s form and looked at it “You also have requested to visit the arboretum.”
“Yes, sir.”
“A guard will be along shortly to escort the two of you to the arboretum.”
When he left, Matt turned to Jenn. “This might actually take a while, so you should be prepared to wait.” They sat there waiting and after what seemed like forever (but was only about 20 minutes), a young redheaded, female guard unlocked their cell. “Hi, Matt,” she said. She smiled sweetly. “I was told to take you to the arboretum.
“Hi, Sarah. It’s nice to see you again.”
“It’s nice to see you too, but you probably shouldn’t be calling me by my first name right now.” She led them down the long corridor. She opened one of the doors to a courtyard filled with many colorful trees and plants. Inside the courtyard were benches and tables. Several inmates were lounging around and talking. Some were playing games, and some were walking around. Jenn sensed that although the mood was not exactly relaxed or casual, it was much freer than in the rest of the prison.
Sarah walked over to a group of guards and sat down with them. Matt called over to one of the other inmates, “Hey Paul, come over here.”
A young 20 something man with short black hair, strolled over. He was wearing a blue shirt that read: There is a Bob. “Yo, what’s up, Matt?”
“This is Jenn, she’s new here and she could use a little schooling.”
Paul and Matt exchanged a look between them. “Sure, no problem. I’d be happy to help out a friend.” He led her over to a table stacked with games. “You play waggle?” he asked her.
“Maybe you could teach me.” “That’s what I like to hear.” He grabbed a box and sat down at a table over in the corner, away from everyone else. He opened the box and motioned for her to sit down. He took out a board that looked like it was for Chinese Checkers. “Start setting out the pieces.”
“I don’t know how.”
“Here, separate them into different colored piles.” He handed Jenn about twenty different pieces shaped like brightly colored broken stones. Roughly half of them were various shades of orange-yellow and half of them were shades of blue-green. She looked at him again. “Blue green in one pile, orange-yellow in the other.”
As she was separating the stones he began to talk. “It’s easier to talk without arousing suspicion if we’re doing something else. So what brings you to (name of the Roman Prison), Jenn? For that matter, what brings you to Rome?”
“I don’t know, it’s a long story that doesn’t make much sense. How do you know I’m not from Rome?”
“Not everyone knows how to play waggle, but most people have at least heard of the Roman national pastime.” Jenn had finished separating her stones. “Count out 15 orange-yellow pieces and 5 blue-green pieces. Then give me the rest.”
“Set your pieces on the white diamond near your end. The goal is for you to get all your pieces home and me to get my pieces home. Then we win.” Paul explained.
“You mean whoever gets their pieces home first wins.”
“No, we both win when all the pieces are home. The orange-yellow ones have to move to the orange or yellow home, and the blue-green ones to the blue or green home.”
“What a weird game,” Jenn remarked.
“Yes, it is,” agreed Paul. “But it is the national game of Rome, so to play it is patriotic.”
Paul took his turn and rolled the dice. Then he moved an orange-yellow piece towards Jenn.
Jenn thought for a moment and then took a move. “I don’t understand what the appeal is to a game that has no competition.”
“Well, for one thing,” Paul began to answer, while taking his turn again, this time rolling a low number and moving a blue-green piece. “There are only a certain number of rolls each player gets. But you have a point.
“This game was designed as a method of propaganda, to teach children how the Roman government is supposed to work.”
Just then a bell rang, and the inmates began exiting the arboretum. “What’s that?” Jenn asked.
“Work time!” a voice echoed over a speaker, answering Jenn’s question.
“Come back tomorrow, and I’ll teach you some more,” Paul said.