Page 57 of The Right to Remain

The other cellmates laughed. “Seriously, we got a tranny?” the one in the lower bunk asked. She was the oldest one in the cell, probably late fifties, her hair mostly gray.

“Definite tranny,” said Mona. “I can always spot ’em.”

She was speaking right into Elliott’s ear, which made him jump. Mona had climbed out of her bunk without making a sound, and she was staring Elliott straight in the eye.

“Get your ass down here, tranny.”

Elliott was too scared to move. Mona yanked him from the top bunk and thew him onto the floor.

“Get up!” said Mona.

Elliott pleaded with his eyes to the other cellmates. No one was coming to his aid. He slowly climbed to his feet. Mona stepped closer and got right in his face. The disgusting smell of bologna on her breath was enough to make him vomit. Mona reached for his neck and pinched the skin below his chin with her thumb and index finger. She wasn’t strangling him, but she had fingers like a vise, and the pain was intense.

“Girlfriends, answer me this,” said Mona. “What’s that surgery called where they yank out a kid’s tonsils?”

Elliott bristled, fearful that she might rip out his throat with her bare hands.

“Tonsillectomy?” gray hair answered.

“That’s right. Tonsillectomy.”

Mona released her grip. Elliott took a breath, but the relief wasshort-lived. Mona poked him in the abdomen with her index finger and held it there, as if drilling through his belly to the spine.

“What about when the doctor cuts out your appendix?” asked Mona. “What’s that called?”

The younger cellmate answered. “Appendectomy, I think.”

“Very good, that’s right,” said Mona. She stopped drilling her finger into Elliott’s belly, and the pain slowly subsided. Then her eyes narrowed, as if she were staring right through Elliott.

“Now, here’s the bonus question: What’s that operation called when they make a woman into a man?”

The cell was silent. Finally, Mona answered her own question.

“Add-a-dick-to-me.”

Mona didn’t laugh. One of the cellmates snorted and then fell silent, as if not sure Mona was trying to be funny.

Elliott was at his limit. He’d hardly slept since the indictment. The day had been a living hell since his arrest. And now he was trapped with a beast of a woman inside a concrete box, where it was “survival of the fittest.” If he didn’t stand up for himself, things would only get worse. Anger was building up inside, begging to escape, but he was too terrified to do anything about it.

“Is that what the doctor gonna do to you, newbie?” asked Mona, speaking in a low, threatening voice. “He gonna add a dick to you?”

The bologna on Mona’s breath was overwhelming, and she was hissing right in his face.

“Or maybe he done did it already,” said Mona, giving Elliott a knowing smile. “Guess we could wait for shower time and see. But I don’t like waiting.”

Mona’s phony smile drained away—and then she grabbed Elliott’s crotch.

Elliott snapped. He launched himself at Mona, finding power in his legs he didn’t know he had, swinging his fists with the speed of a jackhammer. A left hook caught Mona right in the jaw and knocked her to the ground.

“Fight, fight!” the cellmates shouted.

Elliott pounced on Mona, fists flailing, but Mona was a street fighter. She rose up from under him like an Olympic weight lifter, and in one surreal moment, Elliott felt his body leave the floor. He was suddenly airborne as Mona put the force of her entire body weight into him and slammed his spine against the upper bunk frame. It was as if the oxygen had been sucked from Elliott’s lungs, and it was impossible to draw a breath. He landed on the concrete floor with a thud, and the world around him swirled in a blur of confusion. Mona kicked him in the crotch, again and again. Elliott doubled over in pain, barely conscious.

“Keep your mouth shut, tranny,” he heard Mona say in a coarse, threatening whisper into his ear.

The next thing he saw was the steel rim of the toilet rushing toward him, or so it seemed. His face met the metal, a rush of hot blood sprayed the bowl, and Elliott slumped onto the floor.

Chapter 19