Peg curled her fingers around the prison bars and pressed her face close. It was about three in the morning, and she wasn’t exactly sure what happened. One minute she was up on the stage singing with the boys, the next she was being tossed in here. Something must have happened in between then and now, but she just couldn’t figure it out. Hmm. Well, she was still wearing her dress, the little black one, strapless. And her nails hadn’t chipped and her hair was somewhat curly and her lipstick was gone but her mascara hadn’t run. She could work with that.
“Hey fellas,” she drawled to the officers on duty. “Why don’t you come over here an’ have a chat?”
“You’re intoxicated, Peg,” answered a man with a potbelly and a dark beard. “Public misconduct. Don’t make it worse by bothering anybody.”
“You can have a chat with me,” leered a voice behind her. Peg turned over her shoulder and looked at the skinny man behind her. A typical drunk and disorderly.
“You better stay right where you’re sittin sonny,” she said before turning back to the officer. “Ya see I’m not so intoxicated, is the problem. You think I can bum a smoke off ya Petey, hmm? Just the once. I’ll pay you back I promise.”
The guard narrowed his eyes at her. “Go sit down inmate. You’ve already had your call, now just sit and wait for them to come getcha or wait until the morning.”
Peg pursed her lips, and thought of Donnie. He’d just turned over and went back to sleep when she called him, said it was her own fault for not coming home to him. Serves her right for dating a wise guy.
“Yessir. You really gonna make me sing for my supper?” she batted her eyelashes. He shook his head and started to turn to go back to his desk.
“Never know how much I love ya,” Peg’s voice was low but smooth, and a little raspy. The officer paused.
“Never know how much I care. When you put your arms around me—”
The officer turned around.
“I get a fever that I just can’t bare,” she slid her hand up the jailbar and rested the other on her hip.
“You give me fever,” she said, sticking her chest out slightly. “When you kiss me. Fever when you hold me tight. Fever!” her eyes followed him closely as he reached into his pocket.
“In the morning, fever all through the night.”
Officer Brown carefully placed the cigarette between her lips with one hand, and lit it with the other. Peg closed her eyes and took a drag, feeling just the slightest rush. It wasn’t the high she’d come down off of, but it would do till morning. Tilting her head back she slowly blew smoke into the cell.
“Thanks Petey,” she smirked, and dangled the cigarette between her fingers. She finished the song slowly, quietly, and by the time she had finished Officer Brown couldn’t think of a reason to hold her there any longer. She stepped out into the night and hugged her arms around her. Funny wasn’t it, how things worked out that way.
