Teaser number eleven from my prison officer book that I have slowly been writing.  It’s been a while (again) since my last teaser.  This chapter didn’t take very long to write at all.  Even though it has been nearly 15 years since I left the prison service, I can still recall some the emotions I felt during this event.

*  “Is that everyone, Mr O’Sullivan?”, I thought they were joking.

“I think so”, I replied.

“What do you mean, you think so, how many have you counted back in?”

“I’ve got the same number as you’ve got”, I replied, still believing that it was just a formality that the wing role call was complete.

“I’ve still got two showing as not on the wing…Hayes and Marshall. Did you count them in?”

I could feel my stomach turn over and my face begin to warm as my pulse began to pound around the veins now probably precluding from the temples of my head.

“I’m not sure to be honest, I can’t say for sure”, I was trying desperately not to shout and be heard by any other offenders or officers. The desk officer, Officer Atkin was not somebody I knew very well and I was not sure how this conversation was going to end. Some desk officers would simply give it another 5 minutes and then just simply called Hayes and Marshall to the desk hoping that they in fact were already on the wing. But my worst fears started to play out as S.O. Edwards arrived.

“Is everyone back, Lee?” he asked, fully expecting me to reply with an affirmative response. He was certainly not expecting me to reply with what came out of my mouth.

“I’m not sure, sir…I’ve lost count.”. S.O. Edwards stopped in his tracks between myself and the desk officer.  “Is everyone back or not, Mr Atkin?”

“Sorry sir, we seem to have an unconfirmed tally at the moment.”

*Please forgive any spelling or grammar mistakes in any of my teasers on this web site.  These teasers are very much in their 1st draft states.