Chapter 2: The Price of Lunch

Mina found Elena’s apple on her bunk that night.

It sat on a clean paper napkin beside the thin blanket, left there while Elena showered. On the underside of the napkin, someone had written a single word in pencil:

Keep it.

Elena turned it over twice. The handwriting was small and careful. She had not seen who entered the cell, and the corridor camera did not cover the doorway. She tucked the napkin into the spine of the paperback she had been permitted to bring inside.

The next morning she carried the apple to breakfast.

Tess sat alone near the dish return, her tray bare except for oatmeal. She was young, with chapped hands and a bruise fading along one wrist. Elena took the seat opposite her.

“Mina told me your name,” Elena said.

Tess looked at the apple. “You shouldn’t sit here.”

“People keep telling me that.”

Elena slid the fruit across the table. Tess did not touch it.

“If I take that, Vera takes my supper.”

“Does she give you a reason?”

Tess’s spoon stopped halfway to her mouth. “Who told you?”

“No one. You just did.”

Tess pushed the apple back. “Please. I can’t afford another problem.”

Elena took it, but remained seated. She had come for more than an exchange of food. At the far end of the room, a kitchen worker in an orange apron counted sealed meal supplements into a plastic bin. A staff member signed a clipboard without checking the number.

Vera’s companion from the yard approached the worker. She left with two supplements tucked inside her sleeve.

Tess followed Elena’s gaze. “Now you know why no one asks.”

“Who signed the sheet?”

“I didn’t see.”

“You didn’t look,” Elena said gently.

Tess’s eyes filled with anger. “That’s how I’ve made it through six months.”

She carried her tray away before Elena could answer.

Elena stayed long enough to read the staff member’s name: Holt.

At noon, a guard told her she had been assigned a new bunk. Her former cell was on the ground floor, close to the stairwell. The replacement was upstairs, across from the laundry room. The guard said beds were reassigned all the time.

“Who approved the move?” Elena asked.

“Housing.”

“Is there a name?”

The guard took the inventory bag from her. “Get upstairs.”

In the new cell, someone had removed a slat from the underside of the lower bunk. It left a sharp metal lip where Elena would have to put her feet each morning. She laid a folded towel over it and inspected the rest of the room.

No one had touched the paperback. The apple was gone.

She found Mina waiting in the laundry doorway while a dryer thumped behind her.

“They moved you,” Mina said.

“They moved me near you.”

“That wasn’t for my benefit.”

Elena lowered her voice. “Did you leave the note?”

Mina shook her head. Her gaze went to Elena’s empty hand. “Where’s the apple?”

“It was in my bag before the move.”

Mina made a small sound of frustration. “Sofia used to keep hers for the women who missed a meal.”

Elena had known that. She had read the line in two letters and heard it again from their mother. Knowing it was different from hearing Sofia’s name spoken in the place where she had died.

“You knew her?”

Mina gripped the edge of a laundry cart. “You have the same eyes.”

“You didn’t answer.”

“She folded paper napkins into squares so they wouldn’t blow away. She kept saying she’d complain to someone outside.” Mina looked toward the corridor. “She believed people would listen if she wrote everything down.”

“What happened after she wrote?”

Footsteps sounded above them on the metal walkway. Mina busied herself with a sheet until they passed.

“Women got afraid,” she said.

“Of Vera?”

“Of what happened when Vera knew they’d talked.”

The laundry bell rang. Mina pushed the cart away before Elena could press her.

At afternoon recreation, Elena saw Tess again. She was standing in the kitchen line when Vera cut in ahead of her and took the final tray with fruit. The worker looked to Holt. Holt looked down at his clipboard.

Elena moved to Tess’s side. “Give her the tray,” she said to Vera.

Vera lifted an eyebrow. “Is this your new hobby?”

“She was next.”

“Then she should’ve been faster.”

Elena turned to the worker. “You counted the trays. Is there another one?”

The woman’s eyes flicked to Holt. He stood ten feet away, close enough to hear every word.

“I asked you,” Elena said, “because you counted them.”

The worker swallowed. “There’s one in the back.”

“Get it,” Holt said sharply.

For a moment, Elena thought he meant the worker. Instead he held out his hand to her.

“Your ID. You’re interfering with meal service.”

Elena gave him the card. Tess stayed in line, trembling. Vera leaned against the counter and smiled.

The worker returned with a tray and placed it before Tess. At the same time, Holt wrote Elena’s name on a disciplinary form.

Tess took the tray. She did not thank Elena, and Elena was glad. Gratitude spoken in front of Vera would cost her.

That evening, Elena’s recreation access was suspended for forty-eight hours. The notice said she had disrupted an orderly meal. No mention of the stolen roll or the extra supplements appeared anywhere on it.

She read the notice twice and memorized Holt’s signature.

Later, when the corridor lights dimmed, Mina appeared outside her new cell. She carried a bundle of folded towels.

“Sofia got moved up here too,” she whispered. “Right after she tried to mail her last letter.”

Elena stepped closer. “Did it reach my family?”

Mina shook her head.

“How do you know?”

Mina unfolded the top towel. Sewn into its hem was a small, stiff rectangle of paper. Before Elena could reach for it, a key turned at the end of the corridor.

Mina refolded the towel and went straight past Elena’s cell.

Holt came around the corner. His gaze followed Mina, then settled on Elena.

“You should be asleep, Moretti.”

Elena lay down without answering. From her bunk she could see the laundry door, now closed. She had lost an apple, her bunk, and her yard access in a day.

For the first time, she knew where to look for Sofia’s letter.