"What is your name?", i risk asking.

"Speak low. The acoustics are good. There is a hole under one piece of stone. I removed the stone and we can hear each other. If somebody is coming, say 'danger'. If we may speak again, say 'clear'. So will do I."

"What is your name?"

"Genoveva. I am in a private cell for rebellious behavior. But the prisoners communicate through the walls. The fame went around about your arrival, Hopkins."

"I am not Hopkins. My real name is Perkins, but i am sentenced under the name of Sopkins."

"Thank you, Hopkins."

She is rather hopeless, i think.

"Call me Kim", i suggest. "Senorita Dolores whipped me without reason when i arrived. Senor Martin rebuked her. Now they are healing my marks."

"Only preparing you for a party where you will be tortured again. Senor Martin is a very mean man. Every newcomer is whipped, all the Senoritas torture them."

"Senoritas?"

"All matrons are Senoritas. Not a single Senora among them. They are all lesbians. Making love with each other and with the prisoners. And they are all sadists, Kim."

"Senorita Dolores the worst of them?"

"Oh, no. One of the mildest. She whipped you according the rules. Senor Martin showed himself as your defender, but he has his wicked plans against you."

I feel desperation. The only man whom i could like, mean and wicked.

"How do you know this, Genoveva?"

"Walls have ears. Inmates know everything."

Footsteps on the corridor.

"Danger", i whisper. The throaty voice above me shuts up.

The cell door opens. Two matrons enter. One of them places a bowl on the floor, with some vegetables in it. The other puts down another bowl with water.

I have experience of eating from the floor, even with my hands tied behind me. I want to start. But one of the guards say:

"Wait."

She pulls down her shorts under her knees and so does with her knickers. She squats over the bowl with the vegetables and urinates in it. So does the other one with the water bowl.

"Eat an drunk. It will be delicious."