An alleged cover-up of environmental hazards at the Texas Bureau of Prisons' Federal Medical Center for Women has excruciating consequences for a handful of workers. Fort Worth Weekly's Betty Brink reports that maintenance employees were exposed to high doses of lead while remodeling an unused room into a laundry. The old room still had cabinets lined with inch-thick slabs of lead from its previous use: nuclear medicine. Now two of the workers are critically ill, three workers and one inmate have sued in federal court, and the prison is saying it did nothing wrong.
One of the two nice(?) girls who had helped her had pointed her in this direction. Told her they could help. The pessimistic minded woman sincerely doubted, but figured it was worth a shot anyway. At this point, what was the worst that could happen, she ended up in one of Saboro's enemies and was killed on the spot? Boo effing hoo. Sounded great to her.
The chances of that though were slim. Zombies didn't exist. A doctor like herself knew well and effing good that when something was dead, it usually stayed dead, especially when it's ripped apart. Good effing riddance too, honestly. Not that she couldn't shoot a few sour glares at Shadon occassionally when he had begun befriending the flame-wolf. What an idiot. Oh well! At least she didn't have to worry about it now!
So the three-legged, tired, wishing-she-were-dead ghostly gal hobbled her way along. The terrain had grown rocky and colder, but she was thickly furred so it struck her odd that her fur stood on end. She took the temperature drops to just be the change in altitude from a jungle to a plain, or whatever this was. Nevermind that it kept fluctuating.
What she didn't expect to wander into was... a wall. A tall, very high wall. It struck her in the face like an arrow point blank. Whoever lived here wanted no one getting out, why hadn't Saboro built a wall? She gritted her teeth at the thought, and immediately tensed upon sensing someone patrolling.
They were at the wall. All this banter and scurrying, it was short lived once they made it to the wall. The structure that made her cower with uncertainty, and look towards Gemini with curiosity. Was it necessary?
Amen frowned as she recalled Tauro, but let the look linger only for a few extra moments before putting on a smile. She had to let go, but it was so effing hard. It clung to her like a hoard of ticks, sucking away her life's joy, the essence of what made her.. her.
'Hey' came a voice, something soft from the other side. 'Do you know Saboro?' it replied to itself, and she felt her blood run cold. "Zeke!" came her own voice, terror striking her face. "Zeke!!" but no other word could come forth, and all she could do was run.
Right along the wall until she could reach the outside, only to run some more on the other side until she came across.. "It's.. it's you," she gasps, her heavy ears perking as much as they could, her gangly smile coming through. "We.. my brother and I.. we were.. coming to look for you," her tail begins to wag something furious.
"Grandpa hasn't found you yet," she breathes a sigh of relief, but remains on guard and moves herself behind Poltergeist, as if to stand guard from the open wilderness she'd been carried through. "We know about Saboro, our papas are from there. I know about you, miss.. grandma," she glances back, nervous at the name. It didn't occur to her.. at all.. that this demure, smol wolf wasn't.. in fact.. her grandma.. but..
"You're really pretty. He never said that, he never said how pretty you were," she babbles, bashfully.. her ears now pinned back and her tail low, tucking almost between her legs. "We'll escort you in, we'll.. keep you safe, okay? You don't want to go back, right? I won't let them take you back, I promise," but sometimes, you can't keep those promises.
They were at the wall. His pulse started to increase as they neared the entrance, the thought of exploring beyond the confines of Gemini was such a delicious temptation.
Zeke hated the wall, hated the blatant display of cowardice they'd chosen to portray to the outside world. The towering figure stank of fear and paranoia, a neon sign pointing to a group of traitors hiding behind a shield who hoped they wouldn't have to use it one day.
Tauro's death had set into motion a series of events that Zeke was forced to tolerate. Rules were added, security was increased, people had become paranoid. Even so, it irked him like a thorn in his side and he tried his best to ignore it. Sharp golden eyes spotted his sisters frown and he wondered if the sight of the wall made her think of the fallen prince as well. Zeke's thoughts were interrupted by the sound of a soft, feminine voice calling from outside. 'Do you know Saboro?' Amen squeaked at him and his brows rose in surprise as he watches how excited she becomes.
Zeke wasn't frightened or excited like his sister, merely curious and at the same time vastly disappointed that their little impromptu road-trip had been cancelled. He'd been looking forward to escaping Gemini for a few days. The dark boy followed his sister at a much slower pace, steps unhurried as he shuffles along sullenly behind Amen. He arrived just in time to hear his sister saying, "We'll escort you in, we'll.. keep you safe, okay? You don't want to go back, right? I won't let them take you back, I promise." Zeke tilted his head slightly as his molten gaze scrutinized the fragile female figure before them.
What a disappointment. He didn't know what he'd been expecting honestly, but it certainly hadn't been this tiny waif of a thing. She was thin and unkempt, her eyes tired and her body sagging with exhaustion. This was the woman his grandfather had chosen as mate? Thank god Zeke had better taste. "Not so fast, sis." He cautioned, narrowing his eyes suspiciously on the white and orange female, the woman he assumed to be his grandmother. "What'cha running from Saboro for? Is anyone following you?" Grandpa Shadon perhaps?
OOC Note: Zeke suffers from Grandiose Delusions and can be edgyunpredictable and very violent. He's a real jerk but I, BB, love everyone <3
A young wolf, grey, purple and white came running up to her. She looked exhausted. Her eyes would squint at the scraggly teeth, but not too much. Suspicion crawled across her skin like fleas at a blood feast.
Her eyes narrowed again, her body tensing with a sudden flight or fight urge- and yet, this girl's disposition was not... threatening. She seemed excited. Why would a search party be excited to find her? Wouldn't they be ready to drag her back to hell and rip her to shreds for her betrayal? Those were the stories she'd always heard, witnessed. Saboro was not excited to see you back once you were out.
"Grandpa hasn't found you yet. We know about Saboro, our papas are from there. I know about you, miss.. grandma,"
Grandpa? Papas? ...Grandma? Her head was spinning. Maybe Amen could tell from the way her expression blanked that she was clearly trying to connect everything in her mind right at that moment. She wasn't a grandma yet, was she? She couldn't recall any of her children taking mates, also... why would they be here? Who could it be? Loa? Pyx? Red? No... they had clearly said Papas. Were any of her sons missing? She couldn't recall. What a horrible mother. Her mind whirled a million miles a minute and after a moment of dumbstruck silence she spoke quickly, "Who are your fathers? How- how do you know who I am?" She, of course, had no idea Shadon had left in search of her. She would skin him alive if she knew. He should know DAMN WELL BETTER then to leave his family and come search for her might-as-well-be-dead ass.
"You're really pretty. He never said that, he never said how pretty you were, we'll escort you in, we'll.. keep you safe, okay? You don't want to go back, right? I won't let them take you back, I promise,"
The little girl babbles almost absently, and as tense, wary, and strung out as the little woman was she couldn't help but feel a pang of something heartwarming- something seeing her own children gave her. This little girl was so brave to face a stranger, to come running up and spilling everything. It was cute. It was endearing. The words she spoke though, God, she couldn't be farther from the truth. Polt closed her eyes for a moment, and let out a deep sigh. She opened them with a glowing warmth in the normally cold, empty eyes she held. "I have to go back." she said softly, a tinge of sadness in her voice, "My children, my family, I can't just--" She was interrupted by the arrival of another, one who looked eerily similar to the girl before her. This one, though, she saw those nubbish horns, that long wispy tail, and it took her breath almost completely away. Those grays, those traits, grandmother? Grandmother, grandmother, grandmother, she had no wandering sons, did she? Grandmother, grandmother, grandmother, had he been unfaithful? Grandmother, grandfather, grandmother, grandfather, no. Her brain swelled with confusion that manifested in a quickly forming headache, as the tip of her tongue seemed to almost solve it for her.
This one seemed more cautious. She also recognized that gaze of his- a familiar gaze she earned from members of Saboro. Doubt. False expectations. What a pitiful Crane. What a pitiful mother. Failure, failure, failure, FAILURE it yelled in her ear. Shut up, she snapped back, I know.
"I'm not running," she replied, "I'm lost." a simple answer for a simple question. "I was almost killed, and unconscious. I met two wolves in the forest. One told me to come here for help. I need to get home, to my children, they aren't safe." Was anyone following her? Not to her knowledge, she thought, but it was possible, "I don't know. I don't know if anyone cares enough." Her family, maybe, but God how she hoped they wouldn't be that stupid.
'Who are your fathers? How- how do you know who I am?' the words of the smol gal brought Amen back down from a very worrisome headspace, and once again she offers a smile. This time, it was less toothy. 'I have to go back.' the woman says, and Amen feels her heart drop. 'My children, my family, I can't just--'
She hears a name, but can't place it- did grandma just say Akki? Was he here? Frantically, she looks around and turns to see.. Zeke.. and his looks given to Polt were regarded with a huff. 'Not so fast, sis,' only made her fur stand on end. Did he not hear her earlier? Did he not recognize that they found what they were looking for? This was a joyous, if not cautious, occassion, but he looked downright.. annoyed. 'What'cha running from Saboro for? Is anyone following you?'
"Zeke!!" Amen snorts, stomping a foot and bristling more. "You can't just ask people why they ran, and I don't smell anyone else out there right now, use your damn head," but if he was sincere about wanting to know if someone was following.. he could've.. No.
This was part of her shennanigans, he was only being dragged along, and it was her responsibility to secure the area. He didn't ask for any duties. With a sigh, she takes a few more steps away and begins looking out over the area, raising her ears once more to listen for any steps closer, but what was the use?
Someone like Akki could slip in undetected, and for the most part, so could Zeke and herself.. she almost expected Shadon to be just as light on his feet as the rest of her family. Her blessing was such a damn curse, too!!
Something about that statement struck her. Hard. Amen recalls her crazy desire to get as far from Gemini as possible, to avoid seeing her sister, her family, the pack itself after loss.. and how she didn't want to admit she was running, how she wouldn't admit her plan to go sniff out Grandma wasn't a plan to run, too. "I guess we're all a little lost," her voice softens to a whisper and her ears droop.
Poltergeist continues with a story, one that stirs more then just sadness within her heart. 'I don't know if anyone cares enough.'
"I care," Amen had taken a deep breath before speaking, exhaling with confidence and her head raised. "I care. You're family. You're our family, and if.. if you're saying we got a lot more family still needing help.." could she do this? Could she face Saboro itself?
"I'll help you get them back, but please.. please stay at least.. a day.. you need to rest, miss, you can't keep wandering. We know where Saboro is-" or the general direction, at least- "I don't know about Zeke here, but.. I'll go with you to get 'em. As long as you promise.. you.. have to promise you're not.. a bad one, like.. him, or.. the others.." and another curse, how she could trust the word of strangers despite all that had been taken by them.
"I'm Amen, this is.. Zeke, our fathers are Akki and Kol Nidre, and you're safe here. We have a lot of siblings, though admittedly.. I haven't seen them in a bit.. I'm a pretty bad sister, but I love them, okay?" she feels herself wanting to break down. "I love them, and they're all good. All of 'em, they're all good in their own way and they'll be so happy to see you, I promise." her gaze fardes to the wall, a stare so full of sadness it trailed into her voice, shaky and solemn. "My word is good, miss.. you're family, and that's all that matters. I won't let 'em take anything else from you."
"Zeke!!" Amen snorted, stomping her foot and bristling. "You can't just ask people why they ran, and I don't smell anyone else out there right now, use your damn head," Golden eyes flashed with barely restrained ire as he gave Amen a dark look. "Oh, I'm sorry, did you want to get murdered by a random stranger?" He lifts a paw to gesture blatantly at the white and orange female, who was- for all intents and purposes -still a complete and total stranger to them, "Just because she looks harmless doesn't mean anything." Harmless was the polite term for what he thought of the frail little woman in front of him. Pathetic would have been closer to the truth but he didn't want to start a fight right now. The only thing they knew about her was that she was from Saboro and that Shadon was looking for her.
"I'm not running," she replied, "I'm lost." Zeke makes a small noise in the back of his throat, a low hum as he considers her answer. "I was almost killed, and unconscious. I met two wolves in the forest. One told me to come here for help. I need to get home, to my children, they aren't safe." There were so many unanswered questions, so many things burning on the tip of his tongue and racing through his mind. Almost killed by who? Shadon? Someone else? What two wolves in the forest had told her to come here? "I guess we're all a little lost," Were there others out there who'd left Gemini, knowing its secrets and its location? If that information fell into the wrong hands.. If Saboro ever found out where they were.. "I don't know. I don't know if anyone cares enough." According to Amen their grandfather Shadon seemed to care a whole lot and Zeke couldn't help but wonder who else might come looking for the little lady.
"I care. You're family. You're our family, and if.. if you're saying we got a lot more family still needing help.." Golden eyes glance back to his sister. Don't, he thinks to himself, don't do it sis. Don't go against Saboro, they'll crush you. "I'll help you get them back," crap, "but please.. please stay at least.. a day.. you need to rest, miss, you can't keep wandering. We know where Saboro is. I don't know about Zeke here," For once the usually mouthy boy was silent as he stared into the abyss, wondering how on earth he'd ended up in this situation. Amen was talking about going to Saboro, just, walking in and taking people. Relatives or not it was effing insane, a suicide mission. Did she think that the Saboroans would just let them waltz in? "but.. I'll go with you to get 'em. As long as you promise.. you.. have to promise you're not.. a bad one, like.. him, or.. the others.." Zeke heaves a heavy, audible sigh. "Cause if ya are, we'd have to kill ya." He grins playfully but his eyes tell them he's not joking one bit.
He'd do anything to protect what little family he had left in Gemini, even if it meant sacrificing some relatives he didn't even know. Couldn't miss what you've never had, right? "I'm Amen, this is.. Zeke, our fathers are Akki and Kol Nidre, and you're safe here." Yes, Amen, lets just give this random person we've never met our entire family history while we're at it shall we? He bit his tongue to keep himself from saying anything as he listened to his sister babble on. "I love them, and they're all good. All of 'em, they're all good in their own way and they'll be so happy to see you, I promise." Well not all of them were good. Corrosion was still a bastard. "My word is good, miss.. you're family, and that's all that matters. I won't let 'em take anything else from you." Zeke couldn't stop himself from rolling his eyes. Amen was just so soft. she was utterly naive and it was her childlike trust for others was that drove him to protect her. But it was hard to protect her when he wanted to throttle her.
"Amen.." He said quietly, after she finally shut up, "We don't even know her name. The only thing we know about her is that she's from Saboro. She could be anybody. She could be a spy come to find out our secrets and weaknesses to report back to Saboro. And even if she's not a spy, what's to stop her from spilling the beans if she goes back to that place and someone threatens her?" His sisters reckless attitude aggravated him to no end(lol what a hypocrite).
Today&apos;s Paper, also known as the e-Edition, is an online replica of the printed newspaper. You can view today&apos;s paper or previous issues.
Madison — A Dane County Jail inmate accused of trying to arrange to have a Madison police officer killed has been formally charged.
A criminal complaint says 20-year-old Alijouwon Watkins tried to have another inmate find someone to kill the officer who had arrested him following a domestic battery incident. The complaint says Watkins wanted the officer killed so she couldn't testify against him in the battery case.
The inmate Watkins talked to went to police with the information. A federal agent posed as a hit man. Prosecutors say Watkins talked to the hit man, known as "Johnny," and told him he had $30 in his jail account he could release to him.
Watkins is charged with conspiracy to commit first-degree intentional homicide and two other counts.
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126 and concealment, this was the poetry of her existence. Her crudeness was the most distinguishing force in her life, lent her life its distinction. What was she otherwise? What was he other- wise? She was his last link with another world, she and her great taste for the impermissible. As a teacher of estrange- ment from the ordinary, he had never trained a more gifted pupil; instead of being joined by the contractual they were in- terconnected by the instinc- tual and together could erot- icize anything (except their spouses). Each of their mar- riages cried out for a counter- marriage in which the adulterers at- tack their feelings of captivity. Didn't she know a marvel when she saw one? He was badgering her so relentlessly because he was fighting for his life. She not merely sounded as though she were fighting for hers but she looked it, looked as though she and not his mother were the ghost. During the last six months or so Drenka had been suffering from abdominal pains and nausea, and he wondered now if they were not symptoms of the anxiety that had been mounting in her as she ap- proached the day in May that she had chosen to present this crazy ultimatum. Until today he had tended to account for her cramps and the occasional bouts of vomiting as the result of the pressures at the inn. Having been at the job for over twenty-three years, she was herself not surprised by the toll the work was now taking on her health. ''You have to know food," she lamented wearily, "you have to know the law, you have to know every aspect of life there is. This hap- pens in this business, Mickey, when you have to serve the public all the time- you become a burnt-out case. And Matija still cannot be flexible. This rule, that rule-but the smarter thing is to accommodate the people where you can instead of to say always no. If I could just get a break from the bookkeeping part of It. If I could get away from the staff part of it. Our older staff, they are people full of problems all their lives. The people who are married, the housekeep- ers, the dIshwashers, you can know from the way they behave something is go- ing on that has nothing to do with us. They bring in what's going on outside. And they never go to Matija to tell him what's wrong. They go to me, because I'm the easier one. Every summer he is go- ing, going, going, and I'll say, 'So-and- So did this, did that,' and Matija says to me, Why do you always bring me these problems? Why don't you tell me something pleasant!' Well, because I'm upset by what's going on. To have these kids on the staff I can't take any more kids. They don't know shit from Adams. So I wind up doing their job on the floor, like I'm the kid. Trays all over the place. I clean up. Carrying trays. A busgirl. It builds up, Mickey. If we had our son with us. But Matthew thinks the business is stupid. And sometimes I don't blame him. We have a million dollars' worth of liability in- surance. Now I have to get another mil- lion dollars. We are advised to do this. The dock in the water at the inn's beach that everybody enjoys? The insurance company says, 'Don't do that anymore. Somebody's going to hurt themselves.' So the good things you would like to provide to the American public, they will just get you in trouble. And now- f" computers. W HEN, while he was fucking Drenka up at the Grotto, his mother hovered just above his shoulder, over him like the home-plate umpire peering in from behind the catcher's back, he would wonder if she had somehow popped out ofDrenka's cunt the moment before he entered it, if that was where his mother's spirit lay curled up, patiently awaiting his appearance. Where else should ghosts come from? Unlike Drenka, who seemed for no reason to have been seized by the taboos, his tiny dynamo of a mother was now beyond all taboos-she could be on the lookout for him anywhere, and wherever she was he could detect her as though there were something super- natural about him as well, as though he transmitted a beam of filial waves that bounced off his invisible mother's pres- ence and gave him her exact location. Either that, or he was going crazy. One way or another, he knew she was about a foot to the right of Drenka's blood- drained face. Perhaps she was not only listening to hIs every word from there, perhaps every provocatIve word he spoke she had a puppeteer's power to make him speak. It might even be she who THE NEW YORKER, JUNE 26 & JULY 3, 1995 was leading him to the disaster of los- ing the only solace he had. Suddenly his mother's focus had changed and, for the first time since 1944, the living son was more real to her than the dead one. The final kink, thought Sabbath, searching the dilemma for a solution- the final kink is for the libertines to be faithful. Why not tell Drenka, "Yes, dear, I'll do it"? Drenka had dropped in exhaustion onto the large granite outcropping near the center of the enclosure where they some- times sat on beautiful days like this one .I eating the sandwiches she'd brought in her knapsack. There was a wilted bouquet at her feet, the first wildflowers of the spring, there from when she'd plucked them the week before while tramping up through the woods to meet him. Each year she taught him the names of the flowers, in her language and in his, and from one year to the next he could not remember even the English. For nearly thirty years Sabbath had been exiled in these mountaIns, and still he could name hardly anything. They didn't have this stuff where he came from. All these things growing were beside the point there He was from the shore. There was sand and ocean, horiwn and sky, day- time and nighttime-the light, the dark, the tide, the stars, the boats, the sun, the mists, the gulls. There were the jetties, the piers, the boardwalk, the booming, silent, limitless sea. Where he grew up they had the Atlantic. You could touch with your toes where America began. They lived in a stucco bungalow two short streets from the edge of America. The house. The porch. The screens. The icebox. The tub. The linoleum. The broom. The pantry. The ants. The sofa. The radio. The garage. The outside shower with the slatted wooden floor Morty had built and the drain that al- ways clogged. In summer, the salty sea breeze and the dazzling light; in Sep- tember, the hurricanes; in January, the storms. They had January, February, March, April, May, June, July, August, September, October, November, Decem- ber. And then January. And then again January, no end to the stockpile ofJanu- aries, of Mays, of Marches. August, De- cember, April-n4ffie a month, and they had it in spades. They'd had endlessness. He'd grown up on endlessness and his mother-in the beginning they were the same thing. His mother, his mother, his