I was exhilarated but also resented the intervening grille. As I sat down myself, she said, Forgive me, Artem. They did not let me come earlier. Then she choked on tears for a while. Diffused though she was by wire mesh, I got a sense from her look of health and her outright beauty, that if I concentrated on her I could become part of her and in a way escape with her. Please, I told her. Don’t be distressed, Hope. We’re not in here forever. You should not be in here at all, she whispered. Besides, I miss your company. And I bitterly miss yours. She sucked in a lower lip as she wiped her eyes with a handkerchief. She told me then she had heard that Thompson had begun a hunger strike. Was it true? she asked me. I hadn’t heard that, I told her. If you hear he has, tell him Walter O’Sullivan wants him to stop. She assured me we had not been at all forgotten. Donations to make up for our lost wages and to buy us comforts were coming in. But the chief warden had not let any visitors or money reach us yet.
