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MARCHING POWDER

It took me several days to fully catch up on all the sleep I had lost and get my stomach used to accepting normal amounts of food again.

After that initial period of tiredness, I felt a little better every day, although I still had a severe chest infection.

‘You’ve still got a nasty cough,’ Ricardo looked at me with concern. ‘You’ll have to get some more medicine.’

‘I have to wait to get money.’

‘I’ll cover you. But for this week only. Then you have to find your own place and pay me back. I’m writing it all down.’

Ricardo went to the prison pharmacy and got me some more antibiotics. He also did all of the cooking those first weeks, he lent me some old clothes and, in the end, he refused to accept full payment for all the nights I slept on his floor. I am forever grateful to him for the help he gave me; without him, I would have died.

I wanted to repay him in some way as soon as I could. When I started eating properly again, I passed the seven balls of cocaine I had reswallowed at the FELCN. I washed them off and took them straight to Ricardo.

‘Ricardo, I don’t know how I can ever thank you enough for what you’ve done for me. Maybe you can help me to sell these and I can give you some of your money back.’

Ricardo looked at the packages in my hand, one of which I had cut open, and laughed. ‘Is that cocaine?’

‘What’s wrong with it? It’s good quality. I guarantee it.’ I held up the open ball for him to inspect, but he just waved it away.

‘There are a lot of things we miss out on in prison, inglés. But cocaine isn’t one of them.’ I looked at him curiously. ‘This is where the coke comes from, my friend,’ he explained casually. ‘It’s made in here. The best in the world.’

‘What are you talking about?’ I wondered whether this was another of Ricardo’s jokes, but he seemed serious.

‘The inmates set up laboratories at night and sell to people on the outside. The stuff in here is purer and cheaper than what you can get on the outside. This is the source, Thomas.’ When he saw my believing expression, he added, ‘I shouldn’t be telling you this just yet, so keep your mouth shut, OK?’

‘You’re joking!’ I had guessed that the prisoners would take drugs, which is why I had swallowed the stuff as an insurance plan in case