The Escape

Chapter four

After a lot of discussion, Colin caved in, and decided that he should at least give the fake tattoos a try. He began to unbutton his shirt.

‘Start on the right arm, as you’ll never have the time to do my chest and shoulders. I could maybe get away with just rolling my sleeve up for the guards. Let’s see how it looks first, before we decide to go ahead as planned.’

Barry grinned and went to his small cupboard and took out his case of felt-tipped pens. He began to select the pale blue, navy blue, green and dark brown.

‘It’ll be lights out soon, so I’d best get cracking.’

Colin took off his shirt and turned sideways for Barry to begin drawing on his arm.

‘What I’ll do is wet a tissue with mouthwash, and sort of press it against it to make it fade. I’ve had some of these tats since I was fourteen, so they’re old.’

‘Why did you get a ruddy mermaid?’

‘’Cos I’d never been to the seaside, and now I could say I had.’

Barry’s ideas sometimes amazed Colin, but he said nothing as his cellmate concentrated and started to draw on his arm.

Colin kept getting up to check how it was going in the metal mirror above the small desk shelf. It was a very slow business as Barry wanted to make sure the tattoos were not only the right size but looked real. He knew the duty officers at the release desk would have details of inmates’ tattoos to check against, as they had recorded all his when he first came in to Barfield. The mermaid was only half drawn when it was time for lights out. Colin had to admire Barry’s work, and said it looked very realistic. Barry thought that the green was a bit too bright on her fish tail and would need to be faded down.

The next morning, Barry worked for an hour before bringing his breakfast of a bacon roll and coffee to the cell. Colin was so nervous he couldn’t face eating and was worried that during the night the mermaid had become a little smudged. Barry went over the outline again, dabbed it with mouthwash and sprinkled talcum powder on it. His main worry was that he’d lost his yellow felt-tipped pen that he needed to draw her wavy blonde hair. He fiddled with the pens he did have, testing and mixing the different shades in layers on his notepad. In the end, the best match he could come up with was a watered-down orange.

Colin was getting more and more impatient as it was taking so long. Barry still had to do the outline and colouring of an anchor and chain on his shoulder, and they only had one day left to get it all completed. Colin tried his best not to put too much pressure on Barry, who sat concentrating very hard.

They both jumped when they heard the sudden sound of keys rattling in their cell door. Colin quickly pulled on his shirt and Barry pretended to be drawing in his art book as an officer unlocked the door.

‘You two want to go down onto the wing floor to play in the table-tennis competition?’ the officer asked.

‘Thank you, sir, but we were about to have a game of chess,’ Barry replied.

‘Very brainy. I’ll leave you to enjoy your game then,’ he said, then turned and left the cell.

Colin breathed a sigh of relief. ‘Just as well he didn’t check.’

‘Why?’

‘We don’t have a chess set, Barry, only dominoes!’

‘Oh yeah, I forgot. You are really clever, and I just reckoned you’d know how to play chess.’