As Georgio lay on the bench press, forcing the weights up over his head, his mind strayed to Donna, as it did more and more lately. Donna was his lifeline, his only definite friend. She was there for him, he knew that without a shadow of a doubt. Most of the men on the Wing were terrified of their wives finding an alternative pay cheque or a longtime bed partner. The biggest fear was that their wives or girlfriends would get pregnant. You could forgive the old woman an indiscretion, even make a joke of it. Be the big understanding man who took her back, after she had begged for a while; none of your friends would think any the worse of you. But a big bouncing baby was another kettle of fish altogether. That could not, and would not, be forgiven. Even if they wanted to. The other men would soon have something to say about that. You lost face, and losing face was tantamount to dying in this kind of set up. Georgio was glad he didn’t have those kind of worries on top of everything else. It was hard enough to get through the day as it was without the added torture of thinking of Donna with her long slim legs wrapped around someone else’s waist.

Many of the men were in for killing their wives or girlfriends. It amazed Georgio that they could bother to kill for the kind of women he saw in the visiting rooms. Most were typical blaggers’ wives, with bleached blonde or dyed black hair, leather jackets and tight ski pants, their bra-less chests encased in tiny crop tops underneath the jackets. It was like the blaggers’ wives’ school uniform.

A few of the men had decent sorts, women they loved and respected, but these were few and far between. The average lifer had maybe three marriages under his belt by the time he was thirty-five. After each sentence he would be released and would marry a young girl, fresh-faced, well-used, and loving the notoriety of being married to an armed robber. Both the girl and the man knew it was doomed to failure, that the man would move on, the girl would move on, or the Old Bill would intervene in the happy relationship. Knowing all this, Georgio thanked God for his Donna, even though he admitted he had not been the husband she thought he was. But that was all to the good.

What Donna didn’t know, couldn’t hurt her.