On Best Behavior (C3) Read Online Free Page A

wouldn’t sound like an idiot. She looked down at her paper. “This is a semi-structured interview, meaning I have some questions prepared but I might also ask follow-up questions to your responses, okay?”
    Dominique nodded.
    “How long have you been in therapy with Dr. Ashby?”
    “Oh.” She furrowed her brow. “I thought you’d start by asking me why I’m in here.”
    “Would you like to discuss that?”
    “No.” She looked down. “I started counseling ’bout a year ago.”
    “What led you to begin counseling?”
    She shrugged. “To get out of my cell.”
    Sophie nodded. “To get away from your bunkie?”
    The prisoner seemed surprised she knew the lingo. “Something like that.”
    “Do the police escort you to Dr. Ashby’s office? That’s what happens for maximum-security offenders, right?”
    A suspicious crease tightened her forehead. “How you know that?”
    “Well…” She blushed.
    “Wait a minute… you were here! Across the street—I remember you. Didn’t recognize you at first in your fancy duds.”
    She sighed, angry with herself for revealing too much. This was supposed to be Dominique’s interview, not hers. But this setting full of locks and cages had rattled her.
    “You’re right, I was incarcerated here a while back, in another cellblock.”
    “You’re…a doctor?”
    She winced. “I was a psychologist. Now I teach and do research.”
    “How the world you go from here to there?”
    “Well, I’m done with my parole…trying to put my life back together.”
    “So you were in prison here, and now you’re some swanky shrink. You think you know all about me, then.”
    “I don’t.” She met her eyes. “Even though I’m a con too, I don’t presume to know what it’s like to be maximum security—to be cuffed anytime you get out of your cell, to be here for years, to suffer all the losses you have. Also I have no idea what it’s like to be black, facing racism every day.”
    Her glare softened.
    “That’s why I’m here,” Sophie said, attempting to keep her voice steady. “To try to understand your unique experience. To talk about what therapy has been like for you.”
    “Why you need to interview me? You probably saw a shrink too—you know what it’s like.”
    “Not in here,” she admitted. “I was too stubborn. But my PO made me see a psychologist when I got out, so I didn’t escape therapy for long.”
    Dominique smirked. “They always get ya in the end.”
    “That’s for sure.” Sophie smiled.
    A silence settled over them, but eventually Dominique said, “The reason I started counseling was my bunkie told me to do it.”
    “Okay.” Sophie hesitated. “She’s the one in charge?”
    “Nah, ain’t like that. My bunkie said she’d kill me if I kept waking her up at night hollerin’.”
    Pain pierced her heart as she thought of Grant. “Nightmares, huh?”
    Dominique looked down. “Then I found out I got a better chance of getting back my kids, once I get out, if I go to counseling. That’s why I keep going, even though it was stupid at first.”
    “What parts seemed stupid to you?”
    They continued the interview for over an hour, and Sophie found herself completely absorbed, really connecting with the woman. She’d avoided most of the other inmates during her stay, but perhaps it hadn’t needed to be such a lonely year.
    “It sounds like therapy has been helpful for you, Dominique,” she concluded near the end of their time. “Your nightmares have stopped—so at least your bunkie won’t kill you now—and you have some ideas about how to discipline your kids effectively when you get out.”
    “Sounds ’bout right.”
    “What are your recommendations for improving therapy here? What could the DOC do to make it a more helpful experience?”
    “The DOC wants to know what I think?”
    “Yes! You’re giving your valuable time for an interview, and we want to use your insights to make things better.”
    Dominique looked away. “Well,