CarrollBlog

On the bus, four young women are sitting together talking and laughing animatedly. They're sort of punky and pierced looking but happy and engaged, very unlike the sullen mono-lump punks often become when they're together. These women are sitting close enough so that I can hear their conversation. It takes a while to decipher they're all going now to catch a train to travel to Stein, home of the largest jail in Austria. All of them have men imprisoned there and they're discussing the sentences and conditions of their loved ones. The interesting thing is how upbeat they are even when saying things like, "My Rudy's sentence was extended four months after he hit a guy over the head with a bench." The others chuckle and shake their heads affectionately as if they know that kind of shenanigan well. Good old Rudy...