Playboy Magazine South Africa November 2013 November 2013 | Page 36

FEATURE INSIDE EL RODEO

E

ven if he somehow figured out a way
to tune out the death threats that had
been coming at him from an entire cell
block of hardened killers – “You’re going to die tonight, you gringo faggot cocksucker!” – there was still no chance of sleep.
His feet were so ravaged by mosquito bites
they’d begun to bleed. There were crevices in
the wall on either end of his bed; the moment
he lay down, endless columns of roaches
came streaming out of the crumbling concrete
for a well-coordinated assault on his orifices.
Maybe they’d be less aggressive if he wasn’t
so ripe. There was a showerhead in his cell,
but its handle was conspicuously absent, and
he hadn’t bathed in days. He was still wearing
the humiliating outfit they’d forced him to put
on just before they paraded him in front of El
Rodeo’s entire general population upon his
arrival: a ratty white T-shirt and a pair of bright
yellow cutoff sweats so undersized they might
as well have been daisy dukes. His requests
for a broom and access to a shower had been
denied. More troubl