Page 24 of On Your Life

The door to the pod slams closed, jerking my attention away from the phone.

For once, life finally grants me a crumb of peace. A different guard walks in for the night shift and my shoulders immediately relax. The stress I’ve been carrying all evening seems to disappear with the change of shift.

The relief I feel is short lived because now I don’t know what to expect. Will he be just like the other one?

The daytime guards don’t pay me any extra attention but men in fancy suits walk around throughout the day like they’re just looking for a reason to lash out at someone. At least it hasn’t been me, yet.

I hurry to my room and wait outside of the door for count. To my dismay, I have started to understand the routine here already. Wake up, count, breakfast, lunch, dinner, count, and then finally lights out.

The thought of a peaceful night’s sleep is enough to make me giddy. I look to my right and see Maxie rocking back and forth with her hands tucked behind her back.

“Do you know this guard?” I whisper in her direction.

“Yeah,” she replies. “He looks worse than he is. Once he locks our doors he goes to sleep until morning.”

“Thank fuck.” I let out a quiet breath. “I can’t deal with another asshole on my tail.”

“Quiet inmate!” the guard shouts as he makes his way down the line.

If keeping my mouth shut means keeping him off my back, I’ll shut all the way up.

He finishes his slow walk around the pod and my blanket is over my head before he can even fully settle into his seat.

Finding joy in something so trivial should probably be alarming but I couldn’t care less right now. Sleep finds me quickly and I couldn’t be happier to have a few hours of peace.

***

The whole night I dreamed of my trial. The gavel hit the podium over and over and over sounding off like a gong. I should’ve known that any sleep I found in this place wouldn’t be filled with dreams of happier times. Just my current fucking life.

Maxie and I sit at a table in the far corner of the room. There’s no one behind us and knowing that no one can sneak up on me without us noticing gives me a small sense of security.

This morning two of the women got into a brutal fight. Stray hairs are still scattered throughout the common area, stuck to the floor and caught beneath the legs of the tables. Nobody seems particularly interested in cleaning it up yet.

I thought surely the guards would step in sooner but they waited for backup. By the time help came one of the women had used a shiv made from a toothbrush.

Maxie said they don’t think they’ll be able to fix the woman’s eye after it was punctured.

The sound still plays in my head. I keep coughing and fidgeting to give my brain something else to focus on. Anything to replace that sound looping in my memory.

It was horrific but it also gave me an idea.

That asshole decided that I’m his punching bag. Someone that he can take his grief out on however he sees fit. Now he gets to be my pin cushion. I just have to get my hands on a weapon.

Chapter 13

Fox

The bag in the backseat of my truck has me on edge. After careful planning I’ve figured out my next move, and oh, is it venomous.

My phone rings before I get out and I hit answer. It’s six p.m. so I still have a few minutes before I have to go inside.

“Hey Tina,” I answer.

“Just checking in Con- Fox,” she pauses, taking a deep breath before continuing. “Are you working tonight?”

The bag in my backseat feels like a ticking time bomb. I stare at it through the review mirror as if it might go off at any moment. My fingers tighten around the steering wheel before I force them to relax.

“Yeah I am.”