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The woman laughed scathingly under her breath. “You just told me, and everybody else here, all we need to know—you abandoned your family.”
“I didn’t abandon them!” Peter bit back.
“You can’t blame a man for movin’ on with his life,” the man with stringy yellow hair spoke up. “After lookin’ that long I probably woulda done the same thing. These are bad times; life ain’t like it used to be.”
“Then that makes you just as much of a piece of shit as he is,” the woman accused.
More prisoners joined in on the argument, but their voices faded into the back of my mind as I sat against the concrete with my back pressed to the door.
I didn’t care that Peter had been married to someone who was once a man, or about Peter’s regrets. I had only one thing on my mind—escape—it was all I had room for. And although I didn’t blame Peter for ending the search for his family, I knew I could never stop looking for Thais.
Thais, I’m going to get you out of here. I hope I can get you out of here…
My head fell forward, my shoulders slouched, and I stared at the black stains on the concrete beneath me until spots appeared before my eyes. Behind me the debating voices rose, and the sound of hands shaking the doors reverberated. Long after the debate had reduced to a few mumbles, and the prisoners retreated back to their quiet corners, and after the sun had set and the light beaming from two high windows faded, I still remained silent, thinking only of Thais.
I had nodded off at some point, and then snapped awake when the heavy metal door at the end of the hall opened with a groan. I remained sitting, while other prisoners jumped to their feet and peered through the links into the slim walkway as Driggs shuffled his way through, two armed men behind him.
“Pick me!” one man shouted, his skinny wrist poked through a hole in the door, reaching for Driggs.
“N-No, not me…p-please, don’t take me,” pleaded another.
“I’ll go! I’m ready!” said another.
“Fuck him! It’s my turn!” argued the woman across from me. “And I want you! I challenge you!” She pointed at Driggs, her thirty-something face twisted with rage.
Driggs’ hand sprang forward and slapped against the fence so hard it bulged inward and bit her in the face. Grabbing her nose, the woman stumbled backward.
“You’ll get your turn,” Driggs taunted her, walking past.
She threw her body against the door. “Fuck you, Driggs! I’m gonna kill you! That’s why you won’t let me out of here—you know I’ll fucking kill you!” The chain-links shook chaotically.
Driggs kept on walking, a grin set in the corner of his mouth. He stopped before walking past my cage, turned in his worn leather boots, and looked in at me.
With audacity and ease, I stood, and I walked forward the few steps that separated the back wall from the door. I looked at Driggs with the eyes of a man who feared nothing, a man who wanted this opportunity. I had an idea about why I was in this cage, what I had been brought here for, what the woman and several other prisoners wanted to be a part of so desperately. And although I had no interest in complying, I knew too that it was a way out, and that was all I cared about. I would fight if it gave me an opportunity to escape—I hoped prize-fighting was what this was all about.
Driggs studied me for a moment, smiled smugly before walking away.
I was the one throwing myself against the door then. “I volunteer!” My fingers coiled around the thin chain-links, the force of my hands I felt could’ve crushed them if that were possible. “I volunteer!” I roared.
Driggs looked back at me.
“Oh, you’re going to fight tonight for sure,” he said. “But you’ll be going last.”
My confidence surged when Driggs confirmed it. Fighting I was good at. Fighting I could do. Fighting I wanted!
“Why wait?” I said eagerly, trying to convince Driggs, shaking the fence now with the same fury the woman had.
“Because you’re going to be the main event,” Driggs revealed. “You’re the one who’s going to line my pockets tonight.”
“Why me?” I asked, confused.
“Yeah! Why him?” another voice called out.
“Because he’s the only one of you worthless shit-stains whose got that look in his eye.” He raised his voice over the others. “I don’t have the reputation of being the best talent scout in Paducah for nothing!” He laughed.
Then his voice lowered, but there was something dark in it, and he said as if only to me, “Besides, the things a man will do for a woman, often turn a man into an animal.”
My teeth ground together within my tightly-clenched jaw. I shook the door violently, throwing myself against it trying to get at Driggs. “Where is she? Tell me where she is!” The blood rose up into my head like mercury in a thermometer; I could feel the veins pulsating in my temples.
