The Guardian Read Online Free PDF Page A

Jail, each had learned ‘Thank You’ and ‘Yes, ma’am’.
            Eleven cells.  Six on one side and five on the shortest wall.  In the center and high up on the wall, a television was bolted in place on a wooden slate.    An expansive barred window above allowed rays of light to filter through.   If one were lucky, she could catch a glimpse of a bird in flight.  Seated around a bolted steel table, female inmates ate from unusually thick food trays.   Other inmates loitered.
            Cassandra exited one of the cells scratching her head and walked toward the open shower area.  Under the spray, she closed her eyes and lifted her face.  The water gushed from the make-shift shower head.  She ran her hands over her face and through short hair, allowing the water to cascade over her head and down the back of her neck.  Moments later, she turned the water off, grabbed a towel from a ring and draped it around her body.
            Dolores gave Cassandra a coquettish look as she walked past.  “Aye paso!”
            “The shower is still full of gnats.” Cassandra barked. Loud enough to warrant the attention of the deputies.
            “The trick from the news up in here, Cass’.”
            Dawn sat up on her cot, listening intently.  Were they talking about her?
            “Rondell? You remember him, don’t you? The father of your kids.  That bitch is gonna turn state and send your man to prison for life! Is that what the fuck you want?!”
            Dawn gasped and covered her mouth.  They were talking about her.  She would be killed in jail.  Knifed to death like she’d seen on a TV show.  Next week, The Daily Advertiser’s headline would read: Dawn Miles killed in jail by a make-shift knife.
            Cassandra turned around, facing Dolores.  “What you want me to do, Dee? Go up in there, drag that bitch out here in front of you and those damn security guards, beat her ass, catch another motherfucking case, so I can get twenty-five years like your stupid ass?! Is that what the fuck you want?!”
            “Quiet down, ladies!” A security guard yelled from the corridor.
            “Fuck Rondell! You right, Dee. I got two kids waiting for my ass to get up out of here and that’s just what the fuck I’m gonna do—get the fuck up outta here.  I’m sorry you got twenty-five years, but I still got a life outside.  I ain’t trying to spend mo’ time in this motherfucker than I have to, ya dig?”
            “I was just looking out for you, Cass’.”
            “Naw, bitch. You trying to get a bitch locked up with your fat ass. Fuck that!”
            Dawn muffled her cry in the palm of her hand and lied back on her cot.
            “Don’t cry.”  Ruthie slid from beneath Dawn’s cot and folded her arms behind her head.  “You can’t let this place or those dirty heffas get to you.  They will drag your ass as low as you let them.”  Ruthie was a spindly girl with thin arms and legs and strong facial features.  Her short nappy fro still held its stylish V-shaped cut at the nape of her long neck.
            “What are you in here for?”  Dawn’s lip trembled.
            “Selling weed to an undercover cop.”
            “Oh my God—“ she sat up, perched on an elbow.
            “Girl, that ain’t shit.  That bastard told me if I sucked his dick, he wouldn’t turn me in.  Shit, I wasn’t sucking that fat motherfucker’s dick for nobody,” she shot Dawn a look, “This your first time being locked up, huh? You scary as hell,” she laughed.
            “And my last.”
            Cassandra entered.  “Once you come to this bitch, you best believe you’re coming back.  You always come