I'm Home [Part Four]

Hey Friends,

Shonda and I were woken by the guards early the next morning. They sprayed us down with freezing cold water from a hose and once we were sitting up, alert and soaked to the bone, they threw two pregnancy tests at us.

"Good luck," Joked one of the guards and then he and the rest moved down the line to the next cell.

We sat in our cots, shivering. Me, from the cold, but Shonda seemed to be quaking with fear. We looked at the pregnancy tests lying on the ground then looked at each other.

"What are we gonna do, Trasha? What if they come back negative?! I don't want to get raped again--I can't! I'll kill myself first!"

Her eyes were blazing--I knew she was serious. I picked up the tests and told her my scheme:

"Listen, this womb of mine is with child, I just know it. I will take both of the tests for us so we can get the hell out of here. Keep watch!"

I squatted over the 10 gallon bucket we were forced to use as a toilet and peed on both tests. I quickly handed one to Shonda, pulled up my pants and sat back down on my cot.

A few minutes later, a guard came to collect the tests. We each handed ours to him through the bars and he looked down at them then back at us. Seconds later, he grabbed his key ring and opened our door. We were pulled out, forcefully and then he yelled:

"We got a couple of Cows here! Come on, ladies, it's time for you to join the rest of the herd."

We were pushed out of the main jail area and lead down a darkly-lit corridor. When I was able to hear the sound of babies crying, I knew we were close to our destination.

Shonda's promises of a nicer area for the mothers and mothers-to-be were false: it was the same kind of squalor we just left, except there were babies! There were women everywhere--at least twenty--in various stages of pregnancy, but they all had infants at their breast, in their arms or nearby. Cain was running a full-fledged baby factory and we were the newest additions to the crew.

A guard shoved a newborn into my arms: "Here!" He yelled. "Feed it!" I was also given a bottle with murky formula. Shonda was also given a baby and a bottle and were found folding chairs where we could sit and feed the children.

"What now?" Shonda whispered, looking at her infant, trying to remain inconspicuous.

"We wait," I answered, in a quiet voice. "I will think of something, I promise."

It was a promise I prayed I could keep. I did everything in my power to stave off the fear that I'd never leave this place alive. After all, this prison or slave camp or whatever it was was being run by men and men were stupid. Women were by far more cunning and evil and I knew it would take a woman to free the rest.

And I was that woman. I just knew it.

[To Be continued...]

Love,

Trasha