Remy
When I got into the women’s bunk room that evening, I caught everyone sneaking peeks at me. I smiled when I made eye contact, wondering what they were all thinking. Ultimately, it was one of the children, ten-year-old Macy, who was brave enough to whisper to me.
“Are you friends with Bahntan?”
Linette sent me a snarly look of disgust, which I ignored.
“No,” I said gently. “He’s sort of my boss. He talks to me, and he wants to know how things are going here.”
“What’s it like over there?” asked another one of the girls.
“It’s . . .” I rifled through my dirty clothes. “Nice. But I don’t get to enjoy the nice stuff. I just work and come back.”
“Yeah?” piped up one of the older women. “And what do you do for him?”
I felt myself stiffen a little with guilt. “I teach their kids.”
Everyone went quiet, looking at me. I steeled myself against their judgment, and took my dress off, laying it over the edge of the top bunk. I yanked my faded University of Vegas T-shirt over my head and climbed up into my bunk.
“What do you teach them?” asked Macy. She and the other girl were still standing next to my bed, looking up at me.
“The normal things,” I answered. “Reading, math, science.”
To my surprise, they actually looked . . . sad. Oh, how things had changed. I glanced toward the doorway, but no guards were near.
I whispered, “Do you want me to teach you some stuff?”
The girls nodded, and two other girls got up to come over. Linette jumped out of her bed and glared at me.
“Are you crazy?”
I put a finger to my lips. “I’ll be quiet.”
“They don’t need to learn that shit right now.”
“Yeah, but theywantto.” It would help their morale.
“You’ll get them killed, and yourself.”
I bristled at that, and looked at the girls. I expected them to cower at the words, but they were still watching me with hope in their eyes.
“Technically, nobody said it’s not allowed,” I told her.
Linette glared harder and crossed her arms. “I don’t want anything to do with this.” She grabbed all of her things and made a big, dramatic deal of moving to a bunk across the way, sending punishing looks my direction. I had to admit, my insides were jumpy with nervousness. I looked at the woman in the lower bunk next to me, silently asking permission. Without a word, she got up and moved, switching bunks with one of the girls. Within five minutes, I was surrounded by the young girls. Two on either side of me, and one in the lower bunk. Five pupils.
We all shoved ourselves under the thin blankets when we heard the clop of footsteps coming to patrol the room. My heart pounded as they marched through the rooms, checking every nook and cranny for who knows what. Then the female guard shouted, “Lights off!” and it went dark as they left us.
Three long minutes of silence passed before I worked up the nerve to whisper, “What are your names?”
“Macy.”
“Mei.”
“Gaby.”
“Tasheka.”
“Savani.”
