Seventy-One

The guard takes me down a hallway and through a door into another corridor, where he stops. “In there.”

I nod and step inside, but stop. “The cuffs?”

He steps behind me, unlocks them. I wonder if I can take him. I wonder if I can get him down and run, but I don’t know where I’d go.

He closes the door behind me.

It’s a small apartment. It’s got a little kitchen, a bathroom, and a sleeping area. In total, it’s the size of the bedroom in the trailer at Slab City, so I can barely move. There’s a pile of clothes on the bed and a cat carrier in the kitchen.

Clean first. Then eat.