Class A

A1

She had no idea that what her mother passed down to her would land her in jail. She's so young; she was just misguided. Her mother passed away 2 years ago from a drug overdose.

"Andita Baker! Come out," yelled a guard outside the room. The door opened. A bright light spilled into the room. Two figures were standing at the doorway. One of the figures went into the room to grab Andita.

"Ms. Baker, you are being charged with multiple counts of drugs possession, all class-A, and resisting arrest."

—

Andita was 4 years old. She saw her mother puts something in her nose through a cut straw.

"My turn. Give it here." Andita's mother passed the straw to a man sitting next to her. Andita has never seen this man before, so she called him Daddy #3. Andita doesn't know what they're putting in their nose but it looks like sugar. She wondered why her mother and Dadddy #3 are putting sugar in their noses.

"Hey there, lil cutie! You want some?" teased Daddy #3. Andita's mother punched his arm and whisper shouted, "Cut that out! She can't handle our shit!" Andita could hear what her mother said. Why couldn't she handle it? She thought about that question for the rest of the day.

—

"Baker! Step through!"

Andita snapped back to reality to see a guard with a metal detector stick on the other side of an archway. She was being searched for any weapons. Andita stepped through, and the machine lit up green. The guards still pat her down as if she had some illegal object on her. She didn't.

Andita was then led to another room that had other inmates in it. It was a holding room. Andita recognized a few of the inmates because they arrived to jail together on the same bus. Some looked sad; others looked as if one wrong move is enough to snap. The door on the opposite side of the room opened up to three guards, two with batons at the ready and one with a clipboard.

"Jefferson! Calum! Smith! Kale! Move it!" said the guard with the clipboard. As the guard called out inmates' names, the corresponding inmate stood up and traveled to the door. Andita watched the inmates go through the door to a destination unknown to them.

—

Andita was 10 years old. She was standing between an alleyway entrance and a bus stop. She was waiting for someone. Her mother told her to wait for a man and a woman to walk up to her and say, "Do you have the time?" Andita knew what to do afterwards. She is supposed to give the couple a package while telling them the time.

"Rember this, Andita. If you see a cop anywhere, walk in the opposite direction and say nothing." Her mother always reminds her of that crucial rule every time she "delivers". Andita has been "delivering" for about three years; she was never been approached by a police officer, but the people who receive her "deliveries" have been.

Andita saw a couple walking up to the bus stop on her right. The two seem disheveled but relatively normal. The man and the woman were about the same height and build. The woman walked over to Andita and asked, "Do you have the time?"

Andita went into her pocket for the small parcel while saying, "It's 12:34, ma'am." She discretely placed the package in the woman's hand.

"Thank you," and with that the woman walked over to the man she arrived with and the couple walked back the way they came. No one that was already at the bus stop questioned, stared or were even wondering why the couple walked up to a 10 year old for the time and walked away. It was like that a lot on her "deliveries".