Anneewakee: One Boy's Journey

Chapter 4

One day as I was lying on my bed thinking about my impossible situation, I heard a faint voice from the corner of the room.

I sat up and looked around. For a minute I thought maybe I was hearing things but then I heard it again.

"Hey..... anybody there? Can you hear me?"

There was no one in my room. I looked to the door but that wasn't where it was coming from.

"Hey," the voice said again.

I jumped up and stood in the middle of the room. Again the voice called out.

"Yeah," I said to an empty room, "I hear ya' ... hold on..."

I walked to the wall and scanned it. I turned around in a full circle, my bare feet on the cold floor, looking for a place the voice could be coming from. Nothing. Again the voice asked if I could hear him and I answered that I could but where was he?

I walked slowly around my room, scanning the small space, and then I saw, in a bottom corner of the room, a small vent. I laid down on the floor and spoke into it, "Yeah, I hear you...." I said.

"Hey...uh," the voice said, "how long you been here?"

"I don't know," I answered, "I can't remember."

"Did you just get here?"

"Hardly. I've been here for some time."

"What's your name?"

I told him my name was Steve and asked him who he was.

"I'm Henry....I just got here last night... Where are you from?"

"Chattanooga," I said and asked where he was from.

"I'm from Knoxville....

"That's close..."

"Yeah! We're practically neighbors!"

"Well...now we are..." I said.

"Hey...uh...how long do we stay in here?" Henry asked.

"Well, I've been in about eighty days or so.... I'm not entirely sure because there's no way to tell time in here but that sounds about right...."

"Eighty days!"

"Well, about....."

"Do we ever get out?" said the scared voice on the other side of the wall.

"Well sure.... they'll come and talk to you in about forty five days-"

"Forty five days!"

"Well yeah.... they'll come and talk to you about joining the outside groups...."

"What are the outside groups?"

"You don't know anything about this place?"

"No, not really.... I was told it was like a camp..."

"Well, it is.... kinda... but they have groups, outside, with Indian names like Wawoka and Sinasta... and you can join them and go out there... and then, then I don't know what... that's about all I know of it, really...cause I haven't left my room since I got here..."

"But why so long? Why do we have to be in here SO LONG?"

"Beats me, I guess we're being evaluated and observed."

The guy on the other side of the wall was quiet for a minutes and then he said, "Didn't they come talk to you?"

"Yeah they did but I told them to go fuck themselves."