Obscurity

Chapter 24: POS

Sierra

The corridor to the East Hall entrance to the unit is quiet. The only sounds are the shuffle of the flunky's feet in front of me as she leads me down the hall. I pad along in my socks and find that I'm almost galloping my way back to my unit.

I'm absolutely giddy that Chris has sprung me a few hours early from Solitary. It's so great to be out of that small space. I'm going to watch how I act and stay out of trouble. I don't want to go back there.

The white-clad flunky— I rarely pay attention to their names. There are so many of them— puts her key card into the slot on the entrance door to my unit. I hear the lock click, and she ushers me through the door. I'm positively beaming. I can't remember the last time I was this happy to be back on my unit. Actually, I can. The last time I was returned from Secondary. I was happier back then, but this is a close second.

She leads me to the nurses station to sign off on my transfer.

"Go hang out in the day room, Sierra. Lunch will be up shortly." One of the unit nurses says as she hands the flunky-escort the custody sheet.

I turn around in the direction of the day room and spot Michelle sitting at a table alone playing with her ratty doll. She looks up at me as I walk in her direction.

"Sierra! You're back!" she squeals as she runs toward me, arms outstretched. She wraps her arms around me in a hug. Who knew she even liked me?

"Hey kid." I say as I return her little hug.

"I missed you!" she giggles. "Wanna sit with me?"

I throw my hands up in the air, "Sure why not?" I shuffle my way over to a chair at her table and sit down. She takes her seat and begins to ramble about all the things I missed.

I'm zoning out while she talks. She's talking really fast, she's excited. I can't help it, but it bores me almost instantly. I'm not wired for kids. I tune her out while silently thanking the heavens I never had any of my own.

I let her rattle on and look around the room aimlessly. I slouch down in the seat and nod and agree in all the right places of Michelle's story.

It occurs to me I haven't seen Alma since I got on the unit. I figured I'd see her in the day room. The only ones here are Jim and Abigail sitting together playing Scrabble. Maybe everyone's finishing up quiet time or something. I shrug it off.

I look over to the nurses station and see the flunky-escort heading back to her unit. As she starts walking away down the hallway, I see Nick pass her and walk into the day room.

His eyes widen in surprise when he sees me sitting here. He stalks over to his normal table— two over from where I am— and he drops into his seat. I look over at him. He's just sitting there looking around the room. He seems like he may not be in a good mood.

"Hey Nick. How'd you handle my vacation?" I laugh.

He shrugs, "Didn't even notice you were gone. Sorry."

I hold my hands to my heart, faking heartbreak.

"What'd you get?" he says in a lowered voice. We aren't supposed to pry or talk about infractions and punishments.

"Twenty-four in Solitary." I grin at him.

"Oh. Really?" He says lightly.

"Yeah. It was a piece of cake."

"Twenty-four, you say?" He asks.

"Yep."

"That's interesting." He rubs his chin like an old-school detective.