Page 2 of Day Break

Standing in line, I kept my eyes on my shoes.

Dull gray sneakers. Their white laces had turned a muddy white.

“Sarah Meyers,” someone called out.

They said it three times before I finally lifted my head.

“Yes,” I said in a low voice.

Suddenly, a large woman with noticeably short hair shoved her face directly in front of mine. She had nice eyes.

“When I call your name, answer me. I won’t wait around for you. This isn’t some preppy bullshit school. Got that?”

When she talked, spit flew out of her mouth and landed on my nose, eyes, cheeks, and lips.

I didn’t care.

I felt nothing.

I nodded and returned my gaze to my shoes.

I was shoved until I followed everyone else as we made our way through tall metal fences. We passed several gates and then went through some doors that swung open and shut once we were all inside. We were crowded into a narrow hallway, then led into a large room.

I didn’t even think to look around to see where we were going.

I didn’t care.

I felt nothing.

The sounds of the last door shutting behind me would eventually echo in my mind during the darkest parts of the nights. The moments when I was forced to be alone with myself. Forced to own up to my own deep fears. To the anxieties that I had never even admitted to myself.

But for now.

I didn’t care.

I felt nothing.

A bunch of items were tossed at me. Since I was still staring down at my shoes, they hit my chest and fell to the floor.

I bent slowly and started to pick them up, but I was shoved from behind and fell headfirst into the table.

Everyone in the room laughed at me. Only the shrill sound of a whistle stopped the laughter.

The large woman was back, yelling at me, inches from my face, spit spewing over my skin.

“What are you? A troublemaker?” she screamed.

I blinked and didn’t respond.

Something flashed deep in her eyes. If I had blinked at that very moment, I would have missed it. But I hadn’t.

“Pick up your things,” she screamed at me, and then she disappeared.

I bent once more to gather the items.

A gray jumpsuit. More gray shoes like the ones I was currently wearing, only with laces that were white and new. A boxed bar of soap. A new toothbrush and small tube of toothpaste. A box of tampons. A Bible.

I held the items to my chest as I was escorted through another doorway.