Glass Beads by Dawn Dumont

Author:Dawn Dumont
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781771871273
Publisher: Thistledown Press
Published: 2017-04-01T04:00:00+00:00

When Julie was a kid, she spent her time outdoors. Mostly that was in the city. But she spent time in a foster home that was on a farm. The family had a tree house that the dad had built for his daughters. They hated it, preferring to play video games inside, so Julie took it over. She spent one afternoon tying a rope to the branch next to it so she didn’t have to clamber down the tree all the time, she could just go down the rope, burning her hands every time she did. When the girls saw that she’d changed their tree house, they told her that she had to take it down or else they would tell. Instead of taking it down, she pulled the rope up and stayed there the rest of the day.

Around suppertime, their dad walked over to the tree house.He checked the knot and told Julie to be careful.But she didn’t need to be; outside was always safer than inside.

When she thought about it, she couldn’t remember a single day when she didn’t go outside at least once in her life. Now there were several strung together.

The doors buzzed open at 7:30 AM and Julie dragged herself off the top bunk. Shelley or Shells as she liked to be called, had been there first.

“Besides,” Shells joked, “you’re so goddamned tall, you could just step up there.” They lined up at the front of the cell. Sometimes leaning, sometimes standing straight. Shells said morning to the women on her left and the women on her right. She made jokes about wet dreams and waking up with her pillow between her legs. She teased others about moaning in their sleep. She told them that Julie was a champion farter: “Nearly tore a hole through the mattress — better check your panties later!” No mistake about it, Shells was a morning person.

After they were counted, the ladies marched towards the cafeteria where they picked up their trays and lined up again for breakfast. After that everyone headed off to their jobs, Julie and Shells working in the laundry, which was hot and damp. So you had to watch out — once you got damp, if you got hit by a draft, you were shivering for the rest of the day. It would have been unbearable if it wasn’t for Shells who joked all the time and made the hours pass quickly.

“So what did the white lady tell you, Bambi?” Shells asked. She coined the nickname because she said that Julie’s eyelashes reminded her of a baby deer.

“No programs for what I got.”

“What’s your problem?”

“I don’t have any problems.”

Shells laughed. “That’s worst motherfucking problem you can have in this joint. Now get your bony ass over here and help me load these sheets. Can’t believe this is an institution for women with all these goddamned shit stains!”

Julie spent her evening in the TV room, sitting in the second row of couches, nearest to the phones. She leafed through a decades old version of Chatelaine.

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