Searching by Yvonne Jocks

Author:Yvonne Jocks
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Tags: Romance, (¯`'•.¸//(*_*)\\¸.•'´¯)
Published: 2011-12-31T13:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 10 – DODGE CITY

Uncertainties were all I had to occupy myself, and they grew so heavy I had little appetite for the dinner—"with extra pudding"—the corporal brought for me. Night made things worse. The soldiers brought me several blankets and a pillow, but they also shut a second, outer door on my cell, a wooden one that covered the bars for privacy. I found myself in a four-by-six space of complete blackness.

Complete except for the stars, outside a window so high I could see only the sky through it, checkered by a grating like a chessboard. I didn't get too close to the window. The smelly black hole was somewhere under there.

I found I could cry more after all, much more easily than I could sleep. I tried curling up on the wood floor, as far from the hole as possible...but I still thought I heard things crawling down there. At one point I heard the corporal changing shifts with another soldier, and my combined fears had me rigid—what kind of man was this one? If he was like the other corporal, or the privates, or most of the cowboys, I would be fine. But what if he was like the major, or Thompson-the-pimp?

I wasn't really a prostitute, was I?

I hated having no say in what happened to me.

I shivered. I cried. I stayed awake until the square of checkerboard window grew gray, and a bugle sounded reveille. I eventually had to use the damned hole, which made me less afraid of but more disgusted by it. Dizzy with exhaustion, I picked at the breakfast the new soldier finally brought me. I didn't notice what it was, concentrating instead of staying awake.

If it was morning, Benj might be coming for me.

But the sun rose higher. I heard soldiers drilling on the parade grounds. I heard them finish. I began to fall asleep and then jerk myself awake, on and off in fits, as if I had to be awake or risk missing Benj. My original corporal came back on duty, and muttered angrily with the soldier he'd come to relieve, spitting the word "Major" as if it were a curse. When he saw I was awake, he said something about being truly sorry for this...to be honest, I wasn't paying very close attention. I was so tired, and Benj might be coming any minute.

But Benj didn't come.

I cried again, and finally fell either asleep or unconscious.

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