A Burning in Homeland by Richard Yancey

Author:Richard Yancey
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Published: 2003-07-15T00:00:00+00:00

Nester led me outside. The Hole was not a hole, but a small structure just a little larger than a doghouse. It had a metal door that padlocked. There were no windows and the only ventilation came through a small opening in the roof. Kneeling, the top of my head brushed the ceiling. In the Hole for forty days meant in the Hole for forty days: You did not leave for any reason. There was a metal bucket for your business that was emptied once a day. You didn’t leave to eat and you didn’t leave to exercise. You got one meal a day, which was passed through a slot in the door. In the summer some men in the Hole would strip off their clothes and wallow like pigs on the dirt floor, coming out at the end looking more like animals than men. Two or three men have died in the Hole at the height of summer, when the temperature reaches over a hundred and twenty degrees. They give you a jug of water to last you two or three days, but men get desperate, especially the first day or two, before their bodies and their minds adjust to the endless night inside, and they end up drinking the water two days before they’re due a refill. Most of the guards will not refill it no matter how much they are threatened or begged.

Nester popped the padlock and swung open the door. It smelled as if something had died in there.

“Don’t try to think too much,” he said kindly. “Worst thing you can do. Sleep. Sleep as much as you can. Anything special you want for dinner? Maybe I can take care of it for you.”

“I ain’t hungry,” I said.

“Don’t worry, he’ll give you that drawing pad back. He likes you. Don’t know why, but he does. You better get in there now. He’s watching.”

I thanked him and asked him his name.

“Nester,” he said, and I ducked into the darkness. I was looking forward to being alone. I wasn’t afraid.

I should have been.

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