Chapter 4
I woke up lying on the cold ground. I couldn’t feel the heat of Dyami from behind me so I assumed that he had already woken up. I opened my eyes and peered out at the large group of awakening people. I listened and all I could hear was coughing. My smile was instantly replaced by a grimace as my mind started to wake up and remind me of where I was and what was going on. I sat up slowly and decided I should start another fire. With my blanket still around me I walked over to the pile of ash that had been our small fire and poked it. It was still smoldering enough to light some of the small twigs on fire.
Gradually, as the morning went on, the fire got bigger so I decided to boil some water and roots to make a tea. I saw Tiva come and kneel next to me. Her normally straight hair was in disarray after sleeping on the ground. It was knotted and there was mud caked in her hair.
“Oh Tiva. Come sit I need to do something about your hair.” I said. She smiled at me, happy that I talked to her, and complied. She sat down in front of me and my hands started to comb through some of the knots.
“You know Nina, I was thinking. What will happen if they never let us out of here?” My hands stopped for a second, shocked at her words. I continued undoing the knots as I thought about what she said.
“I’m sure that it won’t come to that. They have to let us out at some point or we’ll all starve. I know that it might not be great in here but things could be worse for the time being.” I said. She nodded her head. I didn’t really know what to think about what the future might hold. For now I just sat there and braided my friends once straight hair.
When the water started to steam I took it off the fire and poured some of the tea into mine and Tiva’s respective bowls. She thanked me and we drank our tea in silence. Around us people had started to wake up and life began again. Children were playing, babies were crying, people were laughing, but over all of that you could always here the constant coughing. I looked over to my mother to see that she was sitting up against the wall. I took it as a good sign and quickly brought some of the tea over to her.
“Good morning mother. How are you feeling today?” I asked.
She coughed but then smiled at me and nodded. I brought the tea to her lips and let her drink. She sighed when she was done and promptly fell asleep again. She was always sleeping it seemed. At that moment I decided that I needed to get out. I ran over to the gate and banged on it. A white man opened the door. I couldn’t see Charles so I didn’t want to speak English to this man. In my native tongue I asked him where Charles was. It seemed that all he could get out of what I said was ‘Charles’. He ran off leaving the gate to be guarded only by two armed me. They both looked at me warily. I waited for the other man to return. Not too long after he left I saw him come walking over towards the gate with Charles next to him. They were talking in hushed tones so I couldn’t hear what they were saying. They reached the gate and Charles looked up to see who the Indian was who was asking for him. When he saw me he smiled but quickly wiped the expression off of his face.
“Can I help you?” he asked. His voice was cold and harsh. I winced a little at the sound of it but hesitantly took a step towards him. The man with a gun who was standing next to him pointed the barrel of his gun at me. I put my hands up like I had seen Charles do yesterday and took a step back. “Woah, Jack, it’s ok. Put the gun down. I doubt she wants to kill me or anything.” He chuckled and ‘Jack’ slowly put down his gun. I motioned Charles to come closer to me. He looked at me warily then stepped closer. Stood next to him and stood on the tips of my toes to whisper in his ear, “I need to get out. Can I go into the woods and just not go later?” I stepped back again and he looked at me funny.
