CHAPTER 28: A RAY OF HOPE

It was 5am in the largest womens’ prison in the country. Ella woke alongside her inmates and knelt as was procedural for the head count. The day was proceeding well until the loud assembly siren rang throughout the prison. The women rushed to the assembly point and waited for the warden’s address. The last time they had been assembled, it was because several women had turned out dead after a fight had broken out. The officers had made an example of the culprits by public flogging and then the women had been confined in solitary. Ella hoped that nothing of the sort had happened because last time they had all been punished by withholding one meal. Ella always felt weak when she missed a meal, although her appetite was lacking. She forced herself to eat so that she could not faint and would have enough strength to withhold the coughing bouts.

When Ella got released from isolation, she had been reintroduced into the public population through the hardcore unit. Here she had suffered variou