Day 2

Day 2 - 3:00am

It felt like I had just closed my eyes when someone started to poke at my side. My instincts made me almost jump out of my top bunk. It was the old black man who was sleeping in the bed below me. He nudge my leg and said one word to me.

"Breakfast."

What time was it? There were no clocks inside my new confinement, but I blurted those words out anyways while rubbing my eyes. The old toothless black man told me it was three o'clock in the morning.

...

What the fuck?

Breakfast at three in the freaking morning!? UGH! Does this place try to annoy people? ... Don't answer that. I reluctantly wiped the weariness from myself and went down stairs to where they were handing out our trays.

Inside the white Styrofoam containers were our meals. It would be this way for the rest of my time in this place as well. I had no idea what I was to eat, but from the grumbles of the other people around me, it seemed as if they knew. Some sort of set meal on each day or something. I hoped I wouldn't be here long enough to start memorizing those types of things. Breakfast for Friday was Oatmeal, two boiled eggs, and two pieces of bread with juice and milk to drink. (along with a sugar and salt packet and some honey spread.)

Let me tell you that it was not the hearty breakfast that I was used to. Almost instantly after getting our food did the bartering begin. Eggs for salt. Bread for Sugar. Juice for Milk. It was like a mini marketplace in this place. Everyone was trying to get something more. None of it mattered much to me. I silently ate my oatmeal and bread on one of the tables next to all the other prisoners. The eggs were still in their shells, and it made me gag just thinking about them. I gave them to someone in my table with nothing in return.

I dared not stare at anyone too much. I didn't know how the prison system worked, nor did I care to learn it. I figured if I just said nothing, and stayed in my bed all day long that I could get out of this place without any altercations. Though, there wasn't much to look at anyways. All around me were the lowlifes of this world. Crackheads, homeless, robbers, wife beaters, dealers, and of course myself. I told myself early on that if anyone asked, I would tell them only partial truths. I was in this place alone.

After my less then satisfying meal, I trudged back up into my room, back into my bed and fell asleep once again.

10:00am

Toothless man woke me up again. This time for our next meal, Lunch. It was ten this time. Seven hours in-between meals? I guess that works, but still it was pretty early for lunch in my mind. This time, the food was some sort of blend of soup I think with two hot dogs swimming in it. It didn't taste good in any account, but the oh-so gracious prison gods did reward us with a treat! We got a cookie with our meals this time, YAY! The drinks were something that reminded me of watered down lemon Gatorade. I'd stick with water this time. More chatter, more bartering took place, but I didn't much feel the need to communicate with anyone. I ate my food in silence and went back to my bunk to sleep. I at least was tired enough for that.

4:00pm

Would they please stop waking me up? Toothless Tyrone (he reminded me of Tyrone Biggums (coincidentally enough, his real name was Tyrone!)) woke me up again. Dinner time. At least this guy was looking out for me to an extent. He was nice enough to wake up for when it was time to eat, the black man below me wouldn't do the same. I was just another inmate. Let's try and keep it that way for now.

Dinner was what I expected; nothing fancy. Beans and potatoes mixed with some sort of meat concoction. It didn't taste half bad, but maybe that was because I was comparing it to the last two meals I had just consumed. Afterwards I plopped myself back into my sleeping area and fell asleep once again.

6:00pm

I get woken up once again. Not by anyone poking me, but by many voices down below. One thing about this place, is that it was never truly quiet. During the mid evening no one is quiet in these holding cells. There was a lot of hooting and hollering from down below. As I fixed myself to get a good look of what was going on down stairs (still in my bed mind you.) I noticed that we seemed to be losing our TV. Except, no one was complaining. Everyone in the place was in good moods. They took out the old TV and replaced it with a new one. Apparently this one had cable. We had cable TV in this joint?

Ok. That's pretty cool. What could possibly go wrong with this?

HA.

So after we had a TV with ninety nine channels to browse through, the inmates started to bicker. They were fighting amongst each other over what to watch. Really? The first show they agreed on was a court/judge show. Judge Joe Brown or something. I thought that was odd. Why would people in jail want to see a show about judges? Weren't they the reason they were in here in the first place? People make me wonder sometimes.

The next thing we watched was a movie. A Steven Segal movie. Ugh. There had to be something better then this?

One of the black men took control of the TV schedule. He pretty much switched the channels to whatever he wanted, and that was irritating a lot of the other people. He was going to watch King Kong at nine. No one else wanted to watch it, but him. He was overrun in favor of the rest for us watching UFC fight night.

OK. That was pretty fun to watch. It was like I was in elementary school again. All eyes were glued onto the TV and there wasn't any real turmoil about the decision. The room was in unison watching people get the stuffing beat out of them until it was lights out at 11:30.

I didn't go to sleep until one'ish, but I wasn't looking forward to waking up in two hours just to eat mush.

Day 2 was over before it ever really began. I wouldn't be so lucky to sleep through an entire again for the rest of my stay there.