"Pen Therapy"
"The dormitory phone rang and I could feel it, this was it. He hung up and immediately the Officers yells “ Apparicio…pack up and carry your stuff to the B Building.” The day had finally come, 1,095 days of being incarcerated had come to a close. After being up seemingly all night, push-up after push-up, thought after thought, it was finally Freedom day. As I walked through the yard for the final time I can hear the shouts through the iron-barred windows, “Congrats Dre, DON’T COME BACK.” I look and realize this is the day I no longer had to call this 4 building hell-hole home. The air seemed to lack oxygen, thick and dense. As I entered the building, I felt as if people could hear my thoughts and feel my emotions, but I kept walking. “Stop right there!” an officer shouted, bringing my feelings to a peak. “Where are you headed?” “Home.” I replied, showing him my pass to go to the front. “Aahh Freedom day” he stated, “DON’T COME BACK.” As I went through the final processing, finger printing, signatures, uncomfortable conversations with officers along the way who decided to get their last jabs in for me as an inmate; my thoughts began to come at a slower anxiety-filled pace and it really, truly hit me that it was time to go."