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Stories from the Verse
Garden of Versers
Chapter 115: Hastings 169
Table of Contents
Previous chapter: Chapter 114: Beam 32
It took at least ten minutes for the guard to realize there was water pouring out of Lauren’s cell into the hall. That surprised her, but then he was blaring his radio rather loudly, and other than the bang when she broke the pipe the noise was the white noise of splashing water coming from the pipe.
“What happened?” he demanded, rather stupidly, Lauren thought, since it looked pretty obvious. But she answered.
“I asked for water. It appears God decided to provide some when you chose not to. I think maybe I’ll ask for food next. Maybe you’ll listen.”
He ignored her answer, and rushed back to the desk, where he started making phone calls.
It was forty minutes more before he said he was moving her to a different cell. She waded in the shallow water barefoot carrying her shoes over her shoulders by tied laces, pleased to be able to wash her feet, and got a last drink before coming to the bars to be handcuffed and moved. It was at least an hour before someone managed to shut off the water, and cleaning crews arrived an hour later to mop the area. Lauren guessed the cells hadn’t been cleaned in at least months, and so thought she had accomplished something.
The water had helped the emptiness in her stomach, but she knew it would return. She called to her jailer, “If it isn’t too much trouble, could you please get me some food? Breakfast in the morning would be soon enough.” He did not answer, but she left it at that, went to her new bed, as hard and flat and plain as the old one, and settled down for a bit more sleep.
There is a behind-the-writings look at the thoughts, influences, and ideas of this chapter, along with twelve other sequential chapters of this novel, in mark Joseph "young" web log entry #313: Verser Solutions. Given a moment, this link should take you directly to the section relevant to this chapter. It may contain spoilers of upcoming chapters.
As to the old stories that have long been here:
