RISE, A Modern Guide for the Purpose Driven Woman Spring 2014 | Page 63

cotton and you will wear this for
up to a week, again depending
on what jail you are in this differs greatly. You are given a small
plastic bin, which contains a
mesh laundry bag, another bar of
that award winning soap, a new
comb, another awful toothbrush
and a travel size tube of that
same mouth freshener.
Here is where my jail experience takes a huge turn from the
normal inmate. While the others girls were removed from the
delousing shower area, I was told
to sit and wait. A few hours later
a new guard came to get me. We
walked through a maze of dozens
of hallways. Jails are designed
like this. For good reason. Even
if you could find your way out
of a cell and into these hallways,
good luck finding your way out.
We went through a number of
locked doors and I was suddenly
in a very nice conference room.
The guard turned to me and said,
“You must be someone special. Who are you?” I gave this
some thought, “I am that beauty
queen with the bad checks.” I
really didn’t know how else to
sum myself up in a sentence.
It seemed utterly ridiculous to
point out to this person that I,
standing before her with nothing,
in jailhouse blues with a plastic
bin and remnants of some sort of
delousing bleach that was unsafe
for pregnant women in my hair,
could be a “beauty queen”...but
I guess I had been. Maybe. I
wasn’t even too sure anymore.
She told me to sit and wait and
she would wait for me right
outside. A few minutes later, the
warden of the jail came in. He
was dressed in a gorgeous 3 piece
suit and shiny purple tie. He sat
down across from me, “Hedy, I

want to talk to you.”
A familiar feeling came over
me...I remembered being a
beauty queen. My adrenaline
pumping, waiting as the emcee
fumbled a mysterious question
out of a glass fish bowl with millions of eyes watching me. Yes
I knew this feeling...it’s called
“Scared shitless.”
... to be continued online at
womenwhorise.org next month.

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@hedydicarlo

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