FORTY TWO | Empathy

[ZARINA]

“How about James?” I asked, my head tilting against the metal bars as I awaited the response of the only people who could hear me.

In the beginning, the guards positioned outside our cells bothered us so much that we could barely say anything to each other. Their stony faces frightened us. The same faces that brought us food when we were hungry and doctors whenever my wound needed to be checked and Julie’s pain would get worse. But now, I can proudly say that we have learnt to ignore them as if they didn’t exist in the first place. We have a silent understanding. They don’t intervene in her conversation and we don’t cry or scream or make their life hell if it isn’t already.

According to the same visiting doctor, Marco and Julie should expect the baby any day now. The fact, which, of course, terrified Marco to the bones. No way had he wanted their baby to be born in a place like this. It is proba