He was kneeling before a massive, dark structure with high metal doors. Another man, tall, thin and dressed in white, stood over him and began chanting. The chanting became singing. The kneeling man began singing along. Unwillingly, I thought.The singing stopped and the tall man moved to one side as the doors opened. The other man stood and walked into the structure.
The tall man commanded me forward. He placed a red prayer rug at my feet. I rolled it out onto the hard ground and kneeled. He looked into my eyes and started chanting in an unfamiliar tongue. The chanting turned to singing and I began to understand the words. I was compelled to sing along, words of prison, about visiting and paying respects. I stood as the doors opened and entered the great, dark hall.
The doors shut behind me, and I heard the heavy clank of a deadbolt. There was a dim orange glow breaking the darkness of a small room to my right. I turned and went inside. There was a desk and chair. A single dull lightbulb hung from the ceiling. Two junction boxes with wires running between them were fixed to the wall. A window just wide enough to crawl through could be reached by standing on the desk
A panic rose and locked inside my chest, knowing prisoners were locked up only steps away. I feared them.
I clambered onto the desk and pulled myself up and through the window, but my foot caught a wire, ripping it from a junction box. Fresh air filled my lungs, and sunlight blinded me for a moment. Low clanging sounds of machinery in the hall behind me filled my ears. I dropped to the ground, found my balance, and ran. The tall man was nowhere in sight.
I was out of breath standing on the highway shoulder when a car pulled over, offering a ride. The driver wanted to know what the racket was about. I had no answer. I should have gone back, to make it right, but I ended up going in the wrong direction.
We’d passed the county line and the driver needed to make a stop. He exited onto an access road toward a lot full of semi-trailers and pulled up in front of a large white warehouse and parked.
Some questions could never be answered; I was sure of that.