Lusk’s Window

The outside world was unknown to her, but she could see a glimpse of it through the window in his room. Jaya was transfixed by the reflections of the golden trees on the placid pond beyond the courtyard. She visioned that one day, she would walk through the gates of the courtyard, wander through the trees and caress their sunlit leaves with her fingers. She saw herself sitting by the pond and creating ripples with the splash of her toes on the water.

Jaya was jolted from her daydream by worries of the seconds her imaginings took from the preparation for her purpose. Avik, in her gray, stiff jump suit, was to arrive soon with the thick puce liquid in a tall, metered glass jar. Jaya must be ready to drink the entire contents of the jar when Avik walks through the door. Jaya changed into a crisp, white, short sleeve smock and woolen booties. She tucked her long, dark hair into a bouffant cap. Lusk’s room, the uniform, and the protocol were constants in her life for what she counted as a visit each month for three years.

Avik briskly opened the door, stood between two cots, and snapped on blue surgical gloves. She moved the equipment and the trays from the corner of the room to the cots. She stiffly motioned to Jaya to lay down on the smaller cot. Avik took the tourniquet from the tray and applied it to Jaya’s tiny arm. She palpitated for a vein, sterilized the site, inserted the needle, and drew from the site.

Jaya, eyes closed, slowed her breathing as she taught herself to do. The slowness of breath allowed her thoughts to travel to her homeland, to the village of her birth, to the stucco house that smelled of sage, to the door from where her parents waved goodbye as Jaya cried. The sustainabiltiy plan had come to the village- the officials of the plan were invited by the village leaders. In exchange for nine of the children, the village received rations of water and grain-promised each month. The parents of the taken children were deemed honored to lend their children to the plan-a plan which would ease the suffering of the entire village.

Jaya‘s thoughts were disturbed by the entrance of Lusk, a round man with rusty skin and shiny, slick hair. He reclined on the larger cot. Avik greeted him with bow. As years passed, Jaya, by laying still, closing her eyes, and listening, gained knowledge of his status. Many times as Avik attached the tube to his arm, she complimented him on his vigor and strength. She often told him of her honor to serve the architect of the sustainability plan.

As the transfer procedure ended, Jaya was able to look out the window once more. The full moon created luminescent rays on the pond, reminding her of what was once a river at the edge of the village. It was then she saw the new installation of barbed wire along the top of the wall.

Jaya’s plan for breaking free grew each visit to Lusk’s room as she looked out the window. She saw herself pushing a cot to the window, breaking the glass, climbing out the window, scaling the brick wall or sliding through the gate, even being cut by the barbed wire. She would hide in the golden trees, swim the pond to the other shore, and hike over the rocky hills.

Jaya’s legs grew long in the next year. Whenever allowed, she walked the internal compound to build strength. She hid rations of food under the mattress in the girl‘s dormitory. She told no one of her plan.

The time for the transfer procedure arrived on a stormy day. Rain beaded on Lusk’s window. Jaya could not see the trees or the pond. But this was the day. She pushed the cot to the window, breaking the glass with an empty metered jar. Her hand, cut from chards of glass, bled on the white smock. She pushed her body through the opening. With strength in her legs, she landed on the bushes below the Lusk’s window. A trail of blood was washed away by the rain.