Summary

In 2005, six inmates from the Kalamazoo County jail rode to quarantine in Jackson, Michigan, a transitional prison facility. The anonymous first-person narrator, cuffed to his former cellmate, Ray, and the others “dream[ed] aloud about the perks of quarantine over jail” (54), of smoking and drinking coffee, “as if it were a tropical island resort” (54). Micky, cuffed to the smiley, frizzy-haired inmate nicknamed Sideshow, shared his dream from the night before.

The prison crew processed the newcomers then gave them clothes and shoes, which the narrator likened to “an old, favorite song” (58). A guard then ordered them to the library without any directions and derided them as “dumb motherfuckers” (58). Once they found the library, “plastic bags with peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, juice, and potato chips” (58) were distributed to them. A man lectured the prisoners on AIDS and asked them...