Still On My Journey (Sample)

Still On My Journey
Finally, the game of dominos comes to an end. Mr. Anderson
walks towards his desk. Fred sits in the back of the classroom
where no one can disturb him. The act of learning has no effect
on the other students because none of them care.
One of the students lets his voice be heard. “I just want my
seventeen cents an hour; they can have their education.”
Everyone who attends school or has a job is paid a small
wage. It is called state draw. At the end of the month, the
pennies add up. The money is placed in the inmate’s trust fund
account. There are inmates that depend solely on state draw
because it is their only source of income. The few dollars are
used for the purchase of personal hygiene and food products. It
makes no sense to the average person on the outside looking in,
but the grim reality is that some students would much rather
have the pennies and not the education. Nevertheless, on death
row it makes all the sense in the world because everyone is
awaiting death. A GED diploma cannot stop a scheduled
execution.
Mr. Anderson makes his way around the classroom with
the test in his hand. Fred has not learned one single thing from
him. He had to relearn and teach himself the basics on his own.
Mr. Anderson hands him the pretest exam. Fred is as ready as
he can be. The first test is the reading test. Fred has done plenty
of reading, thanks to Harvey. The stacks of legal papers are
scattered everywhere in the cell. Fred is up all-night reading law
cases and learning the rules of the court. The time has been
divided to complete each test. Fred has thirty to forty minutes to
get the best result. He has not been doing that well in math. The
last test that Fred has to take is the two-part math exam. Mr.
Anderson spends all of his time playing card games and
17