I laid in my bunk and read a magazine while some of the other girls played spades in the commons area. I could still hear the pre-game show from the network station they had on as background noise. It was muffled and I blocked it out along with the card-game noise but I still heard the National Anthem clearly at the start of the ballgame.
"Oh, say, can you see, by the dawn's early light, what so proudly we hailed at the twilight's last gleaming...'
Ahh, beautiful, I thought. Could this be any better? I wonder if anyone else in my cell block or anyone else in this jail hearing the pre-game show even recognized the Classic Fucking Irony of the song and our situation.
...And the rocket's red glare, the bombs bursting in air, gave proof through the night that our flag was still there...
(crescendo now)...OH, SAY DOES THAT STAR-SPANGLES BANNER YET WAVE O'ER THE LAND OF THE FREE AND THE HOME OF THE BRAVE...(crowd cheers)
"No, sir. It does not. The flag still waves but I'm not free and people are cowards."
I went back to reading my Time magazine. It was the first issue of the new year; the issue with the reflective Mylar cover that you look into and see yourself looking back. The cover said that the 'Most Important Person of 2006' was me. Me. I thought, "sure, why not?" as I laid in my jail-cell bunk on that January evening.
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