Free Young Women Reform: Novella 1 by Candace Mia Page A

hard to see
with the light burning his eyes. But when you’d been in prison as
long as Brody, you learned that what you were able to do was what
they told you to do. He didn’t rush, though. He got a hold of his
duffle bag. It was full of nothing more than all the notebooks he’d
written in over the years. He let his feet lead him outside more
than his eyes. When he put a foot forward and it didn’t touch the
van’s floor, he hopped out.
    His eyes were still trying to adjust but he
was so curious he had to look around. He could see well enough to
know what was right ahead of him and to his right. There were
trees, and a lot of them at that. The smell was kind of swampy. To
his left were two women. One was the woman he’d met in prison, Ms.
Pennington. She looked even bigger now that she wasn’t sitting
down. She wore jeans and an expensive looking blouse. His vision
was also good enough that he could see the pistol strapped to her
side.
    Brody was about five-ten. She was a good four
inches taller than him. She still didn’t look fat, but it was very
clear she had meat on her bones. Beside her was another woman. No,
it was a girl. His eyes had adjusted enough to see she was a
Mexican girl. She was probably an inch under five feet tall. She
was small, with a head too big for her body. She wasn’t ugly. It
just looked like her head was kind of big for her. Her face was
cute, like an even littler kid. She was wearing a blue dress that
looked like the same material the people who worked in the prison
infirmary wore. It went down to the middle of her thighs. She was
holding a clipboard. Behind them was a big white house. This was
like no prison he’d ever heard of. It just looked like a big house
or maybe an apartment building.
    The van drove off and headed down a dirt road
into the woods. When it was gone, Ms. Pennington spoke.
    “This is what you need to know right off the
bat, Brody. If you enter the woods and walk out a quarter of a mile
you’ll find a fence. If you should cross that line, the devise
inside you will shock you hard enough to at least knock you out. It
might also stop your heart. The device also allows me to track you
at all times. Do you understand?”
    “Yes, ma’am,” Brody replied.
    “Good. Now there’s a big rock near your feet.
I want you to pick it up.”
    Brody looked down to see a stone nearly as
big as his hand. It was the only one there. He put his bag down and
picked the rock up.
    “Now, Brody. Throw that rock as hard as you
can toward the road over there.”
    He wasn’t sure why she would ask him to do
this. Maybe she wanted to test his strength. He was very hungry and
tired, but he’d built up a lot of muscle working out in the yard.
He wasn’t going to be asking any questions right. He reared back
and launched the rock toward the road.
    A loud crack gave him a jolt. The rock
exploded in mid-air.
    He looked gingerly toward Ms. Pennington,
who’d already holstered the pistol.
    “Understand?” she said.
    “Yes.”
    “Good. Now, I would like for you to get
cleaned up and ready for dinner. Penny will show you your
quarters.” She looked at the girl.
    The girl nodded. Then she moved toward the
house. Brody followed her. She led him inside the big house. They
entered a foyer.
    “Take off your shoes,” Penny said.
    Her accent was only slightly Hispanic. Her
voice was rather squeaky, which really matched her small size.
    She took off her own shoes. She had a smile
that looked rather embarrassed to him. He thought he sensed trouble
already. He’d have to avoid contact with this girl.
    He removed his shoes.
    It was a long foyer. It was more of a hallway
really. She led him to one of the doors in that hallway and opened
it.
    Inside was a room with bare white walls.
There was a bed at least three times the size of the one he’d had
in prison.
    Penny moved to the center of the room, where
she motioned around. “This is your room. This is your bed.”
    He’d already seen the bed