Betty Harris: We slept in what had once been the gymnasium. The floor was a varnished wood with stripes and circles painted on it for the games that were formerly played there. The hoops for the basketball nets were still in place, though the nets were gone. A balcony ran around the room for the spectators, and I thought I could smell, faintly, like an after image, the pungent scent of sweat shot through the sweet taint of chewing gum and perfume from the watching girls, felt skirted as I knew from the pictures, later in mini skirts, then pants, then in one earring, spiky, green-streaked hair.

Dances would have been held there. The music lingered, a palimpsest of unheard sound, style upon style, an undercurrent of drums, a forlorn wail, garlands made of tissue paper flowers, cardboard devils, a revolving ball of mirrors, powdering the dancers with a snow of light. There was old sex in the room, and loneliness, and expectation of something without a shape or name. I remember that yearning for something that was always about to happen and was never the same as the hams that were on us there and then in the small of the back, or out back in the parking lot, or in the television room with the sound turned down and only the pictures flickering over lifting flesh.

We yearned for the future. How did we learn at that talent for insatiability? It was in the air and it was still in the air, an afterthought, as we tried to sleep in the army cots that had been set up in rows with spaces between so we could not talk. We had flannelette sheets, like children's, and army issue blankets, old ones that still said U. S. We folded our clothes neatly and laid them on the stools at the ends of the beds. The lights were turned down but not out.

Aunt Sarah and Aunt Elizabeth patrolled. They had electric cattle prods slung on thongs from their leather belts. No guns, though. Even they could not be trusted with guns. Guns were for the guards specially picked from the angels. The guards weren't allowed inside the building except when called, and we weren't allowed out except for our walks, twice daily, two by two, around the football field, which was enclosed now by a chain link fence topped with barbed wire.

The angels stood outside with their backs to us. They were objects of fear to us, but of something else, as well. If only they would look. If only we could talk to them. Something could be exchanged, we thought. Some deal made, some trade off. We still had our bodies. That was our fantasy.

We learned to whisper almost without sound. In the semi darkness, we could stretch out our arms when the aunts weren't looking, and touch each others hands across space. We learned to lip read, our heads flat on the beds, turned sideways, watching each others' mouths. In this way, we exchanged names from bed to bed. Alma, Janine, Delores, Moira, June.