Somnia | $crim

14. Sandman

August 8th, 2015

"Adrienne!" Madi urged, poking her head from the row behind me on the airplane. "Nico keeps putting his knees into my seat."

"Okay, so switch with him," I instructed. Madi started to argue with me, not wanting to sit next to Troy for the flight, but eventually acquiesced. We weren't lucky enough to get seats together, since we booked so last minute. You and I sat with Sadie, who slept most of the flight. Madi sat next to strangers behind us while Troy and Nico sat together behind them. I turned my attention to you in the seat next to me. "I've never liked planes."

You held my hand and talked to me through the rest of the flight. I could tell you were tired, but you fought it to make sure I was comfortable. The flight wasn't long and we soon arrived in Detroit, Michigan. Getting our bags took longer than the flight itself. After this, we took an Uber to get to Ann Arbor, which didn't take long.

In the middle of the night, we arrived at our hotel in the city. It wasn't fancy, just a normal hotel in the Midwest. Beyond the city lay the Women's Huron Valley Correctional Facility where our mom is currently incarcerated.

Getting into prison is an easy task. Visiting a prison, however, is no walk in the park. I had to fill out a textbook's worth of paperwork before even scheduling the visitation and then fill out more once we arrived. Then, our car was searched by a K-9 unit. I don't know why they did this; it's a rental. After actually getting into the building, we were searched once more.

But it was all worth it when we saw our mom sitting, in her khaki jumpsuit, at a tiny card table in the prison visitation room.

"My babies!" my mom cried once she saw us. She got up from the table and gave us each a one-second-long hug, per prison regulation. "Troy, you're so big!"

My mom has called me Jellybean for as long as I can remember. She said it started when she got her first ultrasound of me, and I looked like a little bean in her tummy. She didn't have a name picked out yet, so she just called me Jellybean.

The kids started telling her about their adventures since they last spoke with her, sans Sadie trying to run away and the work situation. I didn't want to stress my mom out more, knowing that her kids are too fucked up without her.

"What about you, Jellybean?" she asked, turning her attention towards me. "Anything special going on in your life? Anyone special?"

I tried to brush off the question, but Sadie couldn't seem to read the room.

"She has a boyfriend, Scott. He spends the night almost every day. He's cool and makes rap music and has his knuckles tattooed."

"You're dating a rapper?" my mom asked disapprovingly.

"Scott's cool, Mom," Nico defended. "He gets us food and taught me how to shave properly 'cause Adrienne couldn't."

"Are you. not feeding them? Don't make me ask you again, Adrienne Veilleux. You're bringing this guy around your little brother? What the fuck?"

"Not to be that person, but I don't think we're in a place to be judging anybody. Scott's been a big help this summer."

I love my mom, I really do, but she often doesn't support my decisions. Sometimes, I feel like she treats these conversations more like a gossip session than a mother-daughter one, just to cast her judgment in the end.

We weren't allotted much time to visit. The prison only schedules visitations for up to an hour long, no matter what. Unfortunately, she spent most of it judging my choices. Why couldn't she just be happy for me for once?