WEEK 2, Episode 3 THE FOOD CHAIN

SERIES II

WEEK 2, Episode 3

THE FOOD CHAIN

     I am a city girl.  I love the outdoors, but I have never lived outside in the raw.

The closest I came to living in the wilderness was when I was a Camp Fire Girl and

then a Girl Scout and was sent to Camp Yekiwi.  We lived in cabins and roasted

marshmallows around the fire.  There was outhouses, and the showers were the

same as the parks.

      I spend many hours walking around the track outside, gazing at the sky, and

daydreaming of life outside of prison.  As I walked the other day, for the first time

in my life I witnessed a murder.  A small rabbit was snatched by a large black snake.

It was the cutest little rabbit.  So small, and so helpless.  Recklessly, i tried to

stomp my feet and yell at the snake.  "Stop it! Let it go!"  I yelled to no avail.  The

shrilling scream that the trapped rabbit was making as the snake dragged it out of

clear eyesight pierced my heart.  I looked around for something to stop the damned

murderer.  The nearest weapon was 20 feet away.  It was a garden hoe, with a metal

edge and a long handle.  I frantically glanced back and forth, from the yelling rabbit

being dragged into the brush, to the garden tool that would help me save the rabbit.

As if able to read my thoughts, the snake was moving it's prey at record speed.  I

did not know snakes could move that fast.  Two other inmates sat on the bleachers

watching me.

   "What is that screaming, a bird?"  One of the inmates asked me. 

   "No, its a rabbit. Its a black snake that has attached him, and has dragged him

into the brush."  I explained glued to the spot that was now empty.  The rabbit's

screams had also stopped.  This bothered me profoundly.  I could not concentrate

any longer on my exercise routine.  I left the track, but could not get the sight

of the tiny bunny being attacked. 

     "Its the food chain Bunkie.  We are from the city, but I am sure it happens many

times.  Everything preys on something else."  My roommate explained to try to make

me feel better.  It didn't.  When I finally dozed off that night, thoughts of the bunny

rabbit being murdered invaded and took over my thoughts several times. 

    I couldn't believe my luck.  Again, while walking two days later, another bunny

got snatched, dragged and murdered.  It could have been the same black snake. 

    Prison life is a lot like the mishap of the food chain.  Many women prey on the

weaknesses of other women, and feel that they are justified.  Further, there are

many, many snakes around, waiting to snatch, drag and murder your spirits, and

many times you do not even see them coming until they are already too close to

you to flee to safety. 

       The more I thought about it, I realized that nature's food chain is not much

different than the prison human spirit chain- only the strong survive.

Rhonda Turpin

July 23, Danbury Camp

author, publisher, prisoner