two weeks later and laid out the trial for her. The judge was a tough one and the evidence against her was overwhelming. She had been caught with the drugs and in trafficking charges that alone was usually sufficient. She inquired if the statement she had signed could be thrown out because it hadn‟t been complete but he didn‟t think it could. He would check. He also explained to her that since she was an American, they would make an example of her for other Americans that were considering drug trafficking as a way to make quick buck. The penalty could be between ten and twenty five years. She gasped and he gave her a look as reassuring as he could muster. She was young he explained and even though her story was unconfirmed it might still hold some weight. Her young age might get her off on the shorter side of the spectrum. Ten to fifteen years he estimated. Fifteen years max he assured her. With parole she could be out in seven or eight years. She could be out by age twenty five. That was plenty of time to start over. Twenty five was still young he assured her and after she thought about it she agreed. She wasn‟t happy about the prospect but it had an end. Twenty to twenty five years was only given to the most hardened of criminals, which she certainly was not. When he left he promised to visit her again soon. She told her friend about the meeting and they all comforted her with the sentiment that the prospect of being out in seven years was pretty good. After all she had already been there almost half a year and that would mean only six and a half more to go. As depressing as it had seemed at first she started to feel some hope again. After everything she had been through and knowing that there had been a force working against her, she thought that she could easily start over. Without someone to sabotage her it would be easy and she would not be so gullible anymore. She thought about her mother and Ally and missed them more than ever knowing that it might be a long time before she would see them again. For five days she worked on a letter to them in the evening. After five days she had a ten page letter and she read it over and over. It was perfect she thought and then she threw it in the trash. She wanted her mom to come see her and comfort her but she couldn‟t bear putting her through more misery than she had already caused and decided that letting her mom know where she was would be selfish and cruel. It was best if her mom didn‟t have to worry. She also decided it would not be fair to Ally. Ally would be a freshman in high school now. She would need her mom and not have her mom running off to Mexico to visit her loser daughter. Again she was on her own and she was going to get this resolved but she was still quietly hoping that the judge would see her side of things and see how she had been the victim of an unspeakable evil. After that he would have to let her go. But she realized those were just dreams and reality was that she was going to have to do the ten years, behave and be out in seven. After that they might require her to stay in Mexico for a while but more likely she would be deported back to the United States. Why keep a criminal longer than you need too? Two weeks before the trial and Nicandro came by again. The trial was going to be a judge only trial. No jury. “Is this good?” she asked. He shrugged and admitted that he didn‟t know. It could be good or bad. A judge meant you only had to convince one person instead of a group. However he told her that the judge also was part of the prosecutorial team and that he too worked on building the case against her. This made her fearful. She inquired if he had tried to contact Jake again but he hadn‟t. Neither of them thought there would be any merit to contacting him but she asked him anyway and he agreed feeling bad for her. Who knew maybe Jake had gotten a sudden conscience and would admit that she was innocent? Not likely but she would try anything at this point in time. He had done so much harm that she hoped he might actually do the right thing but from what Laura had told her that would not be the normal operating procedure for loverboys. The day of the trial came and she was collected immediately after breakfast. A bus similar to the one that had brought her there was parked just inside the gate and there were twenty other prisoners waiting to get on. She recognized one girl from the kitchen staff and moved closer to her hoping she would be chained to her rather than some complete stranger. Unfortunately it was not to be, the guards started chaining inmates together at random and she was shackled to a women in her mid thirties that was going to court for a hearing on a possession charge while in prison. Some guards had found a small amount of pot in her cell. Drugs were everywhere in the prison. It was almost easier to get them in the jail then outside of it but Kim had stayed away from drugs and didn‟t want anything to do with them and had no interest in finding out how they got in there. She figured that some of the guards were involved as visitors were always searched. The woman was friendly enough and they chatted on the way to the court house and when they arrived they were led into the basement again where the holding cells were located. There they were finally separated from each other and put into the cells until their case was up. Hers had been the last case of the day and it wasn‟t until four that she was called. She arrived in the courtroom and the district attorney started by reading the accusation. The judge looked at her intently over his reading glasses with no sign of emotion whatsoever. Then he asked for certain documents which the district attorney produced. Then he spoke to her lawyer and he produced some documents. He read everything intently while everyone just stood there. It was very strange. There were no witnesses, no objections over documents or any of the theatrics that she had seen so many times on Law and Order. It was in fact really boring. After about thirty minutes of watching the judge read documents he called the hearing to an end and excused himself. Her lawyer explained that the district attorney had submitted the case documents and he had submitted documents to get the statement excluded because it wasn‟t complete. They would reconvene next week for further deliberation. She asked about the proceedings and he explained to her that in Mexico it was mostly through written documentation and applying the law based on that rather than on the theatrics of the attorneys. Next week the judge would decide on the motions made and then request more documentation. They said their goodbyes and she was led outside as the last to get on the bus. It was nice to be the last one since they didn‟t shackle her up to anyone like they did the rest. She sat by herself trying to make sense of how the courts worked but never having seen it before she couldn‟t make much sense of it. The week came and went and soon she found herself back in the bus again en route to the courthouse. This time she was shackled to a fat twenty some year old that looked way too big for what they served in the prison so she assumed the woman was new to the prison. She had not slept well the night before due to a concert of screaming kids that had seemed to wake each other up just as one was able to go to sleep. It had almost seemed like a well trained relay team. She didn‟t mind it too much and actually just felt sympathy for the mothers trying to keep their kids quiet. Some mothers didn‟t seem to care though and those she did not feel sympathy for. Just for the kids, they deserved better parents. No kid deserved to go to prison though but the kids didn‟t know any better and seemed content. But her tiredness limited her conversation this time. She was in no mood for chit chat and just zoned out. The bus always followed the same route, through a short stretch of country side where there were some run down homes and then into the city. It was far from the Mexico she had seen in the resort where she and Jake had stayed. Soon she was in the holding cell again and this time her case was handled in the late morning. More documents were passed back and forth, mostly statements from officials at the airport. Her attorney told her the motion to exclude her statement had been denied as the incompleteness should have been discovered before signing. Arguments that it had been in Spanish did nothing. The hearing lasted for almost an hour when it was discontinued again because the next trial was scheduled to start and a new date was set for the following week again to give the judge time to consider all the paperwork. This went on for several weeks and each time it was discontinued and moved to next week. After about five more hearings the district attorney and Nicandro both claimed to have presented all their documents and the judge exclaimed he would go over them again and would come to a verdict next month. The month went by without incident and she found herself chained to yet someone else. She had thought that it was done at random but as time went on she figured out that the same people were never chained together twice and they avoided chaining people together from the same block. Sometimes they had to chain people from the same block together but then they were careful not to select people that knew each other better than a passing “hi”. Her case was at the end of the day again and after the hearing started the judge addressed her for the first time. He spoke with a stern voice and looked down at her over his glasses. After reading the charges again for good measure as if she might have forgotten what she was there for he started going on and on about the animosity he felt for Americans like her that abused his beloved country for the vile and disgusting act of drug trade. He had no sympathy for an American that was just looking to party and would abuse their legal system to provide the means for it. His tirade went on for at least twenty minutes and Kim felt herself getting smaller with each passing minute. When he was finally done he told her that he had no option but to sentence her to the maximum he could for her grave crimes. She would serve twenty five years with no opportunity for parole. Kim‟s jaw dropped to the floor in shock as did her lawyer‟s while the district attorney received congratulations from several of his colleagues. Shocked Nicandro quickly told her he would fight for an appeal and would come see her soon as she was hurried out. On the bus she just sat in silence thinking about her future or lack there of. She would not get out until she was forty three years old. Twenty five years, she thought. That was longer than she had been alive. When they arrived at the prison she went to her cell and fell into a ball on her bed. Rose found her there twenty minutes later and sat with her all night. It felt good having someone care but when would the misery end? Less than two years ago she had been a Junior in high school. Since then she had been raped, turned to prostitution, lost her family and now been convicted to twenty five years in hell. What else could go wrong? Chapter 25: She woke up the next morning still nestled in Rose‟s arms. Rose had sat with her all night and had fallen asleep sitting straight up with Kim in her lap. Kim still couldn‟t believe that this was going to be her home for the next twenty five years. News spread quickly about the verdict and everyone was quick to admit it was a ridiculous verdict. They all said that the judge was playing politics and wanted to send a message to the Americans and make a hard stand against crime coming from America to further his political career. In the afternoon she received word from a guard that there was a visitor. She was excused from her kitchen duties and headed to the visitor center. Nicandro was waiting for her and when she came in he apologized profusely. He had not seen this coming and had never expected the maximum to be handed out to an eighteen year old on her first offense. They would appeal the verdict and he would get on it right away. He would fight hard for her. The verdict had awoken him and now he felt guilty not giving the case his full attention. It hadn‟t been his fault as he was overloaded but he felt sorry for her and vowed to correct the situation. He would file the appeal first thing tomorrow morning but she had to be patient. Appeals took time and were often denied but he promised he would keep filing until they got one. Kim nodded and gladly grasped hold of the small sliver of hope Nicandro was offering her. She felt better about his commitment for her case now even though it could very well be too little too late. As time went on she started to see the verdict as another speed bump but would not accept it. She continued her studies and had contact with Nicandro almost every other week, even though most of the time he didn‟t have much news and was just checking up on her. The appeal had been filed and usually it took at least four months to even hear back from it but he had been zealous and had bugged the court administrator on a weekly basis. He had been feeling guilty about how ridiculous the verdict had been considering the circumstances and had promised her he would do anything he could to fix it and he had kept his word. Kim didn‟t expect any results but was appreciative for the friendship. She had a lot of friends inside now but it was always good to have some contact with the outside world and she looked forward to his visits. A year later and after three requests for an appeal had been denied he had stopped by to inform her that he had filed another appeal. He had nothing new to add to the appeal but still, it couldn‟t hurt and just maybe the request would hit a judge‟s desk on the right day when the judge was in a good mood. Actually he was hoping for the more likely scenario where the judge would get fed up with the requests and just