Baby, Here I Come

Crunch

Snuck in a little time this evening for a quick writing crunch with a prompt courtesy of

Weekday Writing Prompts

. This is my first time working within so small a word limit, and it was a fun challenge to pare down to just the absolute essentials!

Word Count: 250

Photo by Patrick Hendry on Unsplash

Crunch: Write about pretending to be someone else

“Do you want to hold your daughter or not?” The prison employee’s tone was goading.

I punched him, hard, then darted out the door. I’d almost forgotten I was wearing his clothes - my instinct was to crouch low and sneak under the windows, but that would be odd behavior for an employee, so I slowed my walk and straightened my back.

The prison guy - what was his name, Mark? Luke? John? - had told me that there was an exit near the cafeteria. My heart rate picked up as I turned into a busier hallway.

Play it cool. Make eye contact. Don’t say anything. You’ve got this, Aaron.

I shuffled past the cafeteria, hoping to avoid notice. The guard at the exit nodded as I waved. To him, I was just another uniform. The door buzzed open and I willed myself to walk slowly as I crossed the field.

I started feeling cocky before I realized that the last person standing between me and my baby girl was my cellblock’s guard, sitting in the perimeter fence gatehouse. I held my breath as I raised the jacket up to ask for passage, obscuring my face.

“Name?” he demanded.

I froze for a moment before a slight breeze shifted the jacket on my arm, revealing a word embroidered on the front.

“Matthew.”

The guard barely looked up before waving me through.

The air even smelled different on the other side of the barbed wire fence. It smelled like freedom.

“Baby, here I come.”

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Thank you for reading - I’d love to hear what you think! And if you also write from today’s WWP prompt, give me a tag on Notes so I can read your interpretation!