When the unit intercom buzzed and the cell door rattled open on its old metal track that morning, Tara breathed a heavy sigh of relief and swore it was the last time she’d ever hear that racket in her life. For 525 consecutive mornings that noise had signaled the start to a day that looked just like the one before, another day when she was told exactly what to do and exactly when to do it.

She’d been restless most of the night, wired with anxiety. Until she walked out the door of that place, something could still go wrong. That wasn’t likely. She had yet to see one woman’s release date changed this late in the game. But that’s how it was when she let herself want something so damn much. The closer she got to getting it, the more she doubted it.

Jeannie had snored like a trucker as usual, but Tara hadn’t bothered nudging the upper bunk with her foot to get her cellmate to turn over and quiet down. It wouldn’t have helped. When the alarm went off at 6:30 a.m., Tara was sitting on her bunk, back against the cinder block wall, knees pulled up to her chest. While she waited she listened, peeled apart the sounds that fused together to create the early-morning white noise of prison life: the ring of a telephone and the guards’ distant conversation, echoes of a cough here and a clearing of a throat there, bodies turning over in their bunks—seeking, for the last few moments of rest, a comfortable position on a metal frame covered by a two-inch mat.

Less than an hour to go. They’d told her to be ready to leave her cell by seven thirty, before morning roll call. The discharge process would be fairly quick, then her sister, Geraldine, would be waiting outside in the parking lot. Tara had hoped her brother would pick her up; Geraldine had a way of shredding Tara’s nerves in short order. On their last phone call three days ago Tara subtly asked about it—I know how busy you are, Ger. Maybe Eddie could make the trip. But Geraldine shot that down, saying Eddie shouldn’t lose a day’s wages and rock the boat at work by asking for time off, never mind so he could pick his sister up from prison, she had added, whispering the last two words, no doubt in case anyone around her overheard.