Excerpt From `Sing Soft, Sing Loud'

BUT Angora says, ``Girl, if I don't sing, I'll scream. Now I don't mind if I have to go to flatbottom, but I don't want to start screaming 'cause once I start I won't be able to stop.'' And so she starts off again. At first I keep quiet, but after a while I think, ... I strung along with her this far, I can go to the end. So I sing with her, but softly now. And pretty soon the screw comes back and this time the lights all go on and then she comes upstairs and marches straight to Angora's cell. I hear the cell door open and then shut, and then she pushes Angora past my cell and Angora is singing ``Won't You Come Home Bill Bailey'' and she's doing a little dance step as the screw drags her along the ramp to the stairs. This time I notice how skinny she is. I hear the door to flatbottom open and then slam shut. Even though I know I was singing too soft for Blodgett to hear me this time, I wait for the sound of her boots coming back up the stairs to get me. Instead, the lights go out and the tank door clongs shut and it's deep pit black again.