Susan LaffertyIn 2018 we travel across the Atlantic to spend a week with our daughter in Dakar, Senegal. Conversations and laughter mark our visit. Along with bright sun. Cool ocean breezes. Blue sky.
And a Door of No Return.
The conversation was one we had several times.
“People have black hearts,” she would say. “People have rotten hearts.”
She used the word that describes rotting fruit. Busuk.
We walked into a solitary confinement cell at Alcatraz. Dark and small. With double doors to keep out any light. No way of escape.
The prisoners that were allowed to look outside or walk to the yard, had stunning views of San Francisco and the surrounding towns. Beautiful hills and shores.
But those in solitary saw nothing much beyond the confining walls of their dark cells.