Order this writing in the collection book Writings to Honour & Cherish available for only: $15⁹¹

Order this writing in the 2010 6" x 9" ISBN# book Dual of Janet Kuypers poetry converted to prose, based on 1990s chapbooks from GAD Publishing Company of Kuypers: “Drop.” and “Roll.”

Freedom just past the Fence

Janet Kuypers

    After working for the Army for years on repairing jet engines, I ended up being stationed in Pennsylvania one summer repairing air conditioners and refrigerators. I’d only do a little work, and then have nothing to do for a day or two.
    But the thing I remember is that at the time Cubans were defecting to the United States by boat. They’d sail to Florida, most of then dehydrated and all of them malnourished.
    The U.S. government didn’t want them spreading diseases in our country, so when the Cubans would appear off the coast of Miami, the military would be waiting to make sure they were healthy. Well, all I knew was that they got all these Cubans into trucks we called ‘cattle cars’ with only a few benches. and trucked them up to Pennsylvania, where I was, and the military gave them some shots to make sure they weren’t dying.
    So these people, after escaping their country in a shoddy wooden boat were taken by the U.S. military, herded into a boxed-in truck and shipped up the country so they could be given shots and detained. These Cubans, who came here wanting freedom, now had to wait in a fenced-in area until they were tested and given food.
    And it was my job to make sure that their fridge and air conditioner was working. So I sat there for a day or two at a time, drinking cans of beer and looking out my window. I had a view of the razor wire fence, and all I remember was seeing all of these Cubans leaning on the chain-link fence, wondering if this was what it was like to be free, holding on to the metal, looking out to what they were sure was freedom.

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