A — Twelve Year Night

"I dreamt of bread. Fresh bread. With butter. Is that a sin?"

There was a ritual to madness. It crept in slowly, like water rising in a ship's hull. First, the men forgot the names of their wives. Then they forgot the faces. Then they forgot why they had been brave. One man began to talk to the rat that lived in the corner drain. He named it Esperanza—Hope. He shared half his bread with it. The guards laughed when they saw this. But the man who shared his bread with a rat did not hang himself from the pipe. The man who shared his bread with a rat survived. a twelve year night

And he said this: "The longest night still ends. Not because you are strong. Because you refuse to close your eyes one last time." "I dreamt of bread

They were free. But freedom, they would learn, is not the opposite of prison. It is a different kind of night—one where you must learn to see all over again. Is that a sin