Thirty-five-year old Clarette, who works at a prison, watches the male inmates’ bald heads, and studies the tattoos inscribed onto their skulls. She sees her own nephew among them, with a dragon tattooed on his skull, and she thinks about how he is only seventeen, has two kids, and will be stuck in jail for eight years for his participation in a drive-by shooting. When Clarette’s nephew greets her, she wants to slap him. With her friend, Fred, Clarette talks about another friend, Tika, who Fred is interested in. Clarette doesn’t want to talk about Tika, as she remembers how she once asked how she could stand to work in prisons with so many incarcerated family members herself. She thinks about how her husband broke dishes and destroyed clothes when he found out about her new job because he believes that only a man should work in the prisons, but Clarette knows that she has to keep this job in order to take care of her children. She remembers how Tika also mentioned that prisons are trying to lock up every person of color.  Later, when Clarette oversees inmates in the cafeteria, she finds that she can’t help but watch her nephew. She thinks of her brother, who asked her to look after her nephew, and she feels angry that she has to do a job that her brother should have done himself. When Clarette gets home, she becomes worried that her two kids aren’t back from school when they should be. She drives toward their school and finds her daughter eating a cone from a nearby Dairy Queen outside of a barber shop, where her son is getting a haircut. She finds out that her husband has let their son shave his head, much like the inmates, and Clarette becomes upset, but she is too tired to do anything about it. Her head aches as she continues to do housework at home. At work the next day, Clarette tells Fred that she is done with everything, but they soon have to break up a fight that has erupted. Clarette thinks about how the inmates are all someone’s son. Someone pulls her hair, and there is blood on the stick she uses to try to separate the inmates. A lockdown is announced, and Clarette leaves, spitting on the cement.