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Another cold winter in Colorado Springs. December 2008. Detra Wilburn and her children were back in town from the first unsuccessful trip to Texas. The one bedroom with two king-sized beds located at a decent Motel 6 housed herself, her boyfriend, and her children. She searched for a new home in a place she knew very well. She had always been a strategist, and it wouldn’t be long before she’d find a house big enough for her family. Contemplation rests on her caramel face. What happened to her plan to escape this place?
Another cold winter in Colorado Springs. December 2012. Detra Wilburn has packed up everything from her house including herself and her children. It’s safe to say the big green truck was home until they reached their destination in Texas, and since it would be home that is what we will call it for now. She drove to Colorado Springs from Denver, Colorado. One last stop she thought, before making a new life in a new place. She parked at an apartment complex where her cousin lived. She comes outside to get something from home and across the lot she sees a tow truck. She rushes to quickly get inside. Thank God no tow was in progress yet. However, the eager tow driver had other plans and as Detra drives off, he arrests her car with the hook from his tow truck. The attached chain wrapped around his foot. Mistakes. Confusion. Regrets. Death. Contemplation rests on her caramel face. What happened to her plan to escape this place?
Another cold winter in Colorado Springs. December 2013. Detra is sentenced to many years in prison. She wrestled with guilt and shame while getting acclimated to a place where law enforcement was everywhere, yet lawlessness was evident. She saw what lips had trouble uttering and what ears would signal eyes to well up with tears. “Can anything good come from this place?” she thought. For many years she wrestled with life as if it was her deadliest opponent in a boxing ring. She was like a fighter with no coach, but in this place, she was forced to address the voice that had been telling her how to win all along. Jesus was her coach. She realized the moments she took the coach’s advice she’d have the upper hand in this fight against life. Detra was forced to confront herself. The belly of the beast became a place of preparation. Healing. Hustling. Strategizing. Life. Contemplation rests on her caramel face. I’m learning of a plan to escape this place.
Another cold winter in Colorado Springs. December 2021. She stood before the people who held the keys to her early freedom many times before only to hear the word No. What was different this time from all the others? She had a list of reasons why she qualified for freedom. She did nothing but apply herself and grew in wisdom and knowledge while she was there. However, this time the change that spoke the loudest was inward. The judges gave her a yes, and soon after she was walking free in the world again. Contemplation rests on her caramel face. Have I really escaped this place?
Another cold winter in Colorado Springs. December 2022. Christmas. Family. Freedom. Unfinished. Detra is finishing her degree in nonprofit organizations and will soon start law school. The smell of southern cooking fills her apartment. She takes her time adding her favorite spices, understanding the most delicious meals are slowly and carefully prepared. This process was not unlike her journey to wholeness. There was still a fight between her past and her future, and which one would dictate her present. The fight was tiresome and just as she had to rest her arm from mixing the pot of food, she rested from her journey to healing. The voice of the coach still leading her to outward success, but eventually he would have to carefully continue the inner work he began in her with hopes that she would be just as willing and trusting. Perhaps the escape she was searching for was closer at hand than she thought. Perhaps she was already free even though at times she felt entrapped, but her feelings didn’t always match up with what she knew to be true. Nonetheless, Detra had to take hold of this revelation for herself. Contemplation rests on her caramel face. I still haven’t quite figured out how to escape this place, but I trust that I am closer than I was before.
About Denisa Mills: Denisa Mills is a student at Alabama State University set to graduate on December 1st with a theatre performing arts degree. She started out writing plays as a young girl and wrote her first full-length play about three years ago. Since then, she has written many poems, plays, and short screenplays. Denisa won second place in a writing contest at Alabama State, and a $1,000 scholarship at the opening of a show she wrote for an Alabama State production. She also acts, sings and dances, intending to go into the entertainment industry and utilize every gift God gave her, including starting her own production company.
About Stories Matter: Stories Matter, a mentoring program for young female writers founded by ENTITY Mentor and writer Leslie Zemeckis, nurtures the next generation and inspires them to tell their stories. Co-sponsored by the Santa Barbara International Film Festival (SBIFF) and ENTITY Mag, published female authors give their time to emerging talent to encourage greatness and share their writing process. “The recent group, whose assignment was to write about ‘A Woman You Should Know,’” noted Leslie, “was exceptionally talented and a joy to work with.” ENTITY Mag is thrilled to showcase the work of these gifted young writers.
