CHAPTER THREE

I am going to run away.

I know it sounds, well, cruel to leave a man who has just lost his wife. But what if that man isn’t a good man?

What if that man isn’t a good father?

What if he IS your father?

He is falling apart. He is in debt because of mothers’ illness, so much so that he is selling the farm to his brother. He has no plans, no future, no hope.

And that applies to me, too.

With shaking hands, I cross the room where mother slept. Silently, I pull a white hankerchief out of her drawer, fold it, and stuff it into my bag. My plan is daring and dangerous. It might even be daft. I slump onto mothers bed and weep.

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I am going to run away.

The Master is selling us. He selling us to Jameson Grimes, his brother.

I not be going to live with him. He is cruel, mistreating and even starving the slaves. Many do not survive.

He is so rich, if one slave dies, he can replace it with another.

Just like cattle

I will not be replaced.

I am carefully hiding food away, tucking it into my pillow case. I’ve fixed up my clothes best I can, and even done odd jobs to get some money out of the others.

But I am not ready.

I am not ready to leave everything I have ever known