Standing waiting for the sale to
start it all feels like a dream. I hold Nathan tightly. He is covered by a muslin
cloth to protect him from the baking heat and to stop prying eyes. There has
been a rumour that today’s sale will be extra special but no one knows exactly
why yet.
I first came to the market three
years ago. I am pale skinned for an Arab and the owner’s son had decided that
made me fair game. I had always been courteous and never given him cause to
think of me as anything more than a slave. It had all happened on Mid-summer’s
eve, as I was leaning over the watering hole filling one of my jugs, the three
boys entered the clearing.
‘Hello Serena, waiting for us I
see,’ said John, the Master’s son.
‘Just fetching water, Master John,’
I said keeping my eyes turned to the ground.
‘Well as you’re here why not stay?’
he patted a log and indicated I should sit.
‘I have to go Master. Mother is
waiting for the water.’
‘I said sit.’
Knowing better than to disobey, I
sat down next to him, keeping my eyes turned to the floor. He turned and placed
his hand under my chin, turning my head so I faced him.
‘Come on Serena you know you want
to.’
Suddenly his lips were on mine, his
tongue forcing itself into my mouth. I gagged and bit down on the slimy mass
filling my mouth.
‘Bitch.’
I started to run but the other two
boys were on me before I had chance to make it out of the clearing. I struggled
but his friends held me tight. The more I struggled the more they seemed to
enjoy it.
‘Oh look at her squirm. We know you
want a piece of the action. You walk round with your wiggles and your sly looks,
now you can have what you’ve always wanted.’ I was forced to the floor and John
slowly started to undo his belt as he walked towards me. I thrust and bucked
but I couldn’t move far with the weight of the other two boys holding me down.
‘Oh she’s a live one this one,’ one
of the other boys laughed. The other
boys were either side of me and they forced my legs apart as John, his trousers
round his ankles lunged onto me. I struggled hard but it was no use.
‘Please don’t. Let me go,’ I cried
but they were too involved to hear or care. I felt the tears roll down my cheek
as he thrust into me for the first time. I closed my mind, the pain was unreal,
sharp and stabbing every thrust sending pain into my soul. As I focused on the
full moon shinning through the trees, I could see the leaves moving in unison with
the thrusts. The leaves moving faster and faster. Then with one huge thrust and
an animal grunt he collapsed on top of me. Thank god it was over.
‘Come on John, let the rest of us
have a go,’ said the boy to my left. What? Surely that was it. Not again. I
realised they would not be happy until they all had taken a turn and then who
knew what they would do to me. I lay very still and gathered all my strength
knowing that my life may depend upon what happened in the next few seconds. As
John got off and was try to pull up his trousers the boy whose turn it was next
let go of my arm and started to undo his. They had decided I was not going to
cause any more fuss and they weren’t paying too much attention. As the second
boy move towards me and started to lower himself I quickly heaved my knee
straight into his balls. He fell and the other two were too shocked to react. I
was racing back to the village and safety before they even had chance to realise
what had happened.
Many months later I realised I was pregnant.
There was nothing I could do. No one would believe it was the Master’s son’s
baby and unless it was a boy no one would want it anyway. My mother pleaded
with the Master to allow me to visit my aunt on a plantation in the next
valley. She explained that the Aunt was sick and needed my help. He only let me
go on the understanding the rest of my family would have to do my work. Lashings
where promised if we fell behind.
So I headed off to see my Aunt. She
had brought her freedom many years before and lived in a mud hut on the
outskirts of town. She helped me through the birth and when the baby was just a
few days old we took him to the market. The Master’s son was blonde and I was
pale so luckily the baby looked white. The bidding for a blonde, blue eyed male
baby was good and we made ten thousand tokens. I left the money with my Aunt
and travel back to help my family to meet their quota.
When I returned everything was as
normal until the Lord of the Three Valleys decreed that, in this modern age,
slaves should be given the right to buy themselves out of their contract. Some
masters had always allowed this to happen but most set the fee so high that it
was impossible to ever reach the target. To buy out our family it would cost
twenty five thousand tokens. As slaves we earned five tokens a day, but I had
ten thousand tokens saved. As I sat wishing I had been able to get more for the
baby things started to change.
‘Morning Serena,’ Henry called.
‘Morning,’ I smiled and waved. I
had been lost in my thoughts and hadn’t really considered what I was doing.
Henry had been one of the boys who had held me down on that fateful night. He
came over and sat next to me.
‘Look Serena, I just wanted to say,
well you know.’
I looked up at him and smiled. An
idea was starting to materialise at the back of my mind.
‘Don’t worry Henry. I know that the
other boys can get a little boisterous some times. You need to stand up to
them.’
‘Oh Serena if only I could. You
know how awful my life would be if I upset the rest of the guys.’ He started to
cry and I let him rest his head on my shoulder. I slowly wrapped my arm around
him and we kissed. Just then we heard a rustle in the trees and we pulled apart
quickly. We were just in time as the rest of his little gang appeared.
‘Hello Serena. Want to join our
gang again?’ said John as he emerged through the bushes.
I gathered up my skirts and ran as
quickly as possible back towards our settlement, their cruel laughter ringing
in my ears. I had to get away, I would never be truly safe whilst I was a slave
in this village and those boys still thought they could take whatever they
wanted whenever they wanted it.
I lay awake for most of the night formulating
my plan. Could it work? Could I do it? Would it all be worth it? By morning I
had decided that nothing was more important that getting my family their
freedom. My brother was starting to develop a stoop from all the manual farm
work and he was only eight.
I spent the next few days making
sure I was around when Henry was. A wave when he was alone, a shy little smile
when he wasn’t. After two weeks some of the other boys had to go to see the
Lord as part of their schooling. Henry was unwell and couldn’t attend. That’s
what he told his father anyway. That night we met by the watering hole and
consummated our friendship. It wasn’t so bad when you weren’t frightened and
fighting for your life. Henry was young and excited by my attention and it was
over in seconds. I held him for a few minutes and then made out I could hear
something in the bushes so we had to part.
My mother was not happy when I told
her I was pregnant again.
‘Serena, how can this have happened
again?’ My mother asked.
‘Don’t you see mother this is
perfect. I can travel to Aunt Babelar again and sell the baby at the market.
With any luck I can get a little more for this one and we’ll be free.’
‘You should not have done this. It
is wrong to treat yourself with so little respect.’
‘But how else can we raise the
money? This way we can be free in six months.’
‘You will never be free. To give up
one child is bad but with the circumstances… Well I understood. To give up
another child! This will haunt you. Maybe not now but sometime your actions
will cause you pain.’
‘Don’t be so silly mother. I have something
the rich want and I’ll get them to pay for it.’
The master forbade me from taking
another trip to see my supposedly ailing aunt so we agreed that I would buy
myself out of the contract. This he said would cost seven thousand tokens but
as I was the fittest in the family he was worried that they would not attain their
target. He would give them six months at a reduced target because of my fee but
after that if I had not returned they would need to hit the target or be
punished. I knew I could make it back within the six months so I agreed. He
also said that to buy out the rest of the family would be another twenty
thousand tokens. I argued but he would not budge.
I sent word to my Aunt and two days
later my cousin arrived with the money. As I set off my mother turned her back
on me. I was doing this for her, for the family. Why couldn’t she see that?
The second baby was a girl.
Unfortunately there was no call for girls at the market and she only fetched
three thousand tokens. She would probably be used as a housemaid when she grew
up but as a plaything for a nanny or cook whilst she was still young.
I didn’t know what to do as my time
was running out and I still needed another fourteen thousand tokens. I had to
have another baby.
Pietor was a quiet boy and never
seemed to mix with the others. His hair was of the whitest blonde and his skin
was almost translucent when the sun hit it. The other children thought he was
something of a freak. I first saw Pietor at the prayer session one Saturday
morning. I had no call for the god of the land owners but they insisted all
attended and even after you had bought yourself out of your contract, to not
attend would have been seen as disrespectful and would have led to a lashing in
the town square.
I was late getting to the church
and sneaked in at the last moment. The only chair left was at the back next to
Pietor. I had not really seen him around before as he kept to himself and had
to stay inside a lot of the time due to his skin. I smiled at him and sat down.
As the service progressed we both mimed to the hymns and when it was time for
the prayers we kneeled and he nudged me as I bowed my head.
‘Hi I’m Serena,’ I said. The
preacher shouted so loudly during the prayer session that as long as we looked
like we were praying no one would hear us.
‘Pietor,’ he looked around checking
we were being eavesdropped upon. ‘I’ve seen you around. Aren’t you Babelar’s
niece?’
‘That’s right. Which is your clan?
Are they here?’
‘There’s just me. No one else.’
‘Why?’ Just then the prayer session
ended and talking was difficult for the rest of the meeting.
As I was leaving church I was
grabbed by my Aunt and had to go off to meet one of the local boys. She knew my
plan and didn’t agree with it. She was trying to marry me off to one of the
local boys but most of them were still under contract and that would mean that
I would then be included in their contract and everything would have been in
vain.
The next time I saw Pietor was a
few weeks later and he was sitting under a tree near Babelar’s hut.
‘Hi’ I said waving as I walked over
towards the tree.
‘Hi. Not seen you around lately.’
‘No Aunt Babelar is trying to get
me married so I’ve had a lot of dates.’
‘Oh’
‘Don’t worry, I only go to keep
Babelar sweet. I don’t have any money so she lets me stay there free.’
‘I wish I had an Aunt would cared
enough to try and marry me off,’ Pietor said.
‘You never did explain why you are
alone. Did your family die somehow?’
‘Oh no nothing so un-painful. They
sold me.’
‘Well I am sure they had a reason.’
‘Yes money.’
‘Surely it is more than that.’
‘All I know is that when I was born
I was almost albino and the Lords pay well for an albino baby. It is seen as
lucky to have the palest baby to them. I know my family would have been well
paid. When I got a little older I started to gain colour and by the time I was
eight I am as you see me now. That was not pale enough for my Lady and she
thought it was bad luck that I was getting darker so the next time she came
through here on market day she left me.’
‘Just left you?’
‘Yep. I was lucky that the villagers
could see I was still pale and they fed me but that is all. I sleep in the
stable and have to fend for myself. I have been thinking about moving on for a
while now and seeing what’s out there, but then you arrived.’
I blushed and smiled. ‘The sun is starting
to fade would you like to walk a little?’
We walked down to the watering hole
and sat there all evening talking about our lives and how mine had not been so
much easier for me on the plantation. At least he had always been free,
although it seemed to be a captive with a family to love you was better than
being alone and free.
We met most evenings and walked and
talked until one night a few weeks after we first met we sat close on a log. As
Pietor held my hand I looked into his eyes and knew we would always be
together. When we kissed it was as if I was being kissed for the first time. In
a location almost exactly the same as the place I was raped I finally found out
the joy of real love and of making love to someone who cared.
We were lying naked in each other’s
arms when I first heard the rustle in the bushes. Pietor was still trying to
get into his trousers as they burst through into the clearing.
‘See I told you it was her,’ Henry
shouted.
‘Well done mate,’ it was John.
‘Filled out nicely hasn’t she?’
I held my dress in front of me.
‘My turn first this time I think,’
called a third boy. He had been the one I had kicked in the balls the last
time.
Everything else is a blur. I was
knocked to the ground and the last thing I remember was Pietor diving at the
boys to keep them away from me. I awoke the next morning bloody and sore and
found Pietor’s cold dead body lying next to me in the clearing. I held him
tight and let my tears fall onto his beautiful soft face. I kissed him one last
time and then returned to the village.
Nathan is Pietor’s baby and the
most beautiful child I have ever seen. He, like his father, looks albino but
has eyes as blue the cornflowers that grow on Pietor’s grave. I am here at the
market to complete my task and get enough money to buy my family out of their
contract. Mother has been ill and my brother takes the beatings for her. I must
protect them. Nathan will earn a lot of money and I know he will be safe with a
Lady.
The auctioneer approaches. He knows
what is under by blanket but not how beautiful he is.
‘Hi Serena. Got another one for
me,’ says the auctioneer.
I look down at Nathan and he gently
lifts his right hand and touches my cheek. A tear trickles down to meet his
fingers.
I finally understand what mother
meant all those months ago and hope she will understand too.
‘Sorry not today.’ I reply as I
carefully make sure Nathan is covered from the sun and I turn and head back to
Babelar’s.