Chapter 2

The morning bell rang loud and clear.  I automatically sprang off the floor and walked to the dresser.  My fingers slid across the words.  Then I remembered Ben.  I rushed over to the bed and started shaking him.  We didn’t have much time before the second bell.

“We have to get ready,” I said as I shook his shoulders.  He rolled off the bed and onto the floor groaning. I noticed that a stack of clothes had been placed inside the door.  “You can put your clothes on the bottom drawer.”   Ben nodded and waited for me to gather my clothes before settling into the bottom drawer.

“In a minute or two a second bell will ring.  You’re going to have to take a left and follow all the boys to the shower room.  Afterwards we’ll meet back here.  That sound good to you,” I asked.  He gave me another nod but that was all.

The second bell rang, as planned.  I watched as Ben got swallowed up by the crowd of kids. Taking a right, I followed all the girls to the girls shower room.  This was where my routine began.  I did the same thing every day.  The same thing everyone did every day.  

I veered to the right and was met with a wooden door.  As I walked into the room a wave of steam washed over me, like a surge of water.  I stood there for a minute watching the swarm of girls.  Then I spotted the red headed supervisor.   She had a pink shirt and blue jeans on, unlike the slave girls that were dressed in all gray.

I started towards her, but was tugged back.  I looked down to see a 4 year old girl grasping my shirt and on the edge of tears. Probably lost, I though.  “I can’t find mommy,” she whimpered.

“Then lets ask the supervisor for help,” I soothed.  The girl seemed to calm down a bit as I lead her through the crowd.  When we neared the supervisor I saw a woman talking franticly to her.  She was saying, “I can’t find her anywhere!  She’s all alone.”   As we came up to the supervisor the woman spotted us.  She took the girl by the hand then looked at me, “Thank you, thanks so much!”  

I watched them disappear into the crowd.  “What can I do you for,” the red headed supervisor asked. 

“I need a stall,” I replied, the words feeling stale on my tongue.  It seemed I repeated almost the exact same words every day.  

“Okay.  You can have,” she paused, flipping through a couple of pages, “stall 163.”  I nodded my thanks and started looking for the right hallway.  The four hallways were marked according to the stalls that lined then.  I looked down the last hallway marked “151-200”, but before I started walking down the hallway I grabbed a towel.  It was rough in my hands.  With my fresh clothes under one arm and the towel under the other I headed to stall 163, tripping over my big toe along the way.  I locked the stall door behind me as I entered.

There was a toilet, shower, and mirror in the stall.  As I got ready I took a long look in the mirror.  I had unusually pale skin with silver hair and eyes.  I guess my name does suit me, I said grimly.  I got undressed, went to the bathroom, and then stepped into the shower.  The water drizzled onto me, making a violent shiver run down my spine.  The water was ice cold as usual.  I was sick and tired of being treated like dirt!  But what could I do, I thought helplessly.  I quickly cleansed my hair with shampoo and conditioner.  Next I slowly turned off the shower, dried myself with the rough towel, and got dressed.

Grabbing my dirty clothes and towel, I walked down the hallway.  I sped up as soon as I saw the supervisor.  Mustn’t keep Ben waiting, I thought.  When I got to her I told her I was done, and then swerved to the right to a row of hampers.  There where 200 of them lined up.  I tossed my clothes into the one labeled Silver. Then I threw my towel into the towel hamper.

I rushed out of the room and into my cell.  Ben was already there, waiting for me.  His hands were tangled in his hair and he looked miserably at the ground.  Asking him would be pointless, becasue it would only make him feel worse than he already was.

Another bell rang, making the air palpitate.  “Come on!  We have to get to class.”  I grabbed his hand and yanked him off the bed, my wet hair still dripping.

“Class?”

“Yes, class!  How else would you learn how to do be a house slave?”  

As we walked down the hall we dodged kids going all different ways.  “Hey, you know that guy who was screaming at me last night?”

“Calvin,” I corrected.

“What ever.  What was he talking about when he said The Beating Room?”  I said nothing as I led him with a touch of my fingers apon his palm.  We came up to a steel door and I flinched involuntarily.  The small window on the side of the door showed a tiny room.  A boy was in there with Jack, who to me and almost every other person one this farm was the most horrible staff member.  The boy, who looked about 17, was chained to the wall.  Jack, with a whip in his hand, lashed at him.  The whip left a nasty mark that was now bleeding.  Ben convulsed as the whip went down a second time.  Jack suddenly turned around to see us watching.  He yelled something, his thick neck swelling as he did so. Though I couldn’t hear him, I had a good idea of what he had said.

“Let’s go,” I said pulling his arm again.  We cascaded down the now empty hall and took a sharp turn.  Oh no, we are late, I thought franticly.  With Ben at my heels I came to a red door, and braced myself as I opened it.

“Miss. Silver!  Late again, are we,” asked an angry Ms. Hem.

“Yes ma’am,” I said, looking down at the ground.

“And who is this,” she asked a little bit surprised. 

“A new member of this building.  I was showing Ben around, and ended up being a little late.  I sorry, it will never happen again,” I assured her. 

“That’s quite right. Now go take a seat,” she replied a little bit in shock.  I nodded and slipped past her. 

Ben and I sat in seats next to each other.  He would probably need my help.  I felt a probe on my shoulder not to long after I had sat.  I slowly turned to see a blonde haired, freckle faced boy with a thin smile.  It was Dave. 

“Nice save,” he whispered.  I smiled as I thought about the truth behind it.  If I had been late again and by myself I would have been sent to Chad’s office.  I had a feeling that those office walls had gotten to know me better than Chad himself. 

“Silver!  You can’t seem to help yourself from trouble, can you,” Ms. Hem said. 

“No ma’am,” I answered.

“Then I suggest you listen to me instead of those around you,” she spat.  “The question was, what do you call the person that is the head of the house?”

“If it’s a man, Master and if it’s a woman, Mistress.”

“Correct, indeed.  Today we will learn the basic stitches.  Ben,” called Ms. Hem, “Do you know the main stitches of sewing?”

“No,” Ben admitted.  Ms. Hem glared at him, waiting.

“No ma’am,” I whispered to him.

“Oh! No ma’am,” Ben corrected himself.

“Do you Joe,” Ms. Hem asked another boy, amazingly skipping over Ben’s mistake as if it had never happened.  I narrowed my eyes at her.  When I had made the mistake of leaving out “No ma’am” the first time she had sent me out.

“Yes ma’am, the tacking stitch and the overcastting stitch,” Joe answered.

“Right.  Now gather around my desk.  I’m going to show you how to do both stitches so you can do both of them at your desk.”  She started explaining how to do the stitches.  I didn’t pay attention though.  I already knew all this stuff.  After years and years of being taught the same thing, you’d think we wouldn’t have to do it.  Unfortunately practice makes perfect, at least that’s what the teachers say. “Oh and try not to poke yourself with the needle,” was the last thing Ms. Hem announced before we started collected our supplies.

I started doing the tacking stitch first, the easiest one.  In and out, in and out, in and out. So boring, I growled softly.  Next I did the overcastting stitch, which left me going over and under, over and under, over and under, the three edges.  Both stitches I did perfectly.  Ben’s on the other hand weren’t the best, but passable.

My eyes started wandering around the room.  They came to the board which had the directions on them along with the date, 6/7/2007.  I saw no reason of putting the date on the board, for time meant nothing to most of us.   Next I began scanning the kids.  There where about 25 of them, all of them had normal hair, unlike me.  Why me, I thought.  My mother had once said that all of it was tied into my destiny.  I doubted it.  What destiny would I have?  Cleaning up after people who had bought me with green paper?  I sighed.

Yet again, another bell rang.  Everyone sprung out of their seats and headed for the door.  The halls where filled with grim faces as we all walked to the crowded cafeteria.  “Try not to belch when you eat the food,” I advised Ben.

“What’s wrong with the food?”

“You’ll see.”  We got in line and waited for what seemed like forever.  Finally we got our food, if you could call it that.  Ben gagged at the sight of it.  Ben and I said thanks to the people serving lunch today and started walking to the table I usually sat at.  As we got nearer I noticed only one of my three friends sat at it.  “Where are Maddie and Sara,” I asked April.

“They were sold,” she whimpered.  Tears brimmed over our eyes.

“Were they sold together?”

“Yes.”

“Then at least they have each other,” I said.  All she could do was nod sadly.

We ate our food as we watched Ben puncture his with his fork.  “What is this stuff,” Ben complained.

“Its glop,” April giggled.  How could she laugh in a place like this? “I never caught your name,” she added.

“It’s Ben. I’m her cell mate,” he said grimly.

“You’d better eat, you don’t have a lot time,” I advised.  He started eating what April called glop, with a look of disgust.

I finished and got up to throw away my tray.  April jumped up out of her seat and followed me to the trash.  “You’re lucky, having him as a cell mate and all!  He’s cute,” April exclaimed.

“Really, I hadn’t noticed,” I whispered, falsely.  For the first time I felt an emotion that didn’t have to do with pain or sorrow.  I turned away, afraid April might see my flushed face.   April just shook her head, with a smile painted on her face.

Suddenly I felt something pound on stomach.  I looked up to see glop flying everywhere.  Screams filled the air, making my ears pulse.  I heard a couple of people bellow, "FOOD FIGHT!".  April and I got pelted with glop as we bolted to our seats.  The food fight lasted about 30 seconds before Chad ran into the room.

“Stop,” howled Chad.  The food seemed to hang in the air for a second before plummeting to the ground.  “Who did this?”  For a few moments the room stayed taciturn.  No one dared to move.  Then the boy who had provoked the food fight stood.  His finger flew into the air and pointed right at me.

“That girl, it was that girl,” he said with confidence.

“It wasn’t me!  He was the one who started it,” I explained.

I felt a hand grip my wrist and the boy grinned.  I turned around to see Jack, the person Ben and I had seen earlier.  My eyes grew wide and I stopped breathing.  “I remember you,” Jack said with a wicked smirk on his face.  Jack dragged me through the isles of tables.  I didn’t dare strife, for I saw the small dagger in his pocket. 

I was brought to Chad’s office and forced to sit in a red cushioned chair.  The walls where painted with a scarlet color and pictures of wolves hung on the wall.  All of them had blood dripping from their jaws. Many of the older slaves had said that this room was painted with one drop of blood from every slave that has ever lived here.  I shivered.

Chad sat behind his desk, organizing papers.  Once we were alone he looked up at me.  “Well, Miss. Silver.  What do you have to say for your self,” He said calmly. 

“That I didn’t start the food fight,” I said, trying to stay under control.

“Oh, but you did.  Are you saying that that boy was lying,” He asked.  He was enjoying this.  I could tell by the twitching at the corners of his mouth and the dancing light in his eyes.

“That boy was lying.  Don’t you see? I’ve been set up,” I growled.  My anger was bubbling in my mind.  Why would that boy set me up, unless…… “You set me up!”  Chad stood immediately.  A deep growl rose from his throat, only to be met with one from me. 

“How dare you, accusing me,” he roared.  His eyes blazed with the truth though, making my fury boil.  I felt a power surge through me that had never pulsed through my veins before.  Chad’s eyes broadened  for a second, and then shrunk back.  I looked behind me to see what he was looking at then realized it was me.  I looked down at my arms to see tiny silver hairs sprouting.

The hand that landed on my shoulder scared me half to death.  I whipped around and scraped my nails, looking more like claws now, down that person’s arm.  Blood welled from the slashes.  I looked up to see that I had just caused Calvin’s arm to bleed.  What had become of me? 

“Sorry,” I murmured.

“What are you doing here,” Chad demanded.

            “It looked like you needed some assistants,” Calvin said blandly.  I could tell Calvin was lying.  He had come to save me, I thought meekly, not to help Chad. 

“Take Silver to her cell,” he ordered Calvin, and then he turned to me, “Expect a Beating tomorrow morning.”  I shuddered as I was escorted to my cell.

“Did you get in trouble,” Ben asked as I entered the cell.  The door creaked behind me, leaving Ben and me alone.

“Worse,” I growled.  A sudden burst of anger spread through me and I retaliated against the frame of the bed.

“Hey, you don’t want to get into more trouble, do you,” he questioned.  He was right, I thought.  I sat on the ground with my back against the wall.  “What are we doing next,” Ben then asked grimly.

“Nothing, at least for a while,’ I announced, as my anger subsided to an almost joyous feeling.  I heard him let out a sigh of relief. 

Ben and I got lost in our thoughts for a while.  Questions about what it was like outside this old building sprung up in my mind.

Once my mother had explained what the outside world looked like.  She described everything so vividly, almost like she was guiding me through the places themselves.  The pictures where still illustrated in my mind’s imagination.  She had said that the grass had shone a brilliant emerald green when bright golden rays of sunlight hit it.  A bird that went by the name the blue jay, she had explained, was a dazzling sight with its sky blue, jet black, and snow white feathers.  How the bird would sail through the air like a cloud and swoop through the tall leafy trees, landing on their thick branches was an amazing sight, she would say as her eyes glittered blissfully. 

My mom had continued with the wild flowers that grew in spacious prairies.  They would give off scents of sweet smelling pollen as they swayed effortlessly in the warm wind.  The flower’s millions of different soft colors melted together to illuminate the whole field when morning’s saffron wave of light hit them.  Then the extraordinary butterflies would wake up and flutter graciously to each delicate flower.

I’ve always had a feeling that my mother hadn’t been born on the slave farm.    How else would she know all of these wonderful things?  I longed to hear my mother’s voice, to hear one of her exhilarating stories again.   My mind craved her stories, like a spider craved blood.

I turned my head towards Ben, watching him stare at the wall blankly for a moment.  “Ben.  What is it like out there, outside these walls,” I inquired.  Ben jerked his head from his gaze on the wall to me, and looked at me questionably.  “What is it like outside the slave farm,” I asked again.

“Oh, well, there are, um, cities and forests.  There are also oceans,” he said.

“I know that! Tell me about them,” I pleaded.

“Well I’m not very good at describing things,” Ben explained apologetically.  I sighed and the craving for my mother’s stories grew even stronger. 

“I don’t care.  Just give it your best shot,” I prompted.

“Okay.  The cities are really big and their buildings are thousands of feet tall.  They have a lot of windows.”   I remembered when my mother had described the big cities.  She said that the building would scrape the sky they where so tall.  If you would look out the window of a really tall one then you could see the next big cities that where miles away. 

“Never mind,” I groaned. “I’m going to sleep.  Wake me up when the next bell rings, okay,” I yawned.   I didn’t wait for his reply.

 

 

“She won’t wake up,” I heard Ben say anxiously.  Before I could open my eyes I felt a sudden pain overcome my side.  Opening my eyes I saw only a tall blur.  As my eyes refocused I saw Jack towering over me.

“The bell rang,” Ben said apologetically.  Ben watched Jack as he swaggered out of the cell.  Then he turned towards me and held out his hand.  “Are you okay,” he implored.  I reached out, took his hand, and pulled myself up.  “Yeah, I’m fine,” I said despite the throbbing in my side.  The warm feeling that entered my heart at that moment seemed to cancel out the throbbing.  The pulse of my heart quickened as I locked my gaze with his.  I slowly let go of his hand and lowered my gaze.  Opening the door only sent more pain through my body as a kid smacked into me.

  “Watch where you’re going,” I growled as he stumbled. 

“Sorry,” the boy whimpered. 

“No, I’m sorry.  I shouldn’t have snapped at you,” I apologized.