June 21, 1859

Chapter Two

June 21, 1859
Dear Safiya,


I thank you for doing this.  I am greatly relieved.  It’s just been so hard for me.  My parents died when I was only a few months old, and I lived with her my entire life.  I had to move into a new home when she was in the hospital, but they thought she was to recover and didn’t expect her to die.

    Now I have to live with another family.  The last one was okay, but this one is absolutely terrible.  The father drinks and the mother has a short temper.  They also have a set of six-year-old twins that are absolutely spoiled rotten.  I do not know what I am to do with my life as it is.

    I need help.  The father, Mr. MacJohns, drinks ever night, as I said, until he is drunk.  I’ve been hit by him, and I do not know what I will do.  If he beats me, I don’t think his wife, Cindy, will do anything.  She’s too busy pampering Bobbi and Jack, her two little sons.

    If only I lived in an imaginary world where Mother and Father and Grandma Julia were still alive.  Everything would be right.  My mother would be kind, my father would be strong, and I would be able to visit Grandma Julia every day while still living with my parents.  That would be so nice.

    You know, I never knew my parents.  I never even knew their names.  I never thought to ask Grandma Julia, and she never thought to tell.  If she did, I can’t remember.  But I can’t linger in the past.  It’s making me too sad.


Always, Lucy