Muted Resentment 2

I did as I was told and took a seat farthest away from the rest of the family, I felt uncomfortable with all of us gathered in the room. I knew that something bad was going to happen and my mother opened her mouth, “Elizabeth this is Charles Greeley and his son Ashton Greeley.”

“Hello,” I said in a polite voice.

“From today on you’ll be living with them,” my mother said and I just stared at her. They were selling me to another family, I thought to myself, I guess I am a really bad daughter. I fought back the tears that gathered up in my eyes and just stared at her before words came out of my mouth, “I’m living with them?”

“You heard me,” my mother’s voice was cold and uncaring; “They bought your services so you are now going to be a servant at their home.”

“Wait you can’t sell me,” I exclaimed as I stood up, “I’m your daughter yet you’re going to give me away like that.”

“It’s not like that,” my father’s voice cut in, “We’ve been planning this for months.” I stared at both of my parents and I could no longer hold back the tears, they rolled down my cheeks. I looked at my brother to see if he would at least help me for once in his life; his eyes were glazed over, he was in his own little world. My parents stared at me and they were unfazed by the tears that rolled down my unmade cheeks they just kept on with their explanation.

“Today is the day that you go to their house,” she indicated the Greeley’s, “We agreed that on your sixteenth birthday you would go to work for them. Seeing how that day is today we shall send you off.”

“The only time you remember my birthday is when I’m being sold off to another family,” I screamed at them. The façade that I tried to maintain before was long gone as I stared at my parents I felt like breaking down and falling to my knees. “Am I really not wanted,” I asked.

“No you’re not wanted,” my father said in a cold voice.

“You were never meant to be born,” my mother said. I had no more words to say to them so I stayed quite and sat back down in the seat. I looked at my brother once more but he never moved an inch as he watched the tears roll down my face, he did not want to help me. “You finally see it our way,” my mother’s voice was cold, “Now go upstairs and pack your things.”

“Yes mother,” I said. Those were the only words that I could say at the moment; I stood up and headed upstairs. The packing process went by slowly and once I was done I walked over to the window and looked out the window. I slowly closed it as I looked out one last time; I grabbed my bags and headed back downstairs.

“Took you long enough,” my mother’s voice was irritated, “Now follow Mr. Greeley to his car.”

I nodded at her orders and joined the Greeley’s at the door, without looking back at my family I followed the Greeley’s out the door. I never said a word as I got into the back of their car. I threw the bag next to me as the Greeley’s got in the front. Tears rolled down my face and the car ride to their house was relatively quite, I never said a word but father and son in the front of the car exchanged a few words.

After a couple of hours in the car we finally made it to the Greeley’s estate. I got out slowly and grabbed my bag from the back of the seat. Ashton offered to carry my bag but I did not hand it over to him and I followed them in silence.

They showed me around there estate and told me of my new servant responsibilities there, it went in one ear and out the other. I followed them to my new room and then they left me alone. I threw my things to the floor and collapsed into the bed. The days events finally caught up to me, I could no longer run from them.

Tears rolled down my face but no sound escaped from my lips, I wanted to scream in frustration but I had no clue what my punishment would be for such behavior. Someone violently started to knock on her door; she wiped her tears away before going to answer it. She opened the door to find a man and an angry looking woman standing on the other side. The woman was the one knocking, “You’re not ready yet,” she sounded agitated, “Hurry up and change, you have to get to work!”

I simply nodded at her; my voice still was not working. I closed the door and quickly changed into the servant uniform that I found in one of my drawers. Once I finished changing I opened the door thinking that I had to find them again but I was surprised to see them standing in the same spot that I left them. The woman looked livid while the man behind her looked shy. “Finally now follow me and I shall take you to your first job,” the irritated woman said.

I followed without a uttering a single word of objection or otherwise. She led me downstairs and into the main sitting room, on the way there I realized that the man did not say much either; mostly the woman talked about her own frustrations. “You will work in here with him,” she fumed as she turned to leave, “Clean everything until it’s spotless.” She left me and the man alone in the room and it was silent even with company. He seemed to shy to say anything and my voice seemed to leave me for the day, though the silence was slightly awkward but we continued to work in the silence.

After a half an hour of cleaning Ashton and his father walked into the room, the man quickly stopped what he was doing and bowed to their presence; since I was not sure of the way they ran things I followed the man’s lead. Ashton noticed us both as we went back to cleaning, “Ah look father it’s Elizabeth on her first day.”

The father looked at us, “Yes, yes it is and Caleb is her partner,” Mr. Greeley turned to Caleb, “You better show her the ropes, since she’s new you’ll be the perfect teacher.”

“Yes sir,” Caleb said and bowed to Mr. Greeley. It was the first time that I heard his voice and Ashton turned to me. I bowed nervously and he chuckled, “Elizabeth, Caleb is your age but he has been working for us for most of his life. He’ll be a good teacher for you.”

I nodded, my voice refused to work for me; he looked at me with his head tilted out of curiosity. I just smiled and bowed once more before I returned to my work. My voice would not come even when I tried, I was starting to worry that I lost it. As the day dragged on I never said a word and no one seemed to mind or notice. The day was horrible, I cleaned for hours with Caleb cleaning right by my side; when night came my work was finally over and Caleb took me to my room. Once we got to my bedroom door I smiled at him in thanks and gave a little nod before heading into my room.

I closed the door behind me and listened as his footsteps faded away in the distance. Once I was sure he was gone I tried to force my voice to come out but nothing happened. After many failed attempts I realized what was wrong, I became a mute. I did not realize how much being sold away affected me until that very moment; I slowly moved my legs towards my bed. I collapsed face forward into my bed.