Sara's Tale (Chapter 6) A BEACON

Today the sunlight served no purpose. The day seemed to drag after only moments of me rising from my mat. I had nothing to live for any longer. Mistress had made herself my God, and my sacrifices to her were greater than I could have ever imagined. As I moved throughout the yard it was almost as if the colors had drained from the earth. Everything looked as if the world had been carved from stone. I saw the children running and playing near the camp and the men still working at the women tended to the animals as the evening grew close, their hustle and bustle had no sound. I had moved to a space that was unfamiliar to me. It was almost like the space the Old Man Baboo had taken me too, but there was no beauty, no colors, no sounds, and no Jim Paul.

As I prepared to finally rest for the day, I couldn't stop staring at the big house. The talk between me and Mistress played over and over again and again in my mind, as I aimless gazed as the house rested holding my Annabelle hostage. My heart seemed to shrink with each moment that passed. In my mind I wished that I could just get a message to her. If only I could speak to the swallows and send a song to her, or write it in the stars so that if she too is gazing out into the night she may see it and know that her mother is thinking about her.

I wanted to know why Mistress so badly wanted to hurt me. I constantly plagued my own mind the possibilities that maybe I did something wrong to her. Maybe I did something that I didnt know I had done. I could never ask her about it but I just needed to know. I couldnt sleep a wink. The tears silently flowed into the nights passing.My eyes became so sore I could not close them. So I just looked to the sky, I needed to talk to God. he was the only one who could help to find peace. "Tell her I miss her, Tell her I love her, and no matter how far away she is, I will never let her go" As I brought my head down from talking to heaven I noticed something in the distance. A light burning from the field near the house, it moved very quickly across the field to plot of lot where I worked the cotton. The light got real low to the ground and lay still go a moment. I could not resist. I stuck my head of the shack to get a closer look. The light lay still, I moved outside of the shack, slowly towards it. It remained still, As I slowly but continuly moved forwarded I looked to watch my path, I looked up and the light moved slowly away from where it stood, it disappeared. I heard footsteps running away, fast, I began to run towards it, the footsteps became more and more distant. I stood where the light first stood, to find a broken candle a piece of paper with markings on it. It looked like letters from the books I remember seeing in the house. I had no idea what they meant or knew who they were meant for, I just knew that I had found them and there was only one person who could help me.

Abe was from Virginia. He had a good master at one time before he came here to the plantation. His master was politician and his wife was a school teacher. Their home was small and all the slaves lived in the cellar of the home. From what the stories tell, They only owned Abe and his wife, who was never given a name because of her constant rebellious ways.In this house the master and his wife loved Abe. They had bought him when he was a young boy and raised more like a son than a slave. He had learned to read, write, and he spoke like he owned slaves himself. When Abe's wife showed up pregnant in the house the good master's wife took great joy in the idea of children in the house seeing as how she could not have any of her. When it was time for Abe's wife to finally deliver she told everyone to leave her alone in the cellar to deliver her baby by herself. Everyone waited patiently in the parlor until Abe couldn't take it anymore, He rushed down the stairs to find his wife and the baby dead. His wife had killed herself and their child without any explanation. The master and wife decided to sell Abe after because he was not the same man they had come to love in their home. He was always very secluded here in the camp, The other men envied his intelligence, and all the women thought he was like a rooster, a little too cocky. I just saw him as misunderstood. When the sun rose on the next morning as we all began to make our way to the field, I found him walking at the end of the line as usual. I waited for him so that I could show him the page. "Good Day Mr. Abe." he looked at me strangely, stopping in his tracks. "What do you want?" I paused, this was not going to be as easy I thought. "I found this paper in the field, and I think someone left it there for me to read." he looked at the paper as I reached it out to him. "So.... Go head and read it" I smiled even though I just wanted to scream at him. "The thing is Mr. Abe, I cant read. I never learned." He shook his and laughed quietly, and continued to walk about his way.

"Mr. Abe, please...I need you to read this to me." He continued to walk away. I could no long contain myself. All I could think about was if this was a message from my flower, Annabelle. She needed me to know what was on this paper. "STOP NOW!" I screamed to him. He turned around slowly, and he looked at me scornfully."Who do you think you are? I only have one master on this plantation!" I marched up to him, looked him in the eye, and stood my ground. "I dont want nothing from you, Mr. Abe. I simply want you to read whats on this paper, see I might not know you, but I know that we both know the same pains." He face became puzzled. "See we both know what its like to loose the person that we love without knowing why or being able to say goodbye." He looked down at the ground. His heart had recieved my words, and he understood me. "No this piece of paper could be the only thing that keeps me from losing my the only other person that I love that I have left, will you be the only thing that keeps me from saving my own child?" His eyes swelled with sorrow, and a single tear fell from his face. He reached out his hand to me, and I handed him the paper.

He glanced down for a minute and he began to look confused at the markings. "Its gonna take more time to make this out. I will meet you at your cabin tonight when the day's work is done." I reluctantly nodded. He took off to the field and shortly after looking to the heavens for a minute, I followed behind him. As I made my way I heard my name being called from the house. I stopped dead in my tracks, and again my name is called. My heart began to pound so hard I felt it on the outside of my chest. I began to run, faster, and faster towards the house. As I grew closer to the house my feet began to escape me and I began to fall, but I kept running. When i could no longer place mt feet i fell, right before the steps of the house.When the dust cleared from around my face I looked up to see Mistress standing there. Hands on her hips looking down on me with a frighteningly familiar look on her face.As soon as I saw that face my heart felt like it had melted inside my body leaving a hole where it used to rest. She spoke to me, "Sarah, you know why you could not stay in the house?" I gathered myself to stand and shook my head no. She turned her back to me, and began to walk inside the house. "Come in, There is something I want to say to you." As my body began to follow her my soul stood in place reaching out to my body screaming for it to return. I knew this would be a conversation that would either make or break everything that I knew to my life.