Slave Sisters

(4) Slave Sisters

6th August, 1804

The atmosphere in this place had changed from depressing to even worse than that. It was clear that almost everyone had lost all of the faith and hope in them, which saddened me. If they had lost those two things, then how did they manage to try and survive? I already knew that there was very little chance for the boat to turn around and lead us home, but maybe there was a possibilty that we were heading to somewhere good.

During the past couple of days, more people than I had expected had died. Though they were the ones who were the illest, it still frightened me. Every time a woman was dead she would be taken up above, but I was still not sure what they did with the body. Was it put into a special room, or something similar to that? I did not know.

I thought that the people feared death, but surprisingly some did not. The more the days passed by, the more people became depressed, suicidal, crazy, and gloomy. If maybe we were given much more fresh air and space, then maybe things would have been different. Much different. Because of this the depression and gloominess was quite reasonable, though being suicidal? That was beyond all of the bad emotions put together. Wanting to be dead, meant that you had completely given up. And giving up was never a good thing, as Grandma had once told me and Tayla. Oh, Grandma . . .

***Flashback***

Tayla and I were eight year old girls, still too young to know about certain things. It was night time, and everyone in the village was fast asleep in their homes after a good hard-working day. The night was calmful and quiet, the wind outside still. A bright moon was held in the sky, so thin it reminded me of a juicy orange slice. Accompinied with it were shiny stars that were scattered all over, though they still looked as if each star had been placed in a certain spot one by one; there were such a great number of them that whenever I tried to see how many there were, I would lose count.

I was sat cross-legged next to Tayla, with Grandma kneeled in front of us both. Strangley, her face  looked alsmost angelic-like even with the deep lines present. Though her face was completely relaxed, they stayed there – which I found quite odd. I did not not have any on my face, unless I laughed or frowned. I played with the ends of my hair, twirling and untwirling them with my finger. Grandma leaned forward and moved my hand down to my lap, “Tamara, do not fiddle around with your hair. Leave it to grow.” I quietly said an apology. She did not like it when I mumbled.

“Grandma, what are you going to tell us today?” Tayla asked, interested.

At the end of the day, mostly in the evening, Grandma would sit us down in our home and tell us what she called a life lesson. Once I had asked her why she told us them in the first place, and she said that it would help me and Tayla to become wise and intelligent women. But I did not like the idea of growing up into a women, because they always had to work. If I could by now clean and cook some foods, then what more would I be doing when older? The thought of that slightly frightened me.

Grandma looked over at me, “What is your thought of giving up?” I titled my head to the side and frowned in confusion. Why such a question? I did not usually ponder on the topic, so I was at a loss for words.

“I-I do not know,” I stammered. She simply nodded and then focused her attention onto both me and my sister.

“Giving up is never a good option. It should not be an option in the first place. Giving up is only for people who have lost faith in themselves, and believe that whatever they do will not progress and they will not succeed. Success is a very hard thing to achieve, which is why not many people get to it. But if you remember to keep faith strong inside of you and keep giving all that you have, then you will succeed. One of the reasons that should encourage you to try your hardest to succeed, is because you learn. You discover your strengths and weaknesses, who you are, what you can do, and how to tackle your problems. Do not ever give up.” I stared at Grandma as she spoke to us, absolutely amazed.