"Ruin and Redemption"

Scarlett and her Brother

Thanks for reading it to me, x.” Scarlett smiled. She couldn’t say the letter really made her happy. She knew already that Derrick would miss her. She just had to be strong enough to ignore that. But that was all over with, wasn’t it? She had made her choice to come and live with her father and she had put all that behind her.

And besides, now that she was gone, Lizzie would never let her come back. Would she? The only happiness the letter gave her was that her brother sat down beside her and cared enough to read the whole thing, and even wanted to know how she felt about it. It was the strangest thing. She’d never asked for a brother, but here he was, and though she could never completely relax around him because he was a white man, and could whip her anytime he took a notion, he still seemed to want her to. If it were up to him, she’d probably be sitting in his lap around the dinner table, and he’d feed her her dinner, like she was still his kid sister or something. Hell, he’d probably get her a special chair and spoon and bowl, she figured. It would be ridiculous the way he would dote on her if her father would allow it. As it was, her father allowed her no more than fifteen minutes off work for her brother’s visits. She felt almost guilty that he would ride over two hours mainly just to see her. Her father had grumbled that he hardly ever visited before Scarlett came.

“You’re welcome, little sister Scarlett. Is there anything else I can do for a fine lady today?”

“I’ll never be a fine lady, x. Haven’t you noiced that I’m Black? Everyone else seems to!”

“Well, I guess so. But you’re still my sister, and you sure are a pretty little sister, too. And so much nicer than x. You sure you want to spend the rest of your life here with our father, though? I’d much rather you came and lived with me. I’m sure x wouldn’t mind. My wife is always saying she could use a little help. But we wouldn’t have you working like this from sun up to sun down. We could all pitch in some around the house.”

Maybe that’s why he’s being so nice, Scarlett thought. He wants a free slave! I’m pretty, so he thinks he could put me in his house!

Scarlett turned away. “I’ve got a lot of dusting to do still.” She answered coldly. These white people were all the same.

“Scarlett, I just thought you’d like it at my place better. I know my wife was a little cool to you before, but I think I explained things. She thought I was going to start touching you, but I told her you’re my little sister an’ I’m not going to let anyonw touch you, especially not myself. I just want you around so we can talk about everything we missed out on. But my wife says you’ve got to work and earn your keep or we should get someone else, another slave. But I just want you, Scarlett. Then we could all eat dinner together! Wouldn’t that be grand?”

“I don’t want to just eat dinner with you and your wife. I want to be free, x. I’m sorry. I thought I could come here and it would be different. But somehow being a slave for your own family is so much worse.”

“Well, I don’t understand it really, Scarlett. But I reckon you know how it feels. I mean you’ve been a slave almost you whole life, so I guess you know.”

“Yeah, you think I know?” Scarlett asked skeptically. Was this a white person actually trying to understand her?

“Yeah, I do. You’ve got to! I wish you could have stayed with us and grew up with us, but you didn’t. You worked on a plantation picking cotton, and then, well, I don’t know what else you did. And now you’re here, and father makes you work all day except for meals and when I come. I figure even if you don’t want to see me, at least you get to sit down for a few minutes when I come.”

“Yes, I do. Thank you for coming. And I do like seeing you, x.” Scarlett smiled a genuine smile. I hope you come back soon, but wait a week at least next time. You can’t spend all your time just riding back and forth to see me!”