Whispered Silenty (Short Stories)

Lash of reality

"FASTER!, FASTER!" [Sounds of strong lashes] Jeremiah, the slave driver, whips his hunter on the back of the slaves, extracting coal from the coal bed.

Exhausted, Abused, starved and, more importantly helpless, they had gained the strength to almost endure the pain over the several years. It is almost dawn and their bodies are visibly tired of the harsh labour.

Samuel finds himself bathed in ash and washed time and again with his sweat, his eyelashes covered with dust, gasping for air inside the oven like mine, but refusing to succumb to his worn-out body, deligently moving his rusty hands, still mining for coal before meeting his objective for the day.

The day is almost over, Jeremiah the overseer yells "20 kilograms on each of your bags for a loaf of bread and a packet of salt, bags weighing less will be penalized, 15 lashes with no reward at all"

Isaac, hearing Jeremiah's roar has already lost his grip on the pick, shaking and stumbling, knowing well his bag weighs a lot less than 20 kilograms and the day is almost over. The raw terror all over his face could clearly tell the cruelty these poor people had to face on a daily routine.

The day is over and Jeremiah starts weighing all the bags one by one. Isaac's heart is racing out of pure fear. His frightened mind and exhausted body could do nothing but accept his fate.

Samuel observed all of this, Isaac's face readible as a book,
His face was pale, the fear in his eyes, knowing the punishment was fifteen lashes and no reward awaited him. Samuel, aware of Isaac's aging mother and his desperate situation, quietly swapped bags with him without his knowledge in a compassionate attempt to spare him.

But in the moment of fear, Isaac swapped them back, hoping Samuel would unknowingly bear the punishment. The slave driver, Jeremiah, inspected Samuel's bag, Isaac shouted, "Samuel's bag is underweight! He's added stones to cheat!"

Samuel turned in shock, his kindness met with betrayal. Jeremiah checked Samuel's bag it was full of coal and weighed exactly 20 kg. Isaac's face fell as his own bag was inspected, revealing stones among the coal, and still underweight. Realizing his scheme had backfired, Isaac was sentenced to the lashes he had tried to escape, and worse, a day in prison for dishonesty.

Samuel looked on, his sympathy for Isaac replaced with cold realisation. Under his breath, he whispered silenly, "I'm not doing this again."