In his Hell

Chapter 1

"Lucy!" Lucy hurriedly folded the paper she was scribbling on and picked her bag off the ground.

It was seven in the morning and Lucy was waiting for her other friends to get ready before they could march to their job.

They worked in a cotton factory. Lucy and the young women she was following were on the spinning for a ten-hour shift. Textile mills were doing better in West Virginia than other places and they were paid well.

Around twenty young girls in their late teen or early twenties passed the gate of McGee estate that had a three-story red brick building for black orphan girls. They were provided a space as long as they paid their rent. The chilling winter wind made them all shiver. Young women were laughing and talking about their love interest or how they would soon leave this place to build their own homes but Lucy was always the silent one. She had her head down and had nothing to talk about.

At five feet and seven inches she was still the smallest woman in her group. Most women and men around her towered her. She would wear modest clothing never showing any of her figure to deflect the attention. But her youth and mysterious silence would still demand attention from men who even worked in white collared jobs.

Lucy's decision about not leaving McGee estate and spending her life here was always snickered upon. Everyone believes she was utterly stupid to not return the favors from the young suitors they often worked with at the factory.

The recess bell rang for the lunch but just like everyday Lucy picked her things and walked across the factory to walk into the paper factory. She always wanted to work on the printing machines. She loved to write and read and believed working inside could give her right connections and ways to become a writer herself one day. She wanted to write about politics and discrimination. She wanted to write about what went wrong in the history. She wanted to write and share what she had learned so far. But like everyday they told her they weren't looking for any workers.

Lucy made her way back into the factory while one of her managers at the textile factory, Mr. Coleman stared at her as she made her way back to her job passing the iron gate. Mr. Coleman didn't like her one bit. He believed it was the straight disrespect trying for another job so blatantly. If he could fire her he would have. But firing a hard worker like Lucy was out of question and straight up stupidity.

There were many cotton factories that would hire Lucy while this factory was already looking out for more hands to complete the shipment. He hated her guts for wanting to prove herself worth more than herself. He hated how her ideas about not marrying and following other women could rise a form of anarchy.

And, Mr. Coleman not being able to punish her was resenting her even more. He could tell she was no good fit and if the factory ever asked him to reduce the workers Lucy was the first one to get expelled. At the end of the shift Lucy walked back with the women who still had a lot to talk about what they talked and discussed with their boyfriends. It was a close-knit community in Blue Rock County. At their factory many people from the outside came to work but here in their county most people knew each other or knew someone who would know them.

This was the reason that Lucy would stay in her room and worked on to hone her articles or books she was trying to write. One by one each woman came into her dorm. A total of fourteen women had their beds in here. They were busy in their hair routine before they talked and finally retired to their bed. Lucy too followed and closed her eyes and waited until later five minutes of the last woman switching off the light to their bedside.

Lucy opened her eyes and tiptoed her way into the washing area. She opened the back gate to the yard where girls usually dried up their laundry. It was pitch dark everywhere. Howling and growling in the distance was bone chilling but nothing could change Lucy's intentions. She sneaked out of the estate knowing really well no one could look at her.