Like Oil and Water

Essie

Esther didnt know exactly how old she was. Mama, her adoptive mother believed that she was 20 give or take a year.
She didnt know her birthday either considering that there were no records of her existence and slave masters didn't care about little slave girls birthdays.

She didnt know her real parents either. Only that she had been separated from them before she could recall their names or their faces. Master apparently had bought her, brought her back to the big house and handed her to Mama who was only 25 herself at the time and told her to "watch the girl."

Esther only knew one real thing about herself and that was that she was a slave. Even if she didnt understand  how or why she was painfully aware of the fact that she belonged to someone else. She knew that she could be bought and sold on a whim and had already experienced it even if she didnt remember.

She knew that while massa's daughters went off to play in their pretty dresses, she had to stay with Mama and scrub the kitchen floor in the big house. She knew that even if his sons teased her and called her names she wasnt supposed to hit them back like she wanted to.

As she got older she realised that all the people who looked like her had to work hard all day while the masters family lived life easily. She learnt to cook food she would never eat, iron clothes she would never wear and clean rooms much bigger and grander than the small three roomed apartment she and Mama shared in the big house's yard.

She learned that in order to survive, she had to keep her head down and do what she was told. She learnt to say nothing even when her heart was full of sharp words she wanted to let out.

She learnt the sting of the whip and that people could be cruel and hurtful with words and actions.

Most of all, she learnt that even if her situation was bad, there were others in a worse position than her. In her interactions with the field slaves she realised that they lived a life that no human being was meant to live.

Esther however, had no idea just how much her life was about to change.

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"Essie, you ready to go?" Mama asked from the front room breaking the early morning silence. "We gotta get to the big house early today chile!"

"Coming mama!" Essie shouted back, taking one last look in the broken mirror her brother had salvaged from massa's garbage.

She ran out into the front room to find Mama waiting for her at the door. Shoving her feet into her crude shoes the two of them stepped out into the cold 4 am winds and crossed the yard to the servant entrance at the back of the house.

As usual they were the first people in the kitchen. Two other girls, Shiloh  and Blanche also worked in the kitchen with them but they came later since Mama hated them to walk from their cabin to the big house while it was so dark.

"Today gonna be long chile...real long" Mama chuckled tying her apron around her waist.

"Everyday in this place is a long day Ma" Esther whispered back, since you never knew who was lurking around corners.

Mama laughed softly placing a damp towel under her chopping board.

"Let's just get to work Essie, we gotta  start getting things ready for this dinner tommorow."

Essie sighed internally, she hated special dinners because there would be a lot of people in the house. She hated the fact that she would have to stand there and wait hand and foot on massa's guests, while trying to avoid the lust filled looks of white men old enough to be her father.

She didnt mind washing up dishes or decorating the dining room but since she had turned 16 the task of avoiding men, especially white ones, had been added to her chore list.