Liberty's Heirs

Chapter 19

Keen on meeting the young woman in the morning, Blion was outside the gate waiting for her ridiculously early.  He had skipped the Yarborough Public House oatmeal breakfast since the proprietor never awakened before the town clock struck nine in the morning.  He was already as bored as the yawning guard in his peculiar uniform by the time the clock struck seven.  There was still an hour to go before Kiera was due to meet him.

By eight o'clock he was jumping out of his skin in anticipation of her arrival.  Boredom was not something a person usually experienced back home.  Though not comparable to the omnipresent interactive computing glasses at the end of the 21st century, you always count of being able to read on your headband when you got stuck waiting for someone. Not only that but there were always opportunities for exercise or eating whatever fruit was ripe on the adjacent trees and shrubs.

Blion could see two men leave the great house and begin working on some kind of landscaping chore off in the distance.  As the minutes ticked by other people left the house to perform inscrutable duties that by Blion's account would have been performed far more capably by specialized robots.

It seemed like an eternity before Kiera finally emerged.  She had a look of worry on her face.

"What's wrong?" asked Blion.

"My auntie has been sick for the last few days.  Her fever was worse this morning.  I'll take you to old Mrs. Telar and then I have to go back," she said.

"You have family? Was that the woman in the maroon blouse you were with when I met you."

"Auntie was wearing a maroon blouse that day, wasn't she?"  Kiera said pensively,  "Auntie virtually adopted me when the Mayor bought me.  She's worked for his father and him for her whole life."

"What do you mean 'bought'?"  Blion was confused by the English term.  To his knowledge, "bought" meant obtained something by exchanging money for it.

"The Mayor wouldn't exactly come out and say what I really am.  Technically, I'm an indentured servant.  We all are.  The orphanage transferred me to the Mayor for a donation of twenty Silver Eagles.  I'm free to go as soon as I've paid off my debt for room and board."  She chuckled.  "That's what they say.  The truth is that no one ever leaves unless the Mayor lets them.  The debt just grows, my wages could never pay it off.  That's the way the Mayor likes it."

Blion was horrified.  The poor girl was a slave, something he could somewhat remember being alluded to in history lessons.  It was a system where one person could be considered property of another and do with them as he or she chose.  A very foreign concept.  In civilized society, one could be punished for the crime of profligacy if a person damaged their own possessions.  Apparently in the early period of the United States, slaves could be damaged or even killed if their owner wished.

They didn't have to walk far.  By the time she'd explained her sad state, they'd reached the booths where he had entered town.

"Meet Mrs. Telar."  Kiera said pointing at the woman with her long gray hair.

Blion remembered her vividly.  She was the old woman who was working the loom to make fabric.  She was still doing it.  Her work was amazingly fast and efficient.