The slaves of Freetown

CHAPTER NINETEEN

"Good morning," Mrs. Freeman says, a little surprised, as she catches me up so early waiting for Mistress Freeman in the kitchen, caricaturing an exemplary slave. "Sorry, but I no longer have your name in mind..."

"Kanoa, Madam."

"Kanoa, yes. Celeste will not be here for the next few days, so I am counting on you to take good care of your Mistress. Her physiotherapist should be arriving soon. Celeste had prepared a few meals in advance. Everything is in the freezer. There will only be cleaning and laundry to do."

She finishes drinking her coffee and goes to the elevator.

"Please, try to... entertain her as much as possible. She is going through a difficult time... It is her nature to share how she feels; she cannot keep anything to herself for long. A real open book... So when she finally tells you what I did, what I had to do, remember that as a minority woman, born slave, freed for a time, then suddenly reselected as such during my first year in medical school, because my Activist "extras" did not fit with a successful enfranchisement, before being released again, I lived through hell and disillusions that I do not wish anyone, especially not my own daughter. You will understand, I sincerely hope, when you will be freed in your turn. Your father, Mohamed, would not even try... I know that your presence in our home is no accident. I personally explained to him how to trick the Masters' distribution system in his favor. I do not know what is on his mind, but know that we will not let anything happen to what we took so long to build for ourselves and Sky."

Before I have time to say anything to this sudden disguised threat, she leaves the kitchen. I hear her greet someone and a woman appears in the lobby.

"I'm Anna. Is Sky ready? Unfortunately, I have a busy schedule today..."

"I will wake her up."

"She's not up yet? We agreed to 7:30 this morning," she complains, installing her equipment in the living room.

I go directly to Mistress Freeman's room. Putting my hand on the door handle, I train, one last time, for the character whose role I decided to endorse. I built his features and his persona to use him as a shield and make myself impenetrable against my Mistress Freeman. That is my revenge, the worst thing that I could do, that I could oppose to a personality so drawn to honesty.

"The physiotherapist is here, Mistress."

As she does not respond, I gently push the door open, which goes directly to hit a box in the corner with the wall. The noise hardly makes Mistress Freeman turn in her bed. I look for the switch and operate it. The room is very messy, and the clothes are lying around. Mistress Freeman's hair protrudes from the eiderdown with which she completely covered her face.

"It's your first day on Kanoa, and you're already looking to get fired."

"So I was finally hired, Mistress Freeman?"

She gets up suddenly and sits cross-legged on her bed. Her hands on her face, she avoids my eyes.

"For you, it will only be "Sky," and the familiarity is appropriate, no formal form of address if you don't want to have penalties on your salary."

"I came to warn you that the physiotherapist is waiting for you."

"Oh, no... What are you doing now?"

"I wanted to prepare your breakfast..."

"Forget it; it's out of the contract," she says, struggling with her pillow. "We got behind schedule; I thought we would have done more yesterday. Your week will be over soon, and I'll be leaving, so... Take my camera, my computer in the library, and bring them to the kitchen."