Hello there, you bonkers little human. I see that you have reached the end of your voyage. Please confirm the pass code before continuing to the land of magic and mystery.
What?! You don't remember it?! How can someone forget something so predictabl...
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My fingertips caress loose strands of auburn hair as my sister's head rests on my lap. Beaming giddily, I tuck them back into her frizzy braid. Mom says that Laina used to have lustrous curls of red. The kind of fine texture that you find in newly-woven silk. I wouldn't know though. All I see now is a crisp patch of wire.
Dusk approaches. Work waits impatiently.
As a momentary goodbye, I loop her hair around my little fingers, sniffling for a distant scent of wood and smoke. Lies. All lies that I have fed myself over the years. Because instead of a pleasant fragrance, rotting stench of burned flesh sears my nostrils, and I gag for the hundredth time. Or maybe thousandth, who knows. It has been a decade since they burned her to death.
Something about her being black and cursed. I wasn't there when it happened, though.
With a twisted mouth that is halfway between a smile and a retch, I push her skull aside and make my way to the factory.
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Dedicated to all the children who face racism merely because they look different. #End the racism #Blacks are not thugs #Muslims are not terrorists #Hispanics are not illegal #Respect all lives
