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| The Emancipation Approximation (Scene #18), 1999-2000 |
Word Count: 685
Clara woke up that morning feeling sick. She had been coming down with a cold. She hoped Emma would let her rest today, because she had performed many duties for her the day before. She was even rewarded with some clean sheets made from wool to help her keep warm in the harsh winter that had just arrived. Clara was afraid to go out once again into the outside world as she was not only tired from doing all her chores, but she did not want her illness to worsen as the day progressed. Unfortunately for Clara she heard Emma call her downstairs. Emma exclaimed “Clara get down here, you were supposed to do this laundry hours ago!” Clara feared Emma’s wrath more than she feared the frigid winter morning, so she got dressed in the blink of an eye and wobbled down the stairs, sneezing throughout her journey down the long-spiraled staircase. Once Emma came face to face with Clara she saw the bags under her eyes, and the snot dripping from her nostrils. She then asked, “What’s wrong Clara are you not feeling well”. Clara replied “No Missus I’m not I believe I’m coming down with a cold or maybe even the flu! I have not been getting much sleep lately, and I have been shivering throughout the night.” Emma stated, “That’s very unfortunate Clara I thought those blankets I gave you would keep you nice and warm. Anyways, I need you to take care of this laundry for me, I’m sure the lakes aren’t frozen yet, so it should be easy to wash them, besides my husband should be back in a couple days with some medicine for our son Charlie, so I’ll just give you some of his.” Clara was puzzled that Emma was treating her so nice today, but of course she agreed to do Emma’s laundry; her choices were either agreement or a harsh punishment from her Master when he would return.
Clara put on all the layers of clothing that she could, grabbed all the napkins for her runny nose as she could, grabbed the laundry basket and hurried to the lake. Her goal was to avoid being outside for too long, and wash the clothes quickly as she did not want to feel even worse tonight. When she arrived at the lake, she was glad to not see the water frozen. It even put a smile on her face. When she started washing the clothes her smirk was quickly wiped off her face as the ice-cold water attacked her hands. She shrieked as she believed she was being stabbed repeatedly with a thousand knives. That same shriek attracted the attention to of two young white males, who came up to her and started harassing her for that “loud disgusting noise” as they labeled it. As Clara begged to the two men “please just leave me be, I’m doing my work” She was kicked into the lake by the two men and they took off running. The entire laundry basket was also pushed into the lake but she managed to grab it and get it out of the lake. Clara immediately used all the energy she had left in her body to pull herself up out of the lake, grab the basket and run indoors. She felt the wind hit her in every part of her body, as the dripping wet clothes made her feel extremely cold. She ran with basket rested on her shoulders; every step she took felt heavier. She felt the weight of the world at her shoulders and before she could reach Emma’s front porch the weight became too much for her and she dropped down to her knees in front of the house with her snot now covering half her face. She witnessed Emma through the front window walking slowly to the front door with her husband trailing behind her. As she stared into her master hands, there was no medicine that awaited her, but only agony. As the front door opened ever so slowly she prayed for the day to finally end.
Dear Gio,
ReplyDeleteThis is a striking picture that you've chosen, and I like how you ran with this story, allowing yourself to imagine what it just have been like to be a slave. It seems like you also took your inspiration for Clara's task from the image--it looks like she's carrying both laundry and a white woman on her back. Some very good details here about the weather and the freezing water. You've also done a good job of quickly capturing scenes and keeping us grounded in scene, moving from one moment to the next. One thing to keep in mind as we move forward with writing--you want to create characters who have a fighting chance of surviving or triumphing. That's really difficult to do wit this kind of story because the odds are stacked so far against a person like Clara. In what ways can she participate in her fate so that we don't just see one bad thing after another happen to her? What are her strengths? How has she learned to survive thus far and why would she not employ some of those same survival techniques in this situation? In other words, consider creating characters who make the story happen, rather than having the story happen to them. This was an imaginative and vivid piece.