Captured Mate

I never wanted the simple life I had always led. There was nothing extraordinary about me; my parents were farmers and made a simple honest living. We woke up early in the morning, watered and fed livestock and plants, pulled weeds, and harvested ripe fruits and vegetables. We gathered firewood and made repairs, none of these things although useful brought us any joy. Nothing we toiled in brought us adventure. Just day after day doing the same monotonous tasks. The one thing that brought me excitement was working on my correspondence courses to get my teaching certificate.

I was so close to finishing and when I did, I was sure to marry a good middle-class man from my village. After I would have children and either raise them while working our own farm or raise them while also teaching the small group of children at our little schoolhouse. There is nothing wrong with the plain future before me, but when I thought about what was sure to come, I felt like a piece of me was dying.

My mother had always told me reaching for the sun would only get me burned and that I had been born beautiful so I should be thankful for my lot in life. “Many girls have it worse.” She would say “At least you’re pretty and will catch a well-bred boy.” I know it makes me sound un-grateful, but I want more than to just farm and rear children my whole life. I want people to value more than just how I look. I want adventure and to be a part of something great, I want to make my mark on the world. My mother would say that I’m living in a fantasy land, but I don’t care I need more.

When Thomas purposed to me my parents acted like it was the greatest thing that could have possibly happened to me. In their minds I suppose it was, he was wealthy, and it would certainly be the best offer I would receive. Yes, he is handsome enough and polite enough, and he could provide me a good home but when he asked for my hand, I only felt despair. There was no spark between us, no fire. In truth if I thought I truly had a choice I would have said no, but the expectation of my family had me accept with a forced smile. I dreamed of a man who could make my heart race, I wanted to belong to someone heart and soul. The thought that I would live my whole life and die in the same small town without really living devastated me, but I went through the motions that were expected of me even though it took a little piece of my soul as I did. Little did I know the adventure I had always been seeking was on its way…

˜

The sway of the ship no longer turned my stomach for that I was thankful, the endless retching had drained me. My main discomfort now was the biting cold stinging my limbs and the freezing chains rubbing against my chaffed skin. The men took the chains off our hands after we had set off but left the ones around our ankles. I guess they don’t want us to try jumping off the ship and testing our luck in the water. As if we would be that stupid, although who knows what’s waiting for us, maybe death would be better. We have been aboard the ship for almost two weeks now and I don’t know whether to be happy to leave the boat and chains or terrified. I overheard some of the men saying we would be docking this afternoon.

The fact that I was not alone in my chains was both comforting and devastating. We are a group of fifty-two, all women, with the youngest among us being sixteen and the oldest being thirty. We have all been held together in a large compartment on the ship. I was taken two days before we boarded the boat but most of the other women were collected before me. Less than ten women were brought back to the camp and chained like us before we set off. All women taken from their homes, and forced into restraints, I just wish I knew what these men want with us.

The cabin that had been our home on the ship had bunks lining the walls and a few tables set up in the middle of the space where we shared our two meager meals a day. We are permitted to leave our quarters but only once a day when the Commander (that’s what his group of I assume soldiers call him) comes down and gets us. We’re able to walk a small space on the deck and breathe the fresh air but only for about thirty minutes and then are ushered back to our cabin. The air has grown significantly colder since we bordered making me think we have traveled far from my home that I was taken from. We had just had our hottest month before that horrible day I was carried off by the men.

When we are above deck, I think about my family and how far they are from me. Do they hate me now? Do they blame me for my brother’s death? Will they look for me? I wish I would have just listened, why did I have to be so stubborn? What will my life be now? What waits for us when we reach the shore?