A Love That was Housebound

Chapter 7

I shook her sort of violently to gain her attention. Her head jerks and she then focuses her eyes to mine.

“Stop speaking that shit to me…I can’t understand what the hell ya sayin’. Now be glad I’m not beatin’ you right now, like I should be. You are goin’ ‘round here—fussin’ and yellin’ at me like you’re the got-damn master. Now listen clearly—na, all I want is for you to stand by me and watch me show you how to groom horses. If you go and start speakin’ that tongues shit wit’ me again I’m makin’ you work in the fields for three weeks…you understand?” I said extremely slowly for her to catch every word.

She stares into my eyes and gulps.

I felt a smirk making its appearance on my face. 

‘I think she understood me well enough’ I thought as I naturally look over her face.

I could see that her eyelashes were full and that she didn’t have any hair in-between her two eyebrows like most women I see. Nor did she have any bumps on her face, sure she had few small scratches, that scar on her high cheek bone, and still noticeable bags under her eyes but overall she had a decent face for an house n-gger, maybe a n-gger overall.

I finally look into her eyes to see hers stretched as far wide as they could go and that she was trying to get out of my grasp.

“*kɔ, please master…” She whispers.

She was moving her face away from mine as far as she could. I blink and suddenly noticed how close I brought her to me.

‘When did I…?’ I stop thinking about it pushing her away from me. I turn and walk back over to Champ and look over to Lena.

She looks from the horse to me and quickly walks over to horse right next to me. I shake my head turning around looking for the brush.

‘Why is she so stupid?’ I question myself.

25 minutes later

I was sitting on a low stack of hay enjoying the breeze that was coming through the open doors of the barn; I could faintly hear one of my horses, Mary-Ann’s hair being brush by Lena. She caught on quick on grooming the horses and how to clean their hooves.

‘Maybe I could teach her about cleaning the saddles tomorrow…then after—”, “Hey Isaac!” A yell interrupts my planning, so I look up from under my bangs  to see two of my workers , Thomas and Joseph, but everyone just calls them Bud and Joe.

I raise my hand to greet them with a wave.They make their way over to me as I stand up to speak to them.

“Well, what cha’ll doin’ over here? Shoudn’t ya’ll be out there watchin them n-ggers work?” I said with a tight smile.

Bud nods his head to my rhetorical question. “Yea we were but we had some news to tell ya” he says taking off his hat and scratching his head.

I raise my eyebrow “Alright then, what is it?” I ask. 

“Well, I was wonderin’ if you could let me have a few days off—” Joe cuts Bud off nodding vigorously, “Yea me too—” Bud goes on.

“I’ve got go back down to Georgia ta see my family. You see my dear old ma’s only got but few days left … the light’s callin’ her I know. All I need is just five days—that’s all and den I’ll be right back here and I’ll work non-stop and even for no pay, for at least that next month!”

I was staring at the ground listening to Bud’s shoddy excuse for taking some days off. I look up to the Joe and lift my chin to him.

“And what about you, Joe, what’s your excuse?” I ask him.